Never Make a Paper Chain

I think enough time has passed that I'm no longer in a rage about my 20-week doctor's appointment...

Rewind to a few months back:  We had been counting down the days to this appointment so we could finally uncover the identity of our first child. It seems like most people find out the gender before 20 weeks but my doctor told me to wait until 20 so we were patient but anxious and excited.  We were so excited we almost made a paper chain (I've since learned to lower my expectations and NEVER make a paper chain for any reason whatsoever). We both woke up in the middle of the night the day of the appointment and were so excited because it was finally TODAY.

Well...we go in for said appointment and while all looked good development-wise, our child had no intention of letting us know his/her gender.  This scenario had never even crossed my mind so all that build-up and anticipation made me burst into tears when the doctor told me to come back in 5 weeks.  I can only imagine how much worse this could've been with a paper chain you guys.  Never make one.

Anyway I'm over it.  Not so over it that I won't hold this over my baby's head for the rest of forever, but I'm over it.

I should probably not be surprised if more fluke things happen to us with this pregnancy because I seem to run into anomalies all the time.  Luckily they've mostly been annoyances and nothing to really be upset about (although that hasn't stopped me at all).

I'm not sure if you're really pregnant if you don't post a chubby photo of yourself on the internet.  So, just in case:

Up until Week 19, visible signs of my pregnancy were about like this:

But it's fairly obvious now.

Stay tuned for more news in a few weeks although I'm trying to not get my hopes up (must.not.make.paper.chain).

I Heard the Bells on Valentine's Day

We spent our last childless Valentine's Day weekend doing what any normal last-hurrah-couple would do: we ordered a pizza (which we ate at home), watched a movie (at home), and worked on the baby's bedroom (at home).

In my  mind, I had a lot of plans to do exciting things before this child arrives, but I seriously underestimated the whole pregnancy part of this equation (and the influence of mosquitos).  And yet, this weekend was awesome anyway.  My favorite place in the world is my bedroom so why not spend all the special holidays there?

I really like having Valentine's Day fall on a Sunday.  Especially a Sunday with 1:00 church because it means I don't have to wake up in the middle of the night to make a festive breakfast.  Finally!

After breakfast we turned on Music and the Spoken Word, which I expected to be Valentine's themed, but they were apparently very eager to sing about President's Day instead.  Not quite what I had in mind.  Also, they had that bell choir thing on there as well, which is never what I have in mind.  I really want to know whose idea it was to start the bell choir?  And also how this has affected the ratings?  It can't be good!

After that Scott couldn't help but sing a parody version of "I Heard the Bells on 'Valentine's' Day," which is now stuck in my head forever.  Once again, I vote to impeach the bell choir.

During Scott's meetings I baked treats for the backlog of neighbors we need to thank/meet.  I finally found a chocolate chip cookie recipe that doesn't get too flat/greasy, so that was a Valentine's miracle.  Why I ever go anywhere but Mel's Kitchen Cafe for any recipe is really a mystery.

The rest of the day was spent at church, attempting to not get hypnotized by the primary songs I play over and over again.  I swear I am in another realm sometimes while I play those things.  Then we came home and had some ribeyes and ice cream from an actual grocery store.  I never buy ice cream, so this was a pretty special Valentine's Day if you ask me.

Adulthood

Nothing reminds you that you are an adult faster than having to get your hot water heater repaired.  You mean I'm the one that's going to have to deal with this???  Yes, yes I am.

Of course this happened on the night before I actually had to be somewhere.  I only have a few working days during the year where I need to leave the house and this was one of them.  This is just how these things have to happen.

So anyway, that was the beginning of our week last week.  Luckily I still have plenty of great things to add to my great things list, like the fact that I did not need to replace said water heater, I did not need to bathe any children in ice cold water since I house a 98.6 degree hot tub, and we sort of DIY'd the installation without burning the house to the ground.  I guess life is still pretty easy despite the fact that I felt like I was living in the woods, washing my hair in the sink.

The week then progressed with a trip to my alma mater, to help recruit for TaxHawk.  I usually end up down there a few times per year to try to talk kids into pursuing the manna from heaven that is a TaxHawk career.  For whatever reason, many of them still choose to work twice as much as I do for less money and benefits, but you know, that's why we have agency...

I also began construction on BF's (Baby Foley) nursery!  This room was yet another casualty of our previous home owner's strange painting ideals as you can see by the half-painted navy blue walls:

I've decided that buying chair-rail is easier than attempting to sand down that paint line, so that is the plan to make this presentable (because of course this infant will probably have strong opinions on interior design, I'm sure...).  We're still a week away from finding out the gender, but I'm not a fun mom, so I don't even need to know that minor detail in order to pick my paint colors.  I just need to look through 50 shades of gray.