Tuesday, October 21, 2008

The latest pregnancy update is posted at Ticklish Giggles.

There’s also an update at Whiny Complaints from yesterday.

Now that I’m listening to music in my car again (audiobooks are on hold for a while - I need music right now), I’ve been playing Shane & Shane‘s Pages CD. I heart S&S and I’m grateful to our worship leader for introducing them to me way back when.

Today’s Song of the Day is Vision of You. I really love the line in the chorus that says, “May the vision of You be the death of me.”

The whole album is fantastic - not a single bad song on it, imho. Go buy.

Vision of You
by Shane and Shane

Come meet us, King Jesus.
Oh wind of change blow through this temple.
Sweet spirit of God, come and mend our hearts.
For all we have are songs. Unless you come.

Awaken whats inside of me.
Tune my heart to all You are in me.
Even though you’re here, God come.
May the vision of You be the death of me.
and even though You’ve given everything.
Jesus come!

Come free us, King Jesus.
Its the only way that freedom is given.
From you and you alone in the work You’ve already done.
All we have are songs, unless You come.

Awaken whats inside of me.
Tune my heart to all You are in me.
Even though you’re here, God come.
May the vision of You be the death of me.
and even though You’ve given everything.
Jesus come!

Here we are, Lord, in this place.
Crying out for Your embrace.
To hear Your voice more than songs.

Awaken whats inside of me.
Tune my heart to all You are in me.
Even though you’re here, God come.
May the vision of You be the death of me.
and even though You’ve given everything.
Jesus come!

Monday, October 20, 2008

I was planning to work at home on Friday, but I just learned that The Director is coming to the office on Friday so I want to be here.

It’s been ages since I last saw him. We miss him greatly around here.

Beau found a house that was just listed over the weekend. We went to look at it yesterday afternoon and we’re meeting with our realtor to make an offer sometime today.

It’s a cute little colonial that is listed as a 6 bed/3 bath, but it’s really a 4 bed/4 bath with two rooms on the main floor that could be bedrooms. The 4 full baths are cool, although I’d really be happier with a half bath on the main floor. We talked about maybe reverting it back to a half bath at some point. The kitchen is quite large, but lacks cabinets/counters. However, there is great potential for a large island or peninsula and we think we’ll break into a side wall to make the back “bedroom” a connecting dining room. Or we’ll make that a study/den for Beau and break into the wall that separates the living room from the front “bedroom” to make that a larger space. There is a good sized laundry room on the main floor. No basement.

Upstairs are the 4 bedrooms and 3 full baths. The master has it’s own bathroom. Across the hall from that room is the room we’ll make into the nursery. Next to that room is a bedroom with bathroom that we’ll make into a guest room/Jen’s office and I’ll probably use that bathroom. Then across from the guest room is Jesse’s room. The bedrooms aren’t tiny, but they aren’t huge either. They’re workable.

What’s great is that it is pretty much move in ready - just needs some light cleaning and paint. We will need to buy a washer/dryer and maybe a new frig, but everything else looks great.

There’s a nice shed in the side/backyard that will be great for storage and maybe a work room for Beau. There’s not much backyard, instead it has two large side yards because it is a corner lot and the house is placed facing the corner rather than one side. It does have a front porch. There is plenty of room to add a garage if we want to at some point, but none of the other houses on the street have garages, so I’m not sure we would want to do that. Plus, we don’t plan to be in this house for more than 5 years anyway.

Beau took a good picture that I’ll post as soon as we download it from the camera.

[UPDATE 2:30pm]: Docs are all signed and getting sent to the seller by our realtor. Beau will email the house pic if Jesse goes down for an afternoon nap.

Friday, October 17, 2008

Awesome.

Thank you for your service. Welcome home.

[via prof chaos]

My apologies.

I have plently to say on the election, but I’m muzzled by the Hatch Act when I blog from work, which is where I do my blogging these days since I’m so done in by the end of a work day that I don’t bother to go anywhere but to bed when I get home. Thank you, run on sentence.

I love Peggy Noonan, but I disagree with this column. I’m disappointed to hear and read the dismissal of Gov. Palin’s down home personality and speech. Noonan doesn’t get that this is what people are flocking to her rallies for - she is not a wonk or part of the party intelligensia or the good ole boy network in Washington. This is why she resonates with regular people. Show me in the Constitution where a politician is required to speak in so high falutin’ a manner to be qualified to run for any public office. I don’t believe it impacts her effectiveness as a Governor and I don’t believe that it will impact her effectiveness as Vice President. I have no problem with being called “Mom or Dad” instead of “Mother or Father” in speeches. I don’t see it as dumbing down. I am Mom. My mother is Mom. It’s as good a term as mother, imho. Anyway, my 2 cents.

I don’t understand the Fang tribe on Survivor. Two weeks in a row the majority talked about ousting the people who most threaten them and yet they vote out someone else. I think the lack of food is affecting their brains as much as their brawn. That said, it was cool that they had the experience with the elephant that hangs out near their camp.

I really want to go see Quantum of Solace in the theater when it comes out.

How ‘bout them Red Sox?

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

and the Speaks’ couple is usually awake. I don’t know what’s going on, but one or the other of us wakes up at about 3am every night. This wakes up the other. It’s frustrating.

In other news…

Today is my parents’ wedding anniversary. They are a true model of a couple that have a great marriage - through the trials of my Dad’s Navy career, many moves across the country and to/from England, and dealing with two mostly obedient if headstrong daughters, they have stuck with each other with much love and a steady faith in the Lord whom they serve. Thanks for showing us your great example, Mom and Dad. I hope you enjoy your night out! Love you!!!

I had a terrible couple of days sans Zofran. Long story short, my Rx ran out and I couldn’t get a refill without my doc’s authorization. Monday being a holiday meant that didn’t happen until Tuesday. At least I didn’t get the pills until yesterday because when I called the pharmacy on Monday afternoon/evening to check the status they said it still wasn’t filled. So I spent Monday and yesterday in bed feeling as nauseous as when this all started. I’m still completely dependent on the Zofran to keep me feeling normal and functional. Also very frustrating.

That said, the rest of the weekend was enjoyable. Jesse was adorable with his new obsession with Goodnight Moon or as he calls it “MoMoMoom.” Beau showed him the real moon on Saturday night and now takes him outside to say goodnight to the moon before bedtime. So sweet.

Church was great. I finally had my rotation on worship team and it was so much fun to be singing again. It helped that the guest worship leader was awesome and put together a great set of songs. We were told by many people that they really felt led into true worship, which was our prayer all weekend.

FIOS is great, although the new channel line-up is still confusing me at times. I spent all day Monday watching the DIY Sweat Equity marathon. Love that show. I also watched a couple of episodes of Tim Gunn’s Guide to Style and I think I prefer it over What Not to Wear. He gives better advice on what is essential for a good wardrobe, although they don’t leave the person with much in the wardrobe since they don’t have a huge spending spree like on WNTW. And I love that while Gunn has that hoity-toity accent, he seems to genuinely like each person they makeover regardless of their social status. He’s not the snob you’d expect from listening to him.

In other TV news, I haven’t been watching this season of The Amazing Race. After the initial episode I’ve been meh about it. I watched Batman Begins for the 3rd time on Sunday night instead and probably had a more enjoyable time. I am loving this season of Dancing with the Stars, though.

OK, need to get back to work. Happy Wednesday, people.

Friday, October 10, 2008

I was told to expect the FIOS technician between 8 and noon. He arrived at 8:15am. Awesome.

He is currently in the back working on installing their boxes to the house and then the work inside will begin. No internet at some point, but I’m working from home so I’ll report progress later.

[10:20am]: We have internet! Woo!

He’s hooking up the cable boxes now. It is all very exciting and now we need to save for an HD TV.

Thursday, October 09, 2008

Again, I cannot access Gmail this morning. I get a 404 page, so there is definitely something going on. It’s frustrating.

Dad, I wanted to email you about your former employee - he pled guilty yesterday, is cooperating with the feds to find the kingpin, and will get a minimum of 5 years and I’m guessing will be deported upon release. Apparently he had 80Gb of data on his home computer, but his ISP turned him in because he tapped into a known sketchy IP address that was on a watch list.

From the Mommy Files, Beau and I were talking about the Duggar family and I said that as much as I love being a mom, if we were 20 years younger and I didn’t get so sick when pregnant I’d totally be up for having 4-5 kids. Not 18, but a nice large brood of kids. That said, I’m thrilled with our 1.3 children because I never expected to have any children at this age. I adore Jesse and I’m falling more in love with the little lemon in my belly every day. Thank you, Lord, for this unexpected blessing.

Nutella = French Vanilla Coffeemate + coffee (decaf) = deliciousness. And it’s way cheaper than *$.

I’ve got a case of the Thursdays.

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Is Gmail down or am I just not able to get to it?

[4:20pm]: I’m in now. Thanks.

Today is my mother’s birthday.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

I hope it’s a great one - as great as you are at the very least.

I love you!

Monday, October 06, 2008

1. More house hunting yesterday. I’ll sum it up this way - three great houses, but not an offer submitted. It’s a long story with which I won’t bore you.

2. Bizarro pregnancy dreams continue. I had two this weekend that really boggled my mind. I’ll just share the weirdest one.

Friday night. Beau and I decided to adopt a baby girl even though I am pregnant with a baby girl (in the dream I was at about 6 months along). So Lando Calrissian took us to some city in the clouds over Italy in the Millinian Falcon where we waited with other adoptive couples for our baby. When the first one arrived, I booted people out of the way at the door to get to the baby first. It was cold, so the infant carrier was covered. I unzipped it to find a lovely red-haired little girl and I scooped her to me mine. As for the Lando appearance, I can only attribute it to my recent watching of Return of the Jedi on cable. There’s no other explanation because I much prefer Han Solo over any other male in the Star Wars universe.

3. Useless One complained to me about how busy she is and to warn me that medical bills will be coming to me late. And then she proceeded to complain about how our boss told her she had to step up to the plate to take on more in her job. How dare he! Yadda, yadda, yadda. I told her we’ve all had to step up to take on extra at times and that it’s just the way it is when we can’t add the admin staff that we need. She then tried to blame that on the management, but I defended them because I know for a fact that our management constantly asks for more admins and repeatedly gets told no by HQ. We are the red-headed step child of federal agencies - we just don’t get the funding that others get.

4. Jesse is a generous little boy. He takes great delight in sharing food with Beau and I. He loves to feed Daddy grapes or pasta or Froot Loops, opening his mouth as wide as it will go and holding out the piece of food for Daddy to take from his little fingers. I had the pleasure of getting fed Froot Loops yesterday and his happy face made me tear up - or maybe that was the pregnancy hormones.

He has also perfected the zerbert. He loves to tickle, although his tickles are really pinches. But he showed his mastery of the zerbert yesterday when I heard this noise from Beau’s direction. We were watching the Redskins game (hail!) in the bedroom after a long morning of looking at houses. Jesse was wrestling with us on the bed when I heard the noise. “Did Jesse press on your belly hard enough to make you toot?” I asked Beau.

“No, Jesse did that,” Beau said, laughing.

I looked over to see Jesse press his mouth to Beau’s belly and he let out this beautiful zerbert. I cracked up, laughing so hard I had tears streaming. Jesse thought this was great and continued to zerbert. Then he zerberted me, too. And tickled/pinched. So much fun.

5. Oh, and the Redskins started winning when Beau put Jesse into his Redskins shirt. The boy will be wearing that shirt on all game days for the rest of the season.

Friday, October 03, 2008

1. I remembered #5 from yesterday - just a general complaint that my lower back is already hurting after sitting for too long. I fear the pain yet to come as the baby gets larger. Oy.

2. On the debate, I am ashamed to say that we turned it off about 40 minutes in. I was worried because she kept ignoring the moderator questions to discuss her own agenda items. I didn’t think that would work well. Turns out that I was wrong and should have stuck with it, apparently. I think he was completely charmed by her, as well and I like that he openly laughed when she was funny, even at his own expense.

3. *$’s Signature Hazelnut Hot Chocolate is deadly good stuff. Just a subtle hint of the hazelnut with the rich chocolate - it reminds me of Nutella. Which reminds me, Beau was supposed to buy me a jar of Nutella. Honey, will you add that to the grocery list, please? [ADDED LATER] Also, please add hummus and pita bread. Thanks!

4. We get our FIOS installed on Tuesday. I’m very excited!

Thursday, October 02, 2008

1. I’m fed up with our Congress. Socialism, here we come. I will be calling my representative today to beg him to vote NO on the bailout bill.

[ADDED 10:45am]: To contact your representative, click on this link. It is a HoR map, click on your state and then you can select your representative to get their contact info. I think email is bogged down, but phone numbers are listed as well. I called the Cannon number for my dude and got right through.

2. Looking forward to the debate tonight.

3. So I was going through a box of maternity clothes that I got back from a friend at church. There were a couple of sweaters that I forgot about and also some new things that she must have received included. Bonus! The bad news is the pants are now way too short, so I’m going to have to spend some money on new pants for work. And the jeans never got returned, so I’ll have to buy a couple of pairs of jeans, too.

4. I have bizarro dreams every night. Last night’s was X-rated in a marital way and involved an embarrassing moment that cracked me up and equally horrified me when I woke up. I told Beau about it and he thought it was funny and weird, too. The other night I woke up after dreaming that I was running willy-nilly through an empty NYC.

5. I had something else to share, but it’s gone after a long discussion about the bailout with my boss (he’s ticked, too) and a phone call from Beau.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Two things for today:

1. There’s a new update at Ticklish Giggles.

2. I hope Beau doesn’t mind me telling the story behind this picture, which I love. He was giving Jesse his bath and all of a sudden ran downstairs asking where the camera was. I panicked that Jesse was left in the tub alone. I was in bed, of course, and started struggling to get out of bed without instigating nausea so that Jesse didn’t drown in the time it took Beau to return. He was running back up the stairs before I rounded the end of the bed. Mere moments later I got to the bathroom and he handed me the camera so that I could see the shot he managed to get before Jesse ruined the beard in his enthusiastic play.

Note the farmer’s tan on those arms. His pasty white skin is darker than mine. Imagine how much darker his tanned bits are when next to my ghostly skin. I’m so glad he got his Dad’s complexion. His face didn’t get tan because Dad is great about making sure he wears a hat in the sun.