call me amazed...

or not so bright.

Is it just me, or is anyone else shocked at the ease you can find the answer to your question via the magic that is GOOGLE? Just now, because my curiosity finally won over, I googled "AT&T commercial with monkey" to find out who sings the song, and BAM! Amos Lee, "Sweet Pea". Sweet pea, apple of my eye....

Last night I googled "macbook envelope commercial song", and BAM! "New Soul" by Yael Naïm. The internet rocks! I had to add "song" to the search, because believe it or not, when you just google "macbook envelope commercial", the song does not immediately show up in the results list. Go figure.

The other thing I think is really cool? All the other people out there doing there doing exactly the same thing as me. Googling not to find out more about the product, but to find out who sings the songs in the commercial. Do you think the product developers and ad execs intended on that??

And PS, Honey googled the HP commercial last year to find out who sung the Picturebook song for me, and bought me the Kinks cd. It really is the little things in life that make me happy.

good stuff

Pretty in pink! Some might say I have a magazine addiction. "Some", being my husband. He also says I have a fruit addiction. (out of a $65 grocery bill, about $50 of that was fruit. seriously) Anyhoo, I loved all the February magazines, as I'm sure you did, too. I actually haven't read the Country Living yet, but if it's as good as last month's which featured bits on Russell & Hazel (love, love, love R & H), See Jane Work (love them even more than R & H), and Amy Butler (who doesn't love Amy Butler?), I'm in for a treat.

Not gonna lie ~ we had a bit of snow last weekend. And because we love him so much, we bought Porter a new car ~ a Ford Escape. It was our intention to buy a new vehicle before the baby was born, one that we could put Porter in the way-back & he wouldn't step on the baby. It was our intention to shop around a bit, do some test drives, do some research on-line, and be ready to negotiate like pros.

It was not our intention to test drive one vehicle, hang out in the car dealership for 2 1/2 hours, and drive home with a new car. But that's what happens when you spend 2 1/2 hours in a car dealership while they "run some numbers", and check with their boss because we were "lucky" enough to get the guy so new, he didn't even have business cards printed, and then they run some more numbers.

They get you. And I didn't even get to drive my Jetta one last time.

But, the car is growing on me, and in my heart, I know it was the right choice for our growing family.

He really does love me! Honey went on-line to buy a gate for the back of the new car so Porter wouldn't be tempted to hop over the back seats, and don't think he wouldn't try. Honey also bought me 2 new books! I asked if they were from my Amazon wish list, and he said that no, no, they were from his recommendations. Since he only buys things for me on Amazon & never anything for himself, Amazon is of the impression that he's gay. And I don't mean to offend gays, I just think it's funny that Amazon recommends things like decorating books and chic-flicks. Tell me that's not funny! And I love these books. I want to crawl inside and live in the pages of these books. Thank you, Honey ~ I love you!

Oh, did I say SUNDAY?

Ummmm, yeah. So I missed the mark by a week. Or two. We'll just say that I was having some bad days and leave it at that, shall we? I've had 3 WHOLE day without tears, though, so that's some good news!

The 100th post winner ~ Sherrie! If you want to see some really amazing photos of Alaska, check out her blog. She's a total bad-ass, is one of the sweetest girls I know, and I think I can safely say she was one of Adam's favorite people to work with on the glacier. Thanks for your encouraging comments, Sherrie ~ I hope you like your notebook!

Honey & I have had an adventure of our own, although nothing like climbing ice falls. This past weekend, we went on an annual camping trip to celebrate the 3rd anniversary of our dear friend Bill's death. Through Billy, we have made some equally amazing friends; people who accepted us into their group for no other reason than because we were okay in the eyes of Bill. And if there was anything I could say about Bill, it's that if Bill said it was a good idea, you believed it was a good idea, too. That was just Bill's way. To be in Bill's world was something incredibly special, and those who knew him know exactly what I mean. I could say I felt slighted that I knew him for such a short time, but I don't think Bill would approve of that sort of thinking. Instead, I will be grateful for the months that I did have him in my life.

The camping trip was at Cowee Meadows, a 2.1 mile hike from the road. Adam & I have done this hike several times, but never in these conditions. And FYI, hiking in thigh-high snow while 6 months pregnant: NOT EASY. Ordinarily I would rather shoot myself in the foot than say anything negative about Dooce, but I'm sorry; her snow is nothing compared to this.

Honey went first to pave the way for me & Doodles, not that it didn't still suck. This is where we made the foolish, foolish mistake of cutting out into the meadows rather than stick to the trail in the woods, which under normal circumstances would make the hike considerably shorter. Not the case when there's 2 feet of fresh snow on the ground. We cut back into the woods as soon as we could, but by that point, I was already so sore I could hardly lift my legs. I was not anticipating the strain it would put on my hips and on my body in general. And when one falls, which I did about a dozen times, it's really, REALLY hard to get back up when you're in that much snow, and totally off balance with a backpack & a big belly. I am not ashamed to say I used Doodles as a brace to get myself back up on more than one occasion. He just looked at me like ~ Excuse me? What is this we're doing??

And this would be me, wearing Honey's outdoor gear because none of mine fits anymore, and obviously early enough in the hike that I'm still smiling. Trust me when I say that I would only make this trek in this condition for Billy K.

.

This is what relief looked like to me on that day: seeing the cabin after 2 VERY long hours of hiking. Cowee Meadows is one of my most favorite places to be, although we only camp here once a year. We used to come out with 2 other couples on another annual trip, but they've since moved away.

This trip, there were 3 other couples, 3 dogs, and one toddler named Meadow ~ named for these meadows. Six of us slept upstairs in the loft while the couple with the toddler slept downstairs. Between the crinkling of sleeping bags, pacing dogs, the fear of a mouse coming into my sleeping
bag, multiple snorers, and Meadow, who woke up screaming in the middle of the night, I got very little sleep. Oh, and because I didn't have the strengh to move my legs, to roll over I had to either manually lift my legs or use the slope of the cabin's roof for momentum. And worrying about a mouse coming to visit? Not for not. I woke up to the light of a headlamp because a mouse was on Bret's face. ON. BRET'S. FACE. He handled it much, much better than I would have.

The drive home was no piece of cake, either. Not for Porter, of course, who slept the whole way. There was about a foot of snow on the road, and there is no road mainenance that far "out the road". There were times that the car got a little squirrely, heading dangerously close the edge (the edge being a cliff that dropped off to the ocean). I'd put my hand firmly on Honey's leg, as if me, not his seatbelt, was going to keep him from being tossed through the windshield. It somehow makes me feel better, though.

My poor body has since recovered, and even though I am so glad we made the trip, I don't think we'll make it next year with an 8-month old baby in tow. I may have been a trooper this year, but I have my limits!

Me at 24 weeks. I'm not thrilled with my face getting fatter & fatter, but I rather like my belly. Sometimes I still can't believe this is my body, that I've got a real little person growing inside me. Until she starts kicking & punching. I think I will miss that feeling. I know I will. She's kicking hard enough for Honey to feel, which I'm sure makes this more real to him, too. Sometimes we sit with our hands on my belly going ~ Felt that! Felt that! Even though my pregnancy hasn't been easy for me, I am still amazed every day that there's a baby in there.

guess which half of the book of baby names I can skip?

If intuition had anything to do with the sex of the baby, we’d be having a boy. I think because I had convinced myself of that fact, it came as quite a shock to hear the ultrasound technician say the opposite.

I always thought that those women who said I don’t care what the sex is as long as the baby is healthy were full of it. How could they not have an opinion on the sex of their child? Now I know. My feelings toward finding out we were having a girl couldn’t compare to finding out she was developing properly & that she looked healthy. As I lay there, the anticipation I thought I would feel about knowing whether to shop for pink or blue never materialized. Instead, I found myself more worried that something would be wrong. Every time the technician would pause and hmmmmm to herself, I was convinced she was seeing some sort of abnormality. Thankfully, though, that was not the case.

Other observations about my ultrasound: the baby was moving around a lot, including taking breaths and waving her little arms. I was apparently also experiencing Braxton Hicks, but I never would have known had the technician not told me.

It’s going to take some getting used to referring to the baby as “her” or a “she” instead of “it”. It was somehow easier when she was still an “it”. It was less real before, and now she’s this little person that I’ve seen with my own eyes.

22 weeks and counting:

New Year's Highlights

Fun with babies: you can pose them & they can't do anything about it. Bucky thought Hunter made for a good elf. Michelle & I were laughing so hard, I'm surprised we actually got a clear photo. And I'm not sure if the fact that Photoshop didn't take out his red-eye makes the photo better or worse. Either way, he's pretty damn cute! Just look at that face ~ isn't he precious?

Don't have a tripod? No worries! Just use Michelle! I think she was getting a bit annoyed as Bucky was taking far too long to take a picture of Riley in a basket. I must have hundreds of various Riley-in-a-_________ photos from the past 7 years. One day I'll do a collage.

Adam is so good with Hunter. I think he's got him to stop fussing 3 different times now. And, Adam changed his first ever diaper last night! It was awfully cute watching my younger brother teaching my husband the intricacies of diaper changing! Bucky even had some pointers for me. Apparently, when I rolled the dirty diaper up, it wasn't tight enough. See, the kid goes through a lot of diapers, and you've got to roll them up pretty tight to fit it in the diaper genie.

Fireworks!

All in all, we had a great time. We played the board game Battle of the Sexes, had sparkling cider at midnight, AND I even stayed awake well past midnight, which I didn't think was likely to happen!

Today, I feel good. I stayed in bed really late & cuddled with Honey, and didn't even feel anxious about being so lazy. Right now, Doodles is laying next to me because he likes to cuddle, too.

New Year's Day is so much easier for me than the day after Christmas, which as I wrote previously, is just depressing. New Year's Day is a day full of possibilities; the closest we can get to starting over and changing the things in need of changing.