So my awesome friend Sara came over this evening and helped me with the baby announcements I'm making.  I'm doing a handful of homemade ones for family and then ordering the majority of them from Shutterfly.  A friend of ours got hers done by Shutterfly and they turned out really nicely, so that's the plan.  BUT, I read somewhere that one should address all the birth announcements before the baby actually comes, to cut down on the amount of work to do after the birth.  Well, you can't get the envelopes ahead of time from Shutterfly, so I turned that little piece of advice on its head and created more work for myself by deciding to make some of my own announcements so I could address those ahead of time.  Anyways, Sara was very helpful, we did lots of cutting, and I totally have a plan now for the rest.  It's the perfect type of plan - the kind that can be executed in front of the tv - so I'll be getting right on it first thing tomorrow.  :)

Robert punk'ing Scraps with all her toys (does it count as a punk'ing if she's awake and aware of what's going on?):

 

I'm a little worried about this dog.  We went for a long walk this morning - almost an hour - and a super-short one around the block this evening, and she was still bouncing off the walls before bedtime.  I don't know how well she's going to do when I'm out of commission after giving birth and her walks are drastically shortened.  She's two, so she should be a little bit slower than when we got her almost a year ago, but her energy level is just still so high.  When we try to cut down on her walks to accommodate our schedules, she gets so badly behaved that we I always end up caving in and upping her walk lengths again.  I don't know if she just flat-out needs all the active time or if we could get her used to a lower activity level by sticking out her bad behavior until she adjusts.

In other news, I found a baby monitor for us today, got a few more miscellaneous baby supplies, nothing big, and attempted to get the house clean.  Keeping my fingers crossed that the glider comes in tomorrow so I can pick it up and finally get the nursery DONE.  Entering the home stretch here now!

I AM NOT CRANKY

I have had more than one person close to me insinuate that I'm hormonal and cranky lately.  Well, for your information, I'm not.  I'm carrying a bowling ball strapped to my stomach with my abs, I'm exhausted, and I'm stressed (freaked) about the prospect of pushing this bowling ball out of me and then caring for it for the rest of my life.  But I'm doing just fine thankyouverymuch. 

Not cranky at all.

I need to shout-out to my two followers, Sara and Robert!  I follow a few blogs but almost never post comments, thinking that these people surely have people they like and know better who comment on their blogs and why on earth would they want to read a comment from me?  But, now I'm like, overjoyed to see Sara commenting on my posts (I will not mention how many times I checked today to see if anyone commented) so I need to rethink my position and start commenting more!

Nothing much of interest happened today.  I bought an office chair on super-clearance and a guy came out to clear a blockage in our laundry room drain.  It's days like these - when the drain guy being on time and under budget is the highlight of the day - that I really miss working.  Even on the really crappy work days, at least I pulled in a salary and I could go to bed at night thinking that I did something worthwhile with the day.  I was just too beat today to be as productive as I wanted to be, so I'm hoping tomorrow brings a burst of energy. 

In nursery news, I finally put batteries in the swing we got for the baby.  It is LOUD.  The motor is incredibly creaky - the motor is way louder than the "soothing" noises that the swing plays so it's really annoying.  I keep reading reviews that talk about how quiet this swing is, so I feel like we got a defective one.  Unfortunately, we received it at our shower months ago and I'm sure I don't have the receipt any more - I think I even threw out the packaging already.  Not looking forward to fighting it out with Fisher Price on the phone tomorrow.

Cool story Jess.  ....I think I need a life.

Just another Monday...

I had my 39-week OB appointment today.  No change from before, no indication that I'll go in to labor anytime soon.  On one hand, this is okay, since I feel relatively good and she's pretty quiet and convenient staying in my stomach.  I'm not going to lie and say I'm not enjoying a little bit of time on the couch in front of the tv each day.  On the other hand, I'm pretty done being pregnant.  I'm ready to have my body back - to sleep on my stomach, stretch out my back, and have a glass of wine...or two.  Or three.  My OB said she'd schedule an induction as early as two Mondays from now, when I'd be 40 weeks, 5 days, which is on the early side.  But she'll let me go up to two weeks late if I want, so it'll be up to me at that point.  I really hope I don't have to make that decision.  I'd much rather go naturally but it's going to be tough turning down an induction.  We'll see.  For now, I'm counting this as my last full week baby-less, so I'm trying to finish up my to-do list and get the house somewhat clean.  The nursery is waiting on a glider and a few miscellaneous things but it's mostly there.  I have meals in the freezer, I'm almost totally caught up on laundry, the cleaning lady comes on Thursday and the dog is getting groomed on Friday.  But, I also have a ton of paperwork/household finance work to get in order, and our basement still looks like it should be on an episode of Hoarders.  Fortunately, tomorrow I have a massage first thing in the morning to really get the ball rolling on my to-do list.  :P

Here's the world's most awesome dog (next to the pictures I've been meaning to hang on the wall for a week now):

Well, of course there is other stuff going on now but I can't imagine anyone on the interwebz wants to read about the minutia in my life.  Maybe I need to find a theme for this blog...

So I think of things I want to write about all day long, and then I sit down and hit "New Post" and can't think of a thing.  This weekend was pretty lazy; I had a to-do list a mile long and didn't do very much of it.  R and I did have a lovely Date Night on Saturday night, thinking it's probably not, but possibly, our last Date Night before Baby comes.  We went out to dinner, I got my belated anniversary present (love it!  R reset the diamond in my engagement ring), and we were lame and ran a few errands before remembering that we needed to feed the dog and heading back home.

Here's the only not-terribly-unflattering photo we took that night:

I am dismayed at how huge I am, but I'm trying to cut myself a break since I'm nine and a half months pregnant and all.

And here's a photo of my two favorite people from earlier in the week (R is not drunk, just tired!):

Isn't my dog the best?!  We think she's an Australian Cattle Dog mix, probably with some shepherd.  We don't know where those giant ears come from though!  We adopted her from the Humane Society days before we found out I was pregnant, and she's been awesome ever since.  She's a bit high-energy, but she keeps us active.  She's smart, independent, and she totally loves Robert more than me.  We spent some special Sunday time napping in bed together today and I loved it.  I can't wait to add Baby to the Sunday Football/Nap Mix!

And I'm going to make sure I know how to post photos.  Everyone loves a post with photos, we all know it.  So, here are a few of my maternity photos, taken several weeks ago by the lovely Caroline Nelson:

The cutie in the pictures is my husband, Robert.

Getting the ball rolling...

So awhile ago, I got this blog set up, and now I'm finally going to post something of substance!  I'm not sure what this blog is going to turn in to, and I'm not sure how faithful I'm going to be about updating it regularly.  But, I could use a place to muse, vent, rant, write a little, and share photos about what's going on in my life.  :)

So, here's the obligatory, First-Real-Blog-Post, Reader's Digest version of that:

I was a lawyer, doing patent and trademark law in a big law firm.  I quit that to "do science" at a genetic sequencing center at pretty much the exact same time I got pregnant for the first time.  Now, I've retired from the working world to stay home, prepare for and grow a baby, and we're anxiously awaiting her arrival any time in the next two weeks or so.  I've been married to my best friend and the most phenomenal partner for a little over five years now.  We have a house in the suburbs, and an awesome dog named Scrappy.  Life is good.  :)

The blog title comes from one of my favorite quotes, and it pretty much sums up the way I'm trying to live my life now.  As much as I want to save all the puppies in puppymills, all the starving children of the world, the environment, and the economy, all this weekend, I've driven myself nuts in the past trying to take on the world.  I've been forced to search out some semblance of balance in my life.  Which, for me, means taking care of my world and trying to improve everyone else's just a little at a time.  Light one candle in the dark, one at a time. 

And maybe keep up with this blog, one post at a time.  Stay tuned...

~J