new belly picture (20.5 weeks)
Monday 28 January 2008 at 8:27 pm Here is a picture. I seem to have popped out. You can also see the yellow of the baby's room.
Coming up soon:
green living
an updated tour of the house, with furniture and hopefully sound
the great flood of 2008
a few things about SA
Monday 21 January 2008 at 10:45 am There aren't really signs when a lane is ending. Sometime they are there, but usually only one and very, very close to where the lane is actually ending. Everywhere else I have ever lived gives you a little more advanced warning, like right lane ends in 1000 ft, or merge ahead or something. Here they don't think you need that, you will just know when the lane is going to end. This is kind of hard to get used to, especially when you have no idea where you are driving and then all of a sudden your lane just ends. I think it is the cause of most of the backups around here. People don't necessarily know the lane they are in is going to end and then it does, so you slam on your brakes so you don't hit the car in the lane you are supposed to merge into and then everyone else has to slam on their brakes. Fun stuff.On the few occasions that they do let you know that your lane is going to end, or say two exits on a highway are merging or whatever, people don't understand the zipper at all. I am thinking of one location in particular. This same style of intersection was in Charlottesville and it worked much better there. Here one of the lanes comes to a complete stop, rather than alternating with traffic to the right. So SA-ians, do not know how to zipper.
One nice thing about the highways here is the use of the access road. We have the main highway, which is usually three lanes in both directions (unless they decide to randomly close one) and then right next to that there are three lanes in each direction that are access roads. You can get to all the stores and restaurants by being on the access roads. So basically it is six lanes in each direction, three on the highway and three off. Really is is quite good city planning. They also have these kind of things in Houston and maybe elsewhere in Texas. It does get annoying if you want to go to some place on the other side of the highway because you can't just make a left turn. You must go up to the next major intersection and do a turn around, which is better than a left turn because you don't have to wait for a light. Here is a google picture to explain how it works. On this map US-87 is really the main highwayand I have no idea why it is called 87 on this because I have never seen a sign for US-87.
View Larger Map
The last thing I will mention today is grocery shopping. In SA, we basically have one brand of grocery store, HEB. It is a fairly nice grocery store, big, fairly good variety. We have one Whole Foods that I know, but it is about 10-15 miles from our house and I am not sure Whole Foods counts as competition. We also have a natural food store, Sun Harvest, which also doesn't really count as competition. So essentially there is no competition for HEB. This means that some things never, ever seem to be on sale. I tend to be a type of shopper who stocks up on things we use regularly when they are on sale. We pretty much always have granola bars on some kind in the house. I usually just buy whatever brand is on sale. At HEB they are rarely on sale, why, because you will buy them without them being on sale, because you have no other option (other than Walmart or Target Super Stores). It really annoys me that we basically have one choice for groceries. I may have to start shopping at the Walmart or Target (which isn't exactly close) for some things. I know many people have major problems with Walmart, but is it better to shop at Walmart, which is about 1.5 miles away or drive 10 miles to Target. Walmart is always cheaper, so I am saving money and gas. And how come there aren't other grocery stores in this town? I guess they can't claim a monopoly when there are natural/organic stores and also super centers that you can shop at as well?
sick, cold, and new pictures
Friday 18 January 2008 at 3:05 pm I have a cold, which isn't much fun, especially since I am trying not to take any drugs because I don't really know what it is safe. Basically everything is "it might be safe", but nothing is proven to be safe, so I shall just suffer. Hopefully it will be short-lived.The last two days have been pretty chilly here. Yesterday the high was around 46 degrees and today at 3 pm it is only 40 degrees. So, yes, apparently it does actually get cold here.
And lastly, on Monday, we had another ultrasound done. It was the big screening one where the measure all sorts of organs and such to see if the baby is developing ok and also when we could have found out the sex (we didn't). Since we didn't have an appointment with the doctor at the same time, we have to wait until next time to review the results, but the ultrasound technician seemed to think things looked good. Here are the only two pictures she gave us.
fascinating book
Tuesday 15 January 2008 at 5:30 pm I just finished reading a fascinating book. For those who have read for a while, you know that I am fascinated by Mormonism and especially fundamental Mormonism and also that I love autobiographies. I just completed His Favorite Wife by Susan Ray Schmidt. Susan grew up in the fundamental Mormon church in Mexico headed by Joel LeBaron. She becomes the 6th wife of the brother of the prophet at age 15. I'm not very good at writing book reviews, but I can tell you that I could hardly put this book down and I finished it in about 2 or 3 weeks, which is very quick for me! I just looked online and it turns out one of her sister-wives also wrote a book, and I am going to try and get it from the library. So if you are looking for a fascinating book about a lifestyle that most likely you have no experience with, I definitely recommend reading this book. If you can't find it at your library or don't want to buy it, let me know and I can mail you my copy.more house stuff
Thursday 10 January 2008 at 8:33 pm Last weekend Matt sanded and painted this old bookcase. It used to be stained brown, now it is black for the baby's room. It is pretty much the only thing in the baby's room right now. Soon enough I am sure that room will be filled with baby paraphernalia. The bookcase looks really good, it is kind of shiny and now just needs some books :)
Matt also changed the locks on the three doors. We had some lock issues. The door that went into the garage was without a key at all. So if we wanted to leave through the garage, we would have to go in and open the garage door, then come in and lock the door, then go out the front door. Kind of annoying. Also the back french doors had one of those turn locks, which I am always afraid of having with windows nearby. So we had to replace that one as well. Since we were replacing those two we had to replace the front door as well, that way they would all have the same key. Things are definitely much easier now.
I am off to Atlanta tomorrow morning to hang out with my mom and aunts. Matt will be here working on a couple of things this weekend (a random toilet problem, it runs for about 5 seconds every 45 minutes, resealing the backdoor, and maybe installing the receiver in the ceiling fan). Sunday is Matt's birthday and on Monday we go to a basketball game to celebrate. Have a fun weekend everyone.
drivers license
Thursday 10 January 2008 at 11:59 am Today I went to get my new driver's license. After waiting forever, or about an hour, my number was called. Then the computer system went down for about 30 minutes. Fun. In the end I left with a temporary driver's license. This apparently is normal in Texas. I have a piece of paper that has my name, address, and other driver's license information, no picture. Tomorrow I am flying to Atlanta. It is a good thing I have a passport, otherwise I am pretty sure I wouldn't be allowed to get on the plane. My new driver's license will arrive in 2-3 weeks. For now I have no picture ID when people ask for it when using my credit card. Strange huh? I'm totally blown away that this is acceptable. I mean how can young looking people buy alcohol if they have no picture ID.house update
Wednesday 09 January 2008 at 7:56 pm We are slowly but surely getting things unpacked. The kitchen has one or two remaining boxes to unpack. In SA most houses don't come with a washer, dryer or fridge, so we had to buy all three. Here are our pretty new appliances. The fridge seems to huge to me. I guess apartment fridges are smaller than the average fridge.
This week I hung some curtains in the kitchen and family/living room. The back of our house gets a ton of sun and it gets awfully warm in those rooms. Plus when you are watching tv in the afternoon the sun is so bright that you can hardly see the tv. So these curtains were pretty necessary for us. The kitchen curtains are kind of a turqouisey color called deep jadestone. The family/living room curtains are bamboo things.
And lastly, we have a request. We haven't hung anything up yet, but hopefully will in the next few weeks. We have this one wall in the family room that we don't know what to do with. Everything we have seems to small for it and we just don't have any ideas about what to do with it. Ignore the mess on the coffee table.
rants
Tuesday 08 January 2008 at 3:03 pm Yep, rants with an S.In many neighborhoods in Texas, your mailbox is located down the street. They look like apartment mailboxes only they are for your street or some part of your neighborhood. Our neighborhood is one of these neighborhoods. When we closed, way back in Dec. I went to the closest post office and requested a key to our box. It turns out they re-key the box every time someone new moves in, which takes a couple of days. Soon it was Christmas. After we got back I went to the post office and asked about the key. They said someone would call me when it was ready. A few more days go by and I call the post office to see if the key is ready. It has now been two weeks since I requested it. We were expecting some important mail, so I was getting quite anxious. Apparently when I call I talk to someone who actually is somewhat competent and he asks for my zipcode and then tells me that I went to the wrong post office. Nice of them to tell me when I filled out the little paper requesting the key change. I figure out which post office I need to go to (the one with my zipcode apparently, even though it is slightly farther from the house) and head over there. I wait in line for a while. When I get up there, the lady says I need proof that I live at that address (a bill or deed to the house or a drivers license, which I haven't updated yet). Well all of my bills are in the mailbox I am trying to access, so I have to go back to the house and get some of the papers we signed at closing. Finally I request the darn key and head home. I went back on Saturday to pick up our mail that had been sitting in the box for two weeks. Yesterday I finally get a call to come get my key!! I initially requested a key on Dec. 20 and finally on Jan. 7, got my key. Today I got the first mail out of our actual box. Now if only they could make the process easier for first-timers. I mean how am I supposed to know what to do. Everywhere I have lived, the mail person brings the mail to my house and I walk out and get it, no key, no down the street, nothing.
The second rant involves the lovely cable company here in Texas. Personally I think all cable companies have a monopoly. You always only have one choice, Time Warner or Comcast. We decided to sign up for cable for some unknown reason. We have phone, internet, and cable from them for a total of $100 a month. Not too bad, especially since all long distance is included in our phone. Today I go get the mail (yep the first mail I actually get from the box) and get a bill from the cable company. I set up the bill to automatically get charged to my credit card, so I don't have to remember to pay it every month and so I get miles. Apparently they charge your credit card before they even send you a bill, so the bill of $276 (which is totally wrong) has already been charged to my card. I call them up and ask why this month's bill is more than twice what last month's bill was. When I signed up, we were guaranteed the $100 price for a year. We signed up in November of 2007, which means we should pay the same until November of 2008, right? Wrong. They decided we had paid the cheap rate long enough and upped our bill to full price. Plus they added private listing to our phone charges. Umm, who ever authorized that. Not me. Since we just moved we had to have our cable transferred to the new house. I was told it would be $40, which I would get a rebate for (which I did). However on our bill they charged us $80 for that. The lady I spoke with, said she hopes this will be straightened out by the time the next bill is sent out. Umm, excuse me. If you can't get this straightened out in the next month, then I think you have some problems at your company. Oh...and they won't credit our credit card, so this month we still have to pay the $276 that they charged on it. I don't think Matt would be very happy if we got rid of cable, but at this point I want to, even though I definitely watch a heck of lot more tv than he does, mainly because I am home all day. We also have signal issues with the cable. Whenever you are watching something on one of the big networks (CBS, NBC, ABC, or FOX) that is very popular (like the national championship football game last night) the sound goes in and out. So tomorrow I get to sit around and wait for the cable guy to come and hopefully fix the problem. Oh the things we waste our money on.
End of rants.
Something happy later today or tomorrow.
my husband
Sunday 06 January 2008 at 10:55 am Matt will probably kill me after this post, but I did tell him I was posting it. Matt doesn't really like to shave, and really I can't blame him, I don't really like to shave either. His not shaving is a little more noticeable to the general public than mine, especially since I wear pants most of the time. I really don't mind when he doesn't shave and I actually like bearded Matt.
For some reason Matt has a fascination with mustaches. I don't really understand it. Maybe he does it to drive me crazy. He always wants to shave a mustache and well the other day he did. He was planning on going to church with the mustache, but I finally convinced him to shave it off.
Can you blame me?
P.S. No offense to those who have mustaches. They look different on every person. My dad has had a mustache for at least 30 some years and my mom has never know him without one. I'm pretty sure he would look a little odd without one.
pregnancy so far
Friday 04 January 2008 at 5:09 pm I am now almost 18 weeks, which is close to halfway! I really can hardly believe it! I have been meaning to write about symptoms and such for weeks, but have never gotten around to it. Thankfully, I never really had any morning (or all day) sickness. I really wonder what causes some people to have it and some not. My mom didn't have morning sickness when she was pregnant, so maybe it is somewhat genetic. During the first trimester I definitely had major fatigue. I was exhausted all the time. I did an awful lot of laying around. I was grateful not to have a job, so I could rest up. Also during the first trimester I couldn't really eat as much as usual in one sitting. I would get full really fast, but then an hour or two later I would be starving and need to eat again. Lately, I have been able to eat more at one time, but I am definitely still more hungry than before, which means I eat more often. I haven't gained any weight yet, which seems crazy since I feel like I eat a lot more.My main annoying symptom has been increased phlegm. Apparently your mucous membranes are more active during pregnancy. Mine seem to be pretty active not during pregnancy, so now they are even more active. Also I have some slight environmental allergies (lots of sneezing and stuffy noses) and I stopped taking my allergy medicine a few months before we got pregnant. Now my nose is pretty much always stuffy and many times at night I can't breath through my nose at all, which is highly annoying. The problem with excess and thick phlegm is that it gets stuck in your throat and you can't swallow it, which means I have to spit sometimes. Yuck. Usually if I drink lots of water it is more manageable. However every time I eat the phlegm gets thicker and causes me to cough and spit. Fun stuff I tell. Brushing my teeth also causing more spit, which means brushing my teeth is not much fun at all. A few times it has caused me to throw up. If I have a glass of water to drink immediately after the teeth brushing, it helps.
So I am sure you all thoroughly enjoyed reading about my phlegm. Now on to the pictures. I tried to take two pictures of myself this morning. They look rather different, so who really knows how pregnant I look.
I am wearing my new favorite tshirt from Gap. I have 5 of them in different colors! They are stretchy, but not too clingy, extra long in length to cover the growing belly and have a fun little detail on the sleeve.
christmas pictures
Thursday 03 January 2008 at 3:51 pm Just thought I would share a few of my favorite picture from the Christmas visit to PA. First up is the 2nd youngest niece(she just turned 2 yesterday):
Here is the youngest niece:
Here she is again, this time making her kiss face. How adorable.
While we were babysitting one night these two just wanted to cuddle with Matt:
We also got to see our little neighbor from NC while we were there (Lauren these are for you!):
cloth diapers
Wednesday 02 January 2008 at 4:12 pm While I have many things to post, I am going to post what I have been busy with all day: looking at cloth diapers. We have decided that we will be using cloth diapers on our little buddle. Some may think this is totally crazy, but whatever. Most people (other than my mom and sisters) who I have mentioned it to seem to think that cloth diapers are the same as in the 70s or 80s, with pins and all. Let me tell you, they are nothing like that at all. My favorite kinds so far are the all-in-one diapers. They are essentially like a disposable, but washable. When my dad saw them, he said they were dad-proof (unlike the cloth diapers I wore as a baby). There are lots of brands and plenty of homemade ones available as well. Sure they are a little more expensive, especially initially, but most of them will be able to be used on any future children as well. Overall I think it will end up being cheaper than disposables, plus we will be helping the environment by not throwing all those diapers away every day. And they are totally adorable.I am sure we will use some disposables for traveling and such, but we might as well try and keep it to a minimum. Now comes the decision problems, which kind do we get? Apparently they all fit slightly differently and you really need the baby here to see what works best for the baby's body. But you need the diapers when the baby is born...so I think I shall just buy a couple of each kind in the newborn size and see what we like. Anyone have any other suggestions?
