mrs_bruin

It's been quite a whirlwind the past 6 months. The biggest most life changing news is that I'm pregnant! 22 weeks this week, and the little boy is moving around and my tummy is getting quite big. The first trimester was not so bad, as things go. Mostly exhaustion, and then since my immune system was down, I got sick then a sinus infection which was like being punched in the face. Only a little nausea at the beginning which came from taking my vitamin in the morning and not being able to get my blood sugar level, but once I switched to taking the vitamin at night and having snacks on hand I was fine. Once the 2nd trimester started it's been pretty smooth sailing. Just regular tiredness, and then minor pregnancy symptoms that come with the territory. I think one of the weirdest is the vivid strange dreams that have just started the past week.

Because we're adding another person to our lives that seems to come with a lot of stuff, husband and I decided it was definetly time to move. We've been wanting to for a while, even before the baby, due to just having too much stuff, and being tired of problems with our apartment, like electricity that only allows us to use one appliance at a time, and only one parking spot, and one washer and dryer for the building, and most annoying of all the neighbors downstairs who play their drums ALL DAY LONG!!!

So the baby and need for more space really pushed us over the limit. Because it won't just be the baby, but my mom who will be coming for 6-8 weeks this summer when the baby is born. Definetly need as much space as possible. For a long time we've been looking to buy a house, but we decided since the market isn't where we want it to be and we also can't decide where we want to live long term, we will rent for the next year or so in our area, which also gives me more options to decide if I want to work after the baby is born or be a stay at home mom. It's nice to be fortunate enough to have that option. One the one hand, I always thought I'd want to stay home with the baby. On the other, I don't know if I will go crazy being at home with the baby all the time, and also with the economy the way it is, should I be so quick to give up a decent job? So I'll decide during materinity leave what I want to do.

Last weekend, after looking for the past month or so, we found the place we want to rent. Somewhere in the middle between really expensive and really nice, and pretty cheap and kind of crappy. It has everything we were looking for, and we move in in 2 weeks (yikes!) So we've been collecting boxes from where ever we can (and I mean where ever we can...I've actually been dumpster diving this week...though it was recycle bin dumpster and it was FULL of boxes! you gotta do what you gotta do!) and sorting and trashing and packing every night. The problem is that I will be going home for the next 9 days, including the next two weekends, so that limits my packing time. Husband will have to do most of it without me. That, and I'm almost 6 months pregnant! Thank goodness for movers.

When I go home my mom is throwing me a small baby shower. So my sister forced me to register last month once we found it we're having a boy. Registering for a baby is WAY harder than registering for a wedding. Every little thing you have to find out if it's safe, it's well made, if it's even something your baby will use or just useless stuff the stores want you to buy. I spent a whole day doing nothing but doing an online registry at target and babies r us, and I think by the end of the day I only had 20 items. Plus, the baby only needs certain things now, and then as he gets older he'll need other stuff. But as we didn't have a lot of space, I didn't want to get stuff I'd have to store for another year before he'd actually use it. I do notice now that when I see people with babies on the street or at the mall etc. I look more at their stroller than at the baby these days. And I'm realizing how much harder everything will be once you have the baby. I don't know how we'd pack and move and everything with a baby already here. 3 friends are on their 2nd pregancies, and I just don't know how their going to do it with a toddler and a baby at the same time.

That's life in my new baby world. I'm trying not to be one of those people where everything is about the baby. Not sure how much I'm succeeding, but atleast I'm trying. Though work has been busy these past 6 months as well, including moving our center from one department to another, physically moving buildings, getting a new title and added responsibilities (but no additional money) and starting up a new department with 6 events coming up in the next 3 months. Plus everyone else has their own big news too...besides the friends who are pregnant, 2 friends just got engaged, 2 may be moving across the country this summer, and others have school/work/family things that are just as big to them as the baby is to us.

And lastly, a word about maternity clothes. Why are the "short" length pants from Old Navy still too long on me in their Maternity style, when I think the "short" lenght pants in the regular style fits me fine? are pregnant people supposed to have longer legs? The reason I went online to get the "short" pants is becuase I didn't want to have to hem them! This is totally defeating the purpose. Also, you buy one maternity item and you get an email a day from them with a maternity must have this or maternity sale that. geez.

The Manhattan Bridge. Brooklyn, NY





Out of a fairy tale: St. James Park, London




The Grand Palace, Brussels




Bloomenmarket, Amsterdam






The Eifel Tour during a Thunderstorm, Paris

Ugh. I started having tooth pain on Saturday (of course on the weekend, not during the week when I could actually call my dentist). At times I wanted to cry as the pain radiated from my jaw to my cheekbone to my temple. By Monday I had figured out it was pain in response temperature sensitivity. About 3 months ago I had a deep cavity filled and apparently that tooth was very angry with me. Since I apparently did not read my benefits very well, I chose the HMO over the PPO dental insurance, so my dentist (one of the few in my area) is only in town on Fridays and Saturdays. So I went to the UCLA Dental Center because I remember them saying they took my insurance (they don't.) Sigh...3 hours and $100 later, they tell me they can't really do anything for me. The dental student shaved down my filling a tiny bit, but said basically to just wait until I get back from my trip and go to my regular dentist for a possible root canal. I was able to get an appointment for my dentist this Friday (the day I leave for New York) at 8am. At this point I'm not sure what he can do for me, as I don't think having a root canal the morning I leave will be a good idea.

( A little bit of hope dashed away )

We got a Roomba! I love it! It's like our own little Rosie. I wish there was one that would do the dishes, laundry, dust and clean the bathrooms too! Already I feel like a cleaner person. And it's pretty quiet too. I could probably do a better job vacuuming the whole house in half an hour than this does in 2 hours, but I still love that it does it on its own and I don't have to lift a finger. Yay for modern technology that lets me be lazier and cleaner than I was before!

This time next week I will be in New York City! So excited! Well less about New York, than about the whole trip in general. We will be going to New York for a wedding, and then to Philly for the reception the next day. Then we go to LONDON! PARIS! AMSTERDAM! Brussels!...yeah, Brussels is less exciting, but right in the middle of them all so we figure, why not. And today I got a great last minute deal on our New York hotel! We need to stay in the Lower East Side because the wedding is in Brooklyn, but the afterparty is in LES, so I called a hotel near the hotel the family is staying at to check for availability, and they gave me a better price than the most discounted price I found on the internet! I was amazed! I guess personal contact still counts for something these days. Just need to book a few nights in a London hotel, and the Brussels, Amsterdam and Paris we'll play by ear. I've been to London and Paris before, but it's a first for the hubby. Can't wait! Just one more week!

This is an amazing tribute to John Hughes. To me he was the quintessential 80's. Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink, Some Kind of Wonderful, The Breakfast Club, Weird Science, Ferris Bueler's Day Off...I've watched these movies hundreds of times each I'm sure. I had no idea he wrote so many movies. He totally got the outsider character as a real person and not just what made them not the jock, prom queen, etc., and if Molly Ringwald could end up with Andrew McCarthy, there was hope for us all. There hasn't been another writer/director/producer like John Hughes who defined an era and spoke to a generation, and I don't know that there ever will be. How sad for his family and for all of us that he died so young. He's the same age as my mother, and I think that shocked me the most. RIP John Hughes. You will be missed.

Just made some really delicious (toaster) oven roasted asparagus and topped it with a little goat cheese. So yummy, I ate it all up with no leftovers. Hands down best way to eat asparagus.

I just got back from seeing Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, and let me tell you, it was so good! I need to go see it again in IMAX, because the IMAX shows were sold out, so I saw it in the regular theater. I reread the book a few months back, but didn't reread it recently because I didn't want to be comparing the book to the movie too much. I thought they did a really good job in this movie of trying to get most of the stuff from the book in, and it was paced really well, so it didn't feel like a 153 min. movie. You can totally see the characters growing up, being teenagers in a world that is getting darker and scarier by the minute. Some problems, but overall I really enjoyed it, and so did my friend who hasn't read the books. And now I can't wait for the final two movies to see how they're going to do it.

I'm going to see this tomorrow in IMAX Digital 3D!!!! If I wasn't such an old fuddy duddy, I'd totally be at the midnight screening tonight, but I can't stay up that late.

I spent the whole weekend watching the Harry Potter Marathon on ABC Family Channel and then watched Order of the Phoenix on DVD. I don't think I've been as excited about a Harry Potter movie since the first one (which was a little dissapointing at the time, though now I think they were so cute.) This one has gotten such good reviews and the book was so great, and the trailers look amazing. Can't wait!!

I've been on a homemade sorbet kick the past few months. After a year and a half, I finally took out my ice cream maker for the first time, and made strawberry sorbet. That first attempt didn't go so well as I was too impatient to let the simple syrup cool enough, so the sorbet never really froze and I had really good strawberry smoothies instead. Since then I've made a nice, if over sweetened coconut sorbet, an icy orange sorbet, yummy watermelon sorbet, and my two latest concotions:
( really bad photos of deliciousness ahead )
Next time I'll actually get my camera out to try to take better pictures instead of using my phone.