Oh and guess what!!!

I think my damn absentee ballot was stolen! I have been moaning about this missing absentee ballot for at least two weeks. They say I have one on the way now after I called again.
But i heard on the tv this morning that a number of people had not gotten theirs and the USPS along with the county the distributes them suspect they were stolen! I am sure mine was stolen! But that wont stop me from voting! I will waddle my pregnant ass and do it in person if I have to.

So over it...for this year at least

I love Halloween. It has been one of my favorite days of the year since I was a kid. Back then we got to wear our costumes to school! I trick or treated with girlfriends well into my teen years and once we got too old we started to take their nieces or in some cases kids out for trick or treating. Ever since I turned 21 I normally would go to the clubs or a party dressed up. Over the years I have been everything from a fairy, witch, bunny, princess, cheerleader, angel even a gypsy once. Halloween in Seattle in no joke, you gotta be a trooper and be down for whatever weather may come your way.
Well not this year. The idea of thinking up a costume and then putting it on sounded exhausting! I planned on handing out candy at the house but my husband is going out so I rather not be opening and closing a door all night in a house alone. So I guess I will have to eat all that candy I bought.
And now for your viewing pleasure, here I am at about 5 or 6 (around 1983)as a princess. Check out my Afro puff!

Time to vote...almost

Ugh! My stupid absentee ballot was lost in the mail. I am totally annoyed. I called and they are resending so hopefully I should get it by Saturday.
I have mentioned before I have always loved to vote. Every 4 years is important. This year isn't anymore important or exciting to me. Although the older I get the more I pay attention to other issues beyond Roe v. Wade or war for example. Now that I am a home owner, a soon to be mother and actually thinking about spending my money on things other than travel and clothes, I paid great attention to many issues brought up by the candidates this year. I didn't want to say I was voting for Barack just because he is mixed with black or McCain because he has a women as a VP running mate. I wanted to decided based on what issues are important to me now.
At my current job we are facing many layoffs and from what I have read we will be in the danger zone until 2010. If I am even still have a job by then, paying a mortgage and day care costs makes a job loss or cuts very scary to me.
At lunch I eat with 4 to 5 of my friends and we regularly talk about what it would mean to us to have Barack as a president. We all have said we never thought we would see a black president in our lifetime or at least not while we are young. For me to see how close we are to have Barack as a president and to be bringing a child into the world is amazing. It often brings tears to my eyes.
So last night I had every intention of watching Barack's infommerical last night. But I started watching an NBA game with my husband and totally fell asleep. So I watched it this morning and I thought it was pretty good. I cant say if I were undecided it would sway me to vote for him. But I am such a sap that I really like watching it. So just in case you were like me and missed it here it is.

Oh no!

Have you ever had that day where you just cannot get comfortable. Ugh! I am at work and I am so uncomfortable. So I got up to walk and use the restroom. And now I think my feet have grown! My shoes are tight. Not swollen, because the toes seem to be hurting. This just sucks! I already have big feet so now I will have like clown feet or something.

Rolling

Baby Orange is doing lots of rolling around these days. I think she loves to either have her butt or her head at the top of my stomach when I sleep. When I wake up in the mornings I have this really hard bump. When Iam laying down it can look like I have 3 boobs. HA! Eventually she moves down so I can sit up.
I had a pretty busy weekend. I was able to go with my friend that is throwing my shower and get all the was needed. I am helping with the favors. She found small plant pellets for the guests to take home and plant a tree. She got these boxes and I am going to add a puff to each one. I need to take pictures once I have some done.
Also I got the final food list for the shower, yummy!
Lumpia
Black eyed peas
Fried Chicken
Won Tons
BBQ
Potato salad
Mac & Cheese
Greens
Banana pudding
Macaroni salad
Rice crispy treats
Punch
Pop
Water

Yesterday Appoitment

Everything went well at the doctor office yesterday. My blood pressure is still nice and low I am measuring a week ahead but that doesn't mean I will have her early. It means she is just big. Crap! My weight slowed back down (Amen!). I found out I had a 93 on my gluclose testing which according to my doctor I passed with flying colors. I guess at 140 you fail. My white blood cell count is still elevated, but again nothing to be concerned with. Oh and the baby heart beat was a nice 144.
I did ask a about my flu shot. I will be getting the thimerosal free vaccine on election day at my next appointment.
Speaking of the election...I am so excited! Only 13 more days. I know the results may not be official that same day but still very exciting. I have always loved to vote, as soon as I turned 18 I sent off my form to register. In recent years my dad and I have been voting opposite so we always joke our votes just cancel each other out. ha!

Every other week

Today I am heading to the doctor for my 29/30 week appointment. And as of today I get to go to the doctor every other week. Time is flying by!
Not much eventful happened this weekend. Although on Sunday as I was getting ready to leave the house to run some errands I saw an Ihop commercial. Big problem, all I thought about was pancakes for the next hour. I couldn't get done with my errands fast enough and find a Ihop so I could eat pancakes!

I finally got my pancakes and texted my friend J who is two week behind me and she reassured me that she too has had these type of moments. Love pregnancy!

Can I vent for a minute???

Ok I will make this quick.
First let me say I love my sisters and brother. But they do some of the dumbest things sometimes. My sister is 21, a junior at an out of state college and is a typical student. I am 30, been to college, balanced my life while in school. I worked, had a social life, kept up my grades and traveled the world and graduated and still always made time for family.
My sister was one of the first 3 people I told I was pregnant. She immediately said she was excited and wanted to help with the shower. This was back in June. I told her she could help only if she wanted to and if it wouldn't disturb her school schedule. Fast forward to August, I talked to her to see if I could buy her plane ticket in September once she started school and had her school schedule. I worked my shower date around her being home for it. I put a deposit on a shower location.
First week of September I called her to confirm that dates she agreed on before I booked the flight. I originally wanted her to fly in on a Saturday but she said she didn't have class on Friday so to book a Friday flight. Again I asked her if she was sure that it wasn't going to mess with homework or a quiz. No, no, no she assured me it would be fine. I booked the flight. I am on the phone with her as I book it so she can choose the flight time. ahhh done. My sister is coming home in November. Or so I thought.
Late September she calls and wants me to see about changing her flight so she can join a sorority her final big moment of joining is the same weekend of my shower. I was annoyed cause I had already checked her off my taken care of list. But whatever, I called the airline. Its a $150 to change her flight each way. I told her she could do this but she would have to pay the difference. No, never mind she says leave it as is. Ok.
Today I get an email, an EMAIL from her saying she has decided she really wants to stay at school so she can join. And if she misses it then she cannot join again until next year. She loves me and the baby and she feels so bad...blah, blah, blah.
She said she emailed me so I would yell at her. WTF?!?! She gotta talk to me at somepoint.
Needless to say I am disappointed and my feeling are hurt. I wanted her to be home for the shower. I just told her I understood her choice. Oh and she also did say she would pay me back for the flight plus the cancellation fee.
But still. I am totally annoyed and mad. To be honest she is lucky she is in another state cause I want slap the shit of out her. I hate when people don't follow through on things.
I had planned on giving baby orange my sister first name as a middle name. But I am so annoyed right now I am tempted to change my mind. But I hoping in few days I will have calmed down.
OK I am done with my vent. Anyone else annoyed today? Please feel free to share.

Free is the best price...

My friend J is expecting a baby boy a few weeks after me. She also had a friend who had a baby about 5 months ago. She was done with her swing and offered it to her or anyone she knew. Lucky for me they already had a swing so I was on their list to see if I wanted it. I got the swing this weekend and it is in pristine shape. The baby only sat in it a hand full of times so its really like getting a new swing for free!

A swing was a must in my book. When my brother and sister were little (we are 9 and 10 years apart) I was forced to babysit. My mom would leave for a few hours and they would start crying. Oh it was like torture for me since I was only 9 or 10. Anyways, I would put them in their swings they would fall asleep with no problem and leave them their for the hours she was gone. When I heard he car I would quick like take them out and pretend they had been awake the whole time playing with me. Ok that is such an evil thing to do but again I was only 9 or 10.
While I have no intentions of leaving my daughter in her chair for hours like that. But I still remember how great their swing was.

I passed!

I just called to get my gestational diabetes test results and I passed! Yeah!!! I am so happy. I felt like I had been very good with what I eat since I have been pregnant but you never know. Good luck to some of you other readers who I know will be taking your test or getting your results back soon.
Just in case you are curious:
I did have to fast for 4 hours prior to the testing. That morning I got up and had pancakes (with syrup) for breakfast with orange juice to drink. I had two pancakes. That was a lot of food for me so early in the morning. I normally only eat a small amount of oatmeal.
I am also use to eating every two to three hours so I was worried about how my system would take not eating. I ate until I was stuffed.
It did the trick, I wasn't sick on the day of the test and I passed.

Third Trimester!!!

Today I am finally in my third and final trimester. WOW! That is freaking crazy.
I feel great. The baby is good. Not anything really to say just that I made it.
Oh I do start my kick count today. I just need to make sure she kicks at least 10 times within a two hour period each day. This should be easy considering she goes wild when I drink orange juice in the morning.
Things I need to accomplish this month
Look for a crib
Send out shower invites out
Register at Target
Turn in my FMLA notice for work
Ok that is only 4 things I can do it!

New Symptom

Last Friday night I noticed my hips were kinda hurting. Just sore. I had went for a walk earlier but nothing intense so I figured I had nothing to worry about. Well now we are on Wednesday. The soreness isn't as intense as it was over the weekend. But I notice it. I checked it out in my handy dandy book and turns out my hips are might be loosening up. Oh fun! Not that my ass and my hips are not wide enough as it is. But now they are widening on their own!
Also the great bladder running is back on. I am up at least once a night again. Sometimes even twice. One day away from my third trimester, what else is next????

Tag and I am it...

I've been blog "tagged" by http://weshallwed.blogspot.com/, so here it is...

4 Things I Did Today
1. Woke up
2. Came to work
3. Emailed all my friends about random things
4. Ate lunch with friends

4 Things On My To Do List
1. Wash baby clothes
2. Pack up more stuff around the house that doesn't need to be there.
3. Research more day cares.
4. Register for breast feeding classes

4 Of My Guiltiest Pleasures
1. Reality tv
2. Detective work (I love murder she wrote)
3. Blogging
4. Shoes, which I cannot really enjoy right now.

4 Random Facts About Me:
1. I hate being cold
2. I talk in my sleep sometimes
3. I can tell when people are lying, but I rarely call them out on it.
4. I hate keeping secrets from my husband (crazy I know) but I feel guilty so I rather just tell him.

My Shower Inviations

As some of you may remember I am working on my shower invitations http://1babyandme.blogspot.com/2008/09/help-me-pick.html. I am not throwing my shower, I was forbidden by my friends to do that, ha! But I was "allowed" to make my invites.
I found this really pretty yellow and pink card stock paper that was double sided. I used that as my boarder.
Thanks to your help and my family I decided to go with the wording from
#3 We are tickled pink
and happy to say
An adorable little girl
is on the way!
You're invited to Leah and husband baby celebration!
is on the way!
Sorry the pictures are kinda blurry. Anyways, the shower is mid November so I am sending these out in about a week or so. I haven't even finished all of them but I have made progress. What do you think???



Here is the back of the pink and yellow card stock.

I also decided to make them magnetic so guests can just have them on their refrigerators. I bought a sheet of self adhesive magnetic paper and cut into rectangles and stuck them onto the yellow paper prior to using the double stick tape to stick it all together with the yellow and pink card stock.

And here is the ribbon I picked, I like its because the two tone pinks matched the two pinks on the card stock.

Yesterday

Well yesterday appointment went well. I wont have the blood results from my diabetes test for a few days but I felt ok after drinking that gross sugary water crap.
I am measuring right at 27 weeks. Baby orange heart beat was 136. And drum roll...my blood pressure was still nice and low!!! Amen, amen, amen!
I also got my fun Rh- shot. Right above the tush. Actually I was somewhat a human pin cushion yesterday. They gave me the shot and drew my blood. Since I have such hard veins to get blood from they got it from my hand. But they got it in one stick so that was a great thing. I am one week shy of being in my third trimester. Next week I get to start my kick count too!
This weekend I am going to Baby Depot for the first time with my good friend Toni. I am very excited!

Wish me Luck

Today I have my glucose testing. I started to fast at 7:30 and cant eat again until after noon. So sad. I already miss food. Look at my yummy drink that is waiting in the refrigerator for me to down in 5 minutes or less at 11:30.
Wish me luck!

Did she really say that...

This morning I got on the elevator to come into my office. I had just walked up my normal big hill to get to my building. By the time I got onto the elevator to go to the top floor I was winded and the baby was pushing on my bladder. Right as the doors started to closed this woman got on.
I was a little annoyed (I really had to pee!) so I leaned on the wall and my back was arched off the wall so it made my belly look bigger than normal. So this lady says "looks like your ready to go" and then pats her stomach. I just smiled not really thinking of what she said. It took me to about the 6th floor to realize she said I looked 9 months! She got off at the 8th floor but I stood there thinking for the rest of my ride up did she really just say that?!?!?