beanski

paint on a freeway

Sort of like that movie 'Snakes on a Plane' with Samuel L. Jackson but not quite. The Samuel L. Jackson reference is for you, Colin. I have to admit, he is pretty badass.

I left work yesterday around 3:30 and headed home to meet the Charter guys for a service call. I was pulling on to the freeway from downtown and saw the cab in front of me run over a five gallon bucket. It was LOUD and I had to swerve to avoid hitting the bucket myself. I followed him down the freeway and noticed that he appeared to be having problems with his tires because they looked like they were rolling funny. As I got closer I realized the tires were fine but his car and tires were covered with paint and were giving the illusion of wobbling. Two minutes later another car passed me sporting the sweet same paint job. I pulled in my driveway and got out of the car to find my entire car covered in white paint. The baseboards, tires, wheel wells, you name it. Furious, I headed down to the London Road Car Wash hoping it would come off if I didn't let it sit too long. The people there were SO NICE. They took extra time to scrub it and got it all off for me. I am so thankful.

My thankfulness and general positive attitude towards mankind was ruined when I got home again to find that Charter never showed up. It is really no surprise because their customer service SUCKS. As soon as they move their stupid wires off my garage so I can get it roofed, I'm canceling. Ski has this irrational fear that DSL is going to be slow but I don't care anymore.

a little pick me up

I got home last night feeling cold and crabby and miserable (sort of a common theme for me this week). When I pulled in the driveway, I noticed a Target bag on the front step. I wracked my brain all the way in to the house about what I had ordered. For the life of me, I couldn't come up with it. I opened it to find some goodies off of our baby registry sent from my good friend Davina in Las Vegas. Since she moved, we have only talked periodically...one a month and lately, GASP, once every few months. I hadn't told her I registered. I called to tell her thank-you and we ended up gabbing for over an hour. I miss you, girlie and really wish you'd move closer. Thanks for making my day. I needed it.

Just one of the super cute things she sent:

somedays a girl needs to vent

Things that are pissing me off today (in this order):

Web Hosting - DO NOT ever purchase web hosting from seekdotnet.com. The customer service is the worst I have ever seen. EVER. My site was down all weekend and all of yesterday because they are incompetent and don't know how to do a domain transfer (that I requested precisely six weeks and 1 day ago). GRRRRRRR.

Elizabeth Edwards' cancer - The whole "John Edwards planned this to get sympathy votes" thing going on in the media makes me really angry. That makes PERFECT sense. I'm sure he planned for his wife to get incurable cancer so that he can be the next President of the free world. Get real people. If you REALLY think John Edwards can make cancer grow and spread, he should be ahead of Clinton and Obama in the polls because that's really something. I know that this might be as biased as Ann Coulter calling him a insert-homosexual-slur-here for no reason (and I thought that snag couldn't get any more offensive) but COME ON. I'm sure given the choice between his wife living a long and healthy life and being President, he'd pick the former. It is unfortunate he can't make that choice. Would Ski rather I live than be President? Absolutely. He's way too lazy to want to be President.

The medical community, in general (I feel like making blanket generalizations) - My doctor has been out of the office since last Thursday and I need her. I may have a heart attack if she doesn't call soon. Why does it take so blessed long for clinics and hospitals to do ANYTHING? I can diagnose myself faster on WebMD. It's just too bad I might not be right. Then again, they probably won't be right either. Hmmm.

Back/Hip pain - I'm 23 weeks pregnant and there are days when I can hardly even walk. I've only gained 12 pounds so far with this pregnancy and I'm still having problems. What will it be like 25 pounds from now? I'm not sure I want to find out. I can't sleep. I can't sit on the couch. I can't carry the laundry downstairs. I am hoping the baby shifts soon and gives me a reprise. Please baby, just cooperate with your mother for a few days. That's all I'm asking.

I think that's all for now. I could write about how stupid I think it is that the world is so fascinated with Anna Nicole Smith but I just don't have the energy.

breast cancer 3-day

I've been seeing ads on t.v. lately for the Breast Cancer 3-day and have decided that I think I want to try to do it next year (August 2008). I think it will be good motivation to get myself back in shape and walking 60 miles in 3 days seems more reasonable to me than running a marathon. And I can train while spending time with the baby. And, most importantly, it's for a good cause.

Anyone interested in doing it with me? Post a comment and I'll start harassing you to start training with me once this baby is out.

cribz

Ski and I, mom and dad Peterson and mom and dad Skopinski had a nice little Saturday planned...shopping for nursery furniture in the cities. Now, I was a little worried going in, "Will I be able to make a decision?"..."Will I find anything I like?"..."Will there be those awkward moments of silence between our two sets of families?" Ski and I were both AMAZED how great of an experience it was...not only did we order pretty much everything we are going to need for the nursery but everyone was really excited and upbeat. I wasn't surprised by our moms and dads but it is pretty impressive for me. I'm pretty picky and cynical and usually get stressed out and pissed off within mere seconds of pulling my car in to the metro area.

A BIG (and I mean BIG) thanks goes out to our AWESOME parents who made these fine purchases possible! We ordered a Munire crib and dresser and a Best Chair upholstered glider and ottoman. Michael is still joking about his baby already being a straight "A" student (Baby Bargains gave both brands an "A" and we all know they MUST be right). The glider below is close but not exact and we ordered it in red. I can hardly wait until it all comes. Here's to hoping the 12 week order time takes about 6 so instead of being "super fat" when it comes, I'm only "pretty fat." I'm going to get some before pictures of the nursery sometime this week...I know the moms are dying to see just how bright the green truly is...

The Crib and Dresser (not the book shelf but the tall chest of drawers)

The Glider

21 weeks

In effort to learn more about photographing people before the babe comes and to capture this bizarro experience of watching my body change almost daily, I'm going to take pictures every now and again of my growing belly. I've had no less than 4 people ask me if I'm pregnant in the last week so I figure the bump is probably big enough to document. I'm so happy it's Friday!

clutter be gone!

It has officially been 3 years since my wonderful husband and I started fighting over the clutter that never ceases to find its way in to my dining room. Bills, Michael's wallet, coat and hat and gloves, cellphone charger, junk mail, laptop, whatever photography assignment/website I'm currently in the process of working on or procrastinating on, quotes from builders and painters and garage door installers. You name it, it exists in our 10 X 10 foot dining room. We get to use the actual table for eating roughly 4 times per month and those times are either because we just cleaned or because we are having company. The moral of the story is that we don't have ANY storage in our house. We have hundreds and hundreds of books, movies, CDs and the bills pouring in to pay for these items but no where to store any of them.

On my birthday, Michael was feeling nice and I conned him in to ordering some bookshelves for the upstairs landing to store our books and photos and all of the stuff we currently have stuffed in closets. What better day to get your way than on your birthday? We found out yesterday they are FINALLY here after 10 weeks of waiting! As an added bonus, this past Sunday, I talked him in to ordering a filing cabinet/secretary desk to house our bills, laptop, etc. and it is being delivered tomorrow! In two days, my life going from chaos to perfect organization. I just know it. I've never been so happy in my whole life.

feeling lucky?

Boy or Girl? What day will s/he be born? Enter a guess in our ExpectNet game! You can change the first diaper if you win, I promise.

It was a pretty unevenful weekend at Hotel Skopinski. Ski finished the painting in the baby's room (yeah!) and I organized the basement. This involved cleaning and trying to make room for the stuff that is going to be moving down there from what will soon be the nursery. I also cut back my geraniums and took my begonias out...that means garden season is coming! I can hardly wait! My back is pretty sore from the lifting but it feels good to get something done. We went to dinner at the Scenic to celebrate Linz Don's 25th birthday (Happy Birthday, old lady). It was as DELICIOUS as it always is. The rest of the gang went to the Castle for more boozing on the way home but Ski and I were tired and came home to bed. Now I'm just sitting here wondering what I'm going to do all day. Michael went to the cities to watch the Wild take on the Colorado Av's with his brother-in-law Greg. I guess I'll probably shop online to get prepared for next weekend's shopping trip to the cities for nursery furniture and spend the evening watching chick flicks. Sometime in the middle, I vow to get outside and enjoy the 45 degree temps (quite a change from last weekend's blizzard, huh)!

A note about what may be coming, Michael's brother Colin called with a superb idea for this website yesterday that I'm going to try to make a reality. Can you say Name Suggestions? That ought to be absurd. We could actually capture and save all of the ridiculous names that people think we should name this kid. Not to mention vote on the best one. I mean, I know MacGyver has a nice ring to it for a little tike but you really have to think long term, Colin. I hope I can pull it off in this crazy PHP world of programming that I really don't know very well. Over commit and under deliver, that's what I do for a living, right?

I don't really have a picture for the weekend but this is what my boy cat spent his weekend doing when he wasn't batting at the blinds at 6AM trying to get me out of bed or chewing on the $80 laptop cord. He sure is cute, it is unfortunate he's so BAD.

troublemaker already

Well, we had our 20 week ultrasound this morning and managed to score at least a few pictures of the baby. Unfortunately, it is sitting SUPER low and the ultrasound tech couldn't get measurements on half of the stuff she was trying to. Everything she got measurements on was normal (heart, arms, legs, head, spine, etc.) but she couldn't see the kidneys, bladder, etc. It is laying right on my cervix so they couldn't measure that and they couldn't even tell where the placenta is. The ultrasound tech said there are only about 2-3 ultrasounds a year when she doesn't at least have a guess as to the sex and this was one of them. She said it is a good thing we didn't want to find out because the baby wanted to keep it a secret!

Michael and I laughed through lunch...the first thing we, as its parents, have wanted it to do and it didn't cooperate...seems like a scary sign of what is to come! It was curled up in a tight little ball with its knees up by its nose and butt down. The ultrasound tech kept laughing and trying to shake it to move but it just stayed there. Stubborn.

Anyways, they are going to do another full ultrasound at 24 weeks to check on the stuff they couldn't get measurements on this time. It feels a little anticlimactic to me but I guess it will give us another chance to check in on the baby in a month!

For you heartrate watchers, the heartrate was 142 today.

Here are some pictures...you can view the rest of the pictures from the ultrasound here.

 

order button conquered

All weekend I've been feeling like we let our free chance to get something done go to waste. Mother nature gives you a free weekend and you spend it playing Lego Starwars on PlayStation II. When your TODO list is about 92 items deep, every day feels like a waste of a day.

It wasn't a waste at all. We hung out with the "Cheeseburgers" for the first time in months. Tara made a DELICIOUS berry dessert number with mascarpone cheese and honey and I made steaks and wild rice (two of my favorite things on the planet). It was good to see them. This morning we got up and went to Sara's Table with Jim and Lindsey for breakfast. The raspberry pancakes are still as delicious as they were six months ago. Today I'm in the process of making homemade chicken wild rice soup. Yum. See how everything I do revolves around what I last ate/plan on eating next? When you're knocked up, food is seriously the only thing that you can participate in without feeling guilty. The baby needs to eat, right?

To drill in the fact that the weekend wasn't a waste at all but highly productive, I broke down today and finally bought something for the baby. I'm half-way done with this pregnancy and I haven't purchased a single thing for this baby other than the bedding for the nursery. Ski and I have been talking about buying one thing a month between now and July so we can spread out our costs but when it all comes down to it, I can't press the ORDER button. Today I conquered the ORDER button. It might be all down hill from here...

I started with an easy item but it is a baby-related item nonetheless.