Learning from My Life in Boxes

We are moving. This is a good thing. It is also a little sad. What have I learned as we approach the half-way mark of this move?

1. You will always, always need more boxes than you think. Always.

2. Kittens LOVE packing day! Its like a playground of excitement for them.

3. Nausea brought about by my uterine overlord slows down our progress tremendously.

4. My mother-in-law may be the best one on the planet. Seriously.

5. My son has no worth ethic whatsoever. *sigh*

6. Remember that saying "A place for everything and everything in its place."? Yeah. Bullshit.

7. Sometimes cleaning and purging makes me feel like I'm on a treasure hunt for things I didn't know I had lost! I'm hoping that my son's THIRD cell phone shows up. If not, I'm selling him on Ebay to make up for the cost of replacing yet another one.

8. There is not a good way to transport sex toys. I mean...how do you do that? *sigh*

WTH Lessons from Scary Pregnancy Photos

Okay...I've recently lost days of my life to the StumbleUpon website. Its awesome! You pick your interests and then just click through a lovely, random collection of websites that others have stumbled upon and found interesting. LOVE THIS. Not too long ago I added the interest "pregnancy". Duh. Some sites were interesting, others funny and then...well...the pregnancy pictures? LOL. Scary! Here's some of what I stumbled upon.

Yes, here's my knocked up woman and tonight's dinner. *rolling eyes* I can't imagine WHY on earth she let this picture get out!

"You are WHEELy pretty when you're preggers honey." I don't get it? Are they naming the kid "Michelin"?

I'm not sure if I'm more disturbed by the crazy, accentuated stretch marks or the fact that her partner wants to shoot me because I'm looking at them.

Uhm...I'm pretty sure that horseback riding is discouraged during pregnancy. Especially when you are about to pop.

Flippin' the bird. Yeah, is that a sign of good luck or something?

Even I'm speechless on this one.

Well, hydration IS important, but uhm...*shudders* really?

Enough clowning around already! You're gonna have a baby!

ROTFLMBO! I can just hear him yelling "I win! I win! I've STILL got the biggest belly! Booyah!"

Poor guy. You can almost see the humiliation in his eyes! :-(

I've been thinking about pregnancy photos. Not professional probably, but just a shot or two. I have a couple of problems though. First of all, I do not have a pretty belly. Due to multiple surgeries I have large, dark scars and no belly button. I am lopsided and...uhm...lumpy. I also have an abdominal hernia the size of a volley ball. These things do not make for lovely mommy-to-be shots. In addition, I got pregnant around 200 pounds. To most people I'm not even showing, just chubbier! LOL. I've just started my 6th month so I'm sure it will become more obvious eventually, but still as far as photos go...I just don't know.

I'm creating a pregnancy scrapbook with pics of the little one's ultrasounds and other pics from the last month. Still pondering the preggo pictures of me! And after the findings above? *shaking head* I just don't know!!!

Pink Lessons

Today I went to the city to pick up my shirts for the Race for Cure. This annual run/walk in St. Louis raises money for breast cancer research and treatment. Last year I walked for my dad. Although he did not have breast cancer, he died of pancreatic cancer. A cure for one kind of cancer could lead to a cure for ALL cancer.

This year I'm walking for the little princess growing inside of me. It is my hope that breast cancer will be a curable disease in her lifetime and that her children may never know the devastation that cancer brings.

Learn more, donate or join the fun here.

Lessons from the Heart

It has been interesting these last couple of weeks. Lots of lessons from the heart. Why? Well...my husband's gave out on him last week. At age 38, he had his first heart attack. He has a condition called IHSS which is the same cardiac disease that those athletes that just collapse on the field and die have. Yeah. Crazy. About 14 years ago he had surgery to kill part of the heart that was beating against the rest of his heart and causing problems. The surgery was wildly successful and was the first of its kind performed at Missouri Baptist Medical Center. His heart condition is monitored with yearly visits, but due to lots of stressors...well...its now quite weakened.

I'd love to say that this was a total surprise, but its not. He doesn't take care of himself or his body in any way. Sometimes "forgetting" to take his meds and stuffing himself with chips and other crap on a daily basis. So, after a week of drama we are home. Although I was worried, I wasn't that crazy kind of worried that you might expect. I am confident that God has not brought us through all of the crap of the last few months only to kill him off. That brought me a great deal of peace through the entire process. It was also nice to have 4-5 days of just the two of us to talk, plan and simply connect.

What does this mean for our future? Right now that all seems to be up in the air. Our plans to move this summer have been stalled, which depresses me more than I have the courage to describe right now. He may or may not have a job at the marketing company he works for. They aren't exactly, uhm, people friendly. In fact, in the letter they sent saying that his leave of absence had been approved they made sure to point out that this in NO WAY guaranteed a position for him when he was ready to return. :-( *ugh* Our grand new plans for a "new start" seem to also have been thwarted. Not that new things aren't headed this way, but *alas* not the original plan. This saddens me. I neeeeeeeed different.

Another bummer? I'm in a super-horny pregnancy induced frenzy and I'm afraid that if we do anything too intense that it will kill him. :-( That's something that might scar a girl!

He is recovering and that is good. We were introduced to an awesome new hospital (think hotel with nurses) with FREE WIFI. Joey handled the situation like a pro. God is merciful and continues to bless us.