Thursday, September 21, 2006
My coworker doesn't like autumn!
How can you not like autumn? Warm sunshine, cool breeze, beautiful colors, pumpkin bread, apple pie, tromping through the woods feeling the crisp autumn leaves below your feet... After listing to me rant (bouncing off the walls because it finally feels like fall) all the positive things of the season, my coworker said, "I'm just always cold." To which I responded, new comfy sweatshirts and oversized sweaters, hot cider, cocoa and coffee, snuggling under warm blankets... what's not to like? She said the only thing that IS to like is the extra money her husband's seasonal holloween business brings in. "I bet you had the windows open last night" she said. "Yes! All of them! WIDE open! It was GREAT!"
"BRRRRRRRrrr." ... For you Minnesotans reading this blog, you may laugh now. It got down to a "CHILLY" 66 or 67 last night in our apartment. :)
She's like the grinch that stole the season! I'm committed to converting her. Here's my plan: Bring candy corn and fresh (warm would be better!) pumpkin bread to the office to share. Brew coffee. But then, she doesn't drink coffee. Maybe have hot apple cider in the coffee pot? (Not sure how to do this one.) Show her all the GOOD things about the season!
Note, this is also the coworker who, when heading off to Chicago in JULY asked if she'd need to pack warm clothes, like sweaters and jackets (and earmuffs?) and such. :) Silly southerners.
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Since this blog has become primarily devoted to the anticipated arrival of our daughter, I thought it worth mentioning that I recently learned a little about what you could use the following materials for:
one sanitized shoelace
one pillow
one blanket
many sterile cloths
sterile scissors
If you ever want a too-much-information-thanks explanation of how these things can be useful, ask me sometime.
Monday, September 11, 2006
Apparently baby has other plans, for this morning's ultrasound looked more like this:
than like a student at work.
It's a ...!
McMullen Junior decided to cooperate for the first time today. Most ultrasounds she's too interested in moving around, jamming to the music in her head, to show us what we want to see. Today, too, she was overly-active, but just still enough to show us a beautiful shot of her heart (in shape, all four chambers in tact) stomach, brain, cerebellum, feet, femur, hands, etc. AND, most importantly, she finally uncrossed those legs long enough for us to get a really good idea about her gender! Guess what she is? :-D The only thing she didn't want to reveal was her spine, but after a bit of prodding we confirmed that that, too, looks good.
That means my dad is about to become the proud grandfather of his SIXTH granddaughter. (So far he's at 6 and 0.) Steve predicts an over abundance of chaos and hormones at family Christmases twelve or thirteen years down the road. He also feels sorry for the first male cousin to find himself among all these girls. On the plus side, this might mean lots of hand-me-down clothes from the older cousins! :) :) :)
For those interested in stats, 17 wks, 2 days. 7 oz (estimated) w/ a heart rate of 141 bpm. (well, she WAS dancing in there!) Also, she appears to have Steve's long, skinny feet. We'll get a better look at them when she comes out. I'm a bit worried about the dancing tendency combined with Steve's feet ... she'll likely have the same frustrations as I, an insane desire to always dance combined with a natural klutziness that makes you look like a fool whenever you try. Ah, another closet dancer in the making. :) Mom is proud.
Speaking of an over-active junioretta, there she goes again. I think I'm in for a long five months. :)
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Okay, so the title is not QUITE correct, as Steve won't now, nor ever (we hope) get his masters. But, we found out today, he has PASSED his field paper, the equivalent of a master's thesis, which means that if by chance (like, if he got struck blind by aliens who sucked out his ability to do math, or I had octuplets) he found himself having to drop out of the PhD program, he'd have a guaranteed masters!
That, I think, is worth celebrating. So we're going to celebrate. :) Night out on the town, here we come!
WOOT FOR FAMILY!Laura is here!!!
It's nice to have her here, it's a daily excuse to visit Caribou. (For those that don't know, Laura's been stuck in the middle of Caribou-free zone, aka Alabama, for the last 10 months. Soon moving to Korea, where I hear they also don't have Caribou.) I've never seen another person so excited about Caribou paraphanalia as Laura was yesterday. "OOooh... Caribou gold coins! Oh, and a Caribou note pad! Oooh..." (and then on the phone moments later) "Nait, how much coffee can I buy?" Keep in mind, Laura doesn't drink coffee.
In other news, for those of you who want to see what I look like now that I've got a wee little one, here's a picture from a couple of weeks ago. Nice little pop-belly, don't you think? I haven't changed much since this shot. Apparently I will, though! The kid is around 5 inches long now, and will be 10 inches before the end of the month! YIKES! No WONDER I'm always tired. For those that can't read the captions, the picture says "Steve, Laura & Junior in front of Junior's future house." To which Steve responded, "Ooh, our son's going to marry the president?" :) (Family, this is not a hint, keep in mind that at the time this picture was taken, we had no glimpses of gender, and at this point, I still maintain that we do not know. You'll be among the first to know when we do know, either next Monday or sometime mid-February. :) )
