Baby Names

So as the weeks fly by and we are now in the home stretch of this pregnancy I have been thinking more and more about the name for the baby. The boy name is easy--Hubby will get his lil namesake if the Sweet Pea is a boy. No trouble there we agreed to that a long time ago.

However, if our lil Sweet Pea is a girl, well then I have a bunch of choices and everyone is my favorite and the absolute perfect choice for at least three days then I start to waver, doubt, and change my mind. 

For the girl name it has to have two citeria for me in order to consider it for the Sweet Pea.  It has to have Anne or a variation of Anne in it and must work with our choice of Catherine as the middle name.  So far I have a growing list on my iPhone of girls names. So I thought I would share them here. But be warned I keep adding names to the list every few days so this list is by no means the comprehensive complete list!! LOL I will probablly add more before the end of the weekend ha ha!

Girls Name for the Sweet Pea:

1. Annabelle
2. Guilianna
3. Gwenevere
4. Chloe-Anne
5. Anna-Sophia
6. Anna-Elyse
7. Madelaine-Anne
8. Lily-Anne
9. Lily-Anna
10. Francesca Anne

So far that is the most recent list...right now I am leaning towards Lily-Anna but Annabelle was my first choice for a looong time too and I keep going back to that too. I don't know which name the lil Sweet Pea will end up with,,I just want her/him to actually like their name when they grow up! I didn't like my name when I was a teen because all my friends had names like Tiffani, Stephanie, Frani, Sheri, and mine sounded so old fashioned at the time. Now however, I love my name. It is classic --doesn't sound dated at all and it isn't a name that is too common but won't sound silly when I am 75 years old. I want my child to have a name that they will proud to call their own.

Am I being neurotic?? I just think this is the first really important decision that I need to make for my child. I want the name to fit my child and their personality.

I think I will know the right name to choose when I am holding my Lil Sweet Pea in my arms for the first time. And I can not wait for that day to finally arrive!

Much luv!
Laura

I'm Officially On My Maternity Leave

Today was my last day of teaching summer school and that means I'm now on my year long maternity leave. Exciting yes, but also a little nerve wracking as I will not be working. EEK!!

My mind is just swirling and all over the place thinking about the things I need to do before my Lil Sweet Pea arrives. The nursery is in chaos...we need so many more things yet--stroller, car seat, crib mattress, bottles, clothes...egads the list is endless.  8 weeks till the Sweet Pea's arrival...ahhhhhhhhh!

Oh and have I mentioned I'm a worrier by nature so now I am a nesting, nervous soon to be momma who is worrying about everything! I need to calm down and just BREATHE...

So tomorrow begins my new life as a Stay At Home Soon To Be Mommy...I am so excited to be starting this new chapter in my life and can't wait to see where this journey takes me!

Much luv!
Laura

A Life List

So I was reading the latest post on Little Miss Momma's Blog called Tips to Overcoming Writers Block and How to Get Out of a Creative Funk see it here http://www.littlemissmomma.com/. I love her blog it is always full of great ideas and crafts and tutorials and Ashley (the blog's author) always makes you feel like you are sitting right there with her!

Anyways I was reading the post in my post sickness haze and one of the ideas she wrote about was compiling a life list. I thought it would be a great idea for me to push past some of my writing issues I have been having lately. So I tried to see how many I could come up with that meant something to me and things that I could accomplish and would push myself to accomplish.  So here is my Life List as of July 22nd 2011:
**In no particular order**

1. Travel to Italy, Greece, and Germany
2.  Get Pregnant
3.  Buy house
4. Learn to speak Italian
5. Learn how to shoot a crossbow
6. Learn to shoot a longbow
7. Own my own business
8. Run a 5k
9. Write my great American Novel
10. Renew my wedding vows
11. Read the entire Bible
12. Learn to sew on my sewing machine and make my own dresses
13. Learn to cook
14. Travel to Mt. Rushmore, the Grand Canyon, and Yellowstone
15. Repair relationships with certain family members
16. Live in Texas
17. Live in Maine
18. Go whale watching
19. Volunteer at church
20. Work with an organization that helps our soldiers
21. Read every Henry Miller novel
22. Write a children's book
23. Dye my hair RED
24. Travel the USA in an RV for a year
25. Compile all my favorite quotes in a pretty notebook
26. Put favorite quotes in frames and hang running down the stair wall at my house
27. Own a 1957 Chevy Bel Air in Candy Apple Red with white leather seats
28. Take a defensive driving course
29. Learn to shoot
30. Learn to rock climb
31. Go zip lining
32. Learn to ride a horse
33. Have a meeting with an angel communicator
34. Get a cosmetology license
35. Visit Egypt
36. Learn Latin
37. Own a German Shepherd
38. Meet the Pope
39. Learn to Ballroom Dance
40. Take a picture of my child every day for a year
41. Journal everyday
42. Blog everyday for a year
43. Plant a garden and maintain it
44. Get a Real Estate License
45. Hike/Climb the Grand Tetons
46. Visit the US Virgin Islands
47. Let my hair grow all the way to my waist (halfway there!!LOL)
48. Then cut my hair into a chin length bob
49. Learn calligraphy
50. Act in a play/movie/TV show
51. Take a ride in a hot air balloon
52. Write my memoirs
53. Take a ride in that anti gravity plane
54. Fly with the Blue Angels
55. Learn a martial art and become a black belt
56. Participate in a real Native American sweat lodge ceremony
57. Get a tattoo on my lower back--Cross with a rosary and roses
58. Participate in one of those home makeover shows
59. Be in two places at once
60. Get one of those "Glamour" photo shoots done
61. Stay at the Ritz Hotel for a weekend
62. Buy luxurious satiny silky sheets for the bed
63. Have a canopy bed
64. Be able to decorate my whole house in shabby country chic
65. Get a tan without burning myself!
66. Dye my hair blonde
67. Buy a pair of leather pants
68. Learn  scuba dive
69. Ride on the back of a motorcycle
70. Have six pack abs
71. Go on a safari
72. Hold a baby lion, tiger, cheetah, jaguar, panther, cougar cubs
73. See the wild horses run in Montana
74. Go on a religious pilgrimage
75. See a Broadway Musical on Broadway
76. Get pregnant again!!
77. Become a freelance writer for magazines
78. To not be so shy--make new friends
79. Compliment a stranger
80. Create a makeup workshop for teens
81. Do makeup tutorials on You Tube
82. To become the Disney Teacher of the Year
83. To go to a Ball
84. To meet Dr. Michio Kaku--famous physicist (I crush on him a bit)
85. To read all of William Shakespeare's Works
86. To lose weight I lost over 176 before I got pregnant
87. To lose pregnancy weight and get fit after the baby is born
88. To teach a college course
89. To get a PhD
90. To work on a presidential campaign
91. To hold a boa constrictor and a python
92. To swim with dolphins
93. To renovate a house and flip it
94. To have a log cabin in the mountains
95. To take a cruise
96. To be a PI and solve a mystery
97. To meet and have lunch with Sarah Michelle Gellar
98. To design my own fashion line
99. To become a motivational speaker'
100. Learn to swing on a trapeze
101. Be financially secure
102. Keep my house super clean and tidy (even with the baby!!)
103. To be a Stay At Home Mom
104. Get back into working out everyday
105. Work as a teacher at my parish school
106. Smile at everyone I encounter throughout the day
107. Attend a festival concert
108. Take a photography course

Okay  so that is what I came up with today. I wrote it in my notebook so I can always add to it or cross stuff out as I accomplish them. But I thought it was a good start to a Life List and it really did stretch my imagination and got me thinking so it was an excellent writing exercise too!!!

So what does your Life List look like??

Much luv!!

Laura

Been a Sickly Week

So this week was just AWFUL...Sickness has invaded Podville and it ain't pretty. First, the teenager came home from work over the weekend complaining she was not feeling good and a bit dizzy. She pretty much slept it off over the weekend. And by Monday she was bouncing out the door to work. (OH to be 18 again with the ability to bounce back from anything in a relatively quick manner....sigh)


However, Sunday Hubby starts complaining of feeling achy and sore and is running a slight temperature of 100. Not too big of a deal..he takes some NyQuil and intends to sleep it off. We head to bed. I am secure in the knowledge that Hubby rarely gets sick and a good long nights rest will cure him of any ails.


HA HA!!!! BOY WAS I WRONG! Monday morning I awake with the mother of all migraines...call out of teaching summer school..and head back to bed. Hubby is supposed to be getting up for work but he is not moving from his side of the bed. He is cocooned in the blankets and HAWT AS HELL. Ohhhh no...what is this? I say to myself..."Honey," I gently shake him awake"Honey, are you going to work??" Hubby literally growls at me and says "No, Iam sick and freezing cold." Ummm really?? Freezing? Cause it feels like we have a heating blanket on the bed right now.  This is not good. However, my head is banging and since all I can take is one acetaminophen every four hours due to the pregnancy it looks like I will be spending the majority of the day in bed myself.  Oh how I miss my Imitrex for migraines....


Wake up hours later still feeling like sh*t and hubby is in the throes of a massive sick meltdown. Can I just take a moment here to ask why men are such babies when they are sick???  I am now trying to make him feel better while trying to make myself feel better as well....it is not pretty.  This goes on for the next few days and it goes from ugly to downright FUGLY by Wednesday. We feel like sh*t and let me tell you we look even worse...we look so bad it got to the point on Wednesday that even as craptastic as I felt I had to shower and put some makeup on just so I recognized myself in the mirror. It was that bad.


Let me tell you being sick is no fun...being sick while being almost 8 months pregnant in the middle of a massive heat wave with a hubby that is even sicker and more miserable lends itself to a week of incoherent mumblings and threats, lots of evil side-eye being thrown on each person's end, and the monumental amount of whining from both of us as we struggled to move, sit, sleep, walk or just stand for more than a minute at a time. It has not been pleasant.


However, Hubby is nothing if not resilient. When the store called to say our new flat screen had been delivered...Hubby got himself dressed and headed over to pick it up. So last night he set up the new flat screen in the living room. I think that made him feel better than any medicine could...lol. And so today we feel more human like and are definitely moving out of this nasty summer flu..but honestly I NEVER EVER want to go through a week like this ever again....it was gross and it was nasty and it was UGLY. 


Now where are all my hair and make up products?? Gotta make myself look human again today and nothing does that better than the magic of makeup!!! LOL


Much luv!
Laura

Joining Forums in the Blogging World!

I started a forum on BlogFrog as an outpost of this blog --sort of a place to further discuss motherhood for new and not so new moms, survival tips, and other ideas for crafting and writing. I hope you will join me there! :-)
Two Peas and a Pod  on BlogFrog

**Just figuring out how to get the widgets to display on my blog! IE keeps blocking crosscript so I have to figure it out BUT I will!!! **

Much luv!
Laura

It Was My Birthday Weekend!

So this weekend was my birthday! I love my birthday and I love when it falls on a weekend! I don't know why I enjoy it so much. I certainly don't relish the thought of getting older (although I must say the women in my family age very well-so hopefully I will too!) But I do like the idea of a day that is mine and special. So I still get as excited as a six year old when my birthday rolls around!

                                             **I wish that was my cake!! Doesn't it look yummo?

This year my Hubby outdid himself on the present I must say! My poor pink Dell laptop had seen better days. It got a virulent virus a year ago and had to be completely whacked. It never worked quite right after and it just got to the point where I never even used it anymore. I would just use the Hubby's laptop. But I seriously missed having my own laptop to do my stuff on (like blogging!!) So I had been throwing hints out for a few weeks hoping the Hubby would pick up on my subtlety such as when we were at BJs "Oh honey look at this really cute laptop! Its not that expensive either!" Ok, subtle I am not..lol

However, Hubby keeps asking me if I like the Kindle or the Nook better for an eReader. So I thought he was really getting me one. Which would be awesome too! But lo and behold on my birthday Hubby arrives home with a big pink bag and when I open it up inside is the cutest little brand new net book! Yay for me!!! That hubby is a sly guy lol.

Then Hubby took me out for a lovely dinner. It was a very nice birthday. Which always makes me happy!! This year is special too because it is my last birthday before the baby comes in September and that will definitely be the greatest gift of all!

So Happy Birthday to me!!

Much luv!!
Laura

It Seemed Like a Much Better Idea Back in April

It is 3 am here and the Lil Sweet Pea has decided I should no longer be comfortable sleeping in any position...so here I am sitting in the Nursery/Office typing away while Hubby (and now the Sweet Pea!!) are blissfully asleep!

But I digress. I wanted to write about my lovely idea to teach summer school while 7 months pregnant in a school about an hour and half drive from my home. As the title suggests, it seemed like a much better idea in April when I signed up for it. At the time I was in the throes of my second trimester energy spurt and feeling like I could do it all!! Ha ha!!! Now however, the third trimester has reared its ugly head and I am honestly more exhausted now than I was in the first trimester! BIG YAWN!!! (Seriously, I yawn all the time these days!)

                                             **See??? BIG YAWN! LOL

I am very uncomfortable these days. I am large and achy and as the Hubby says "whiny" too! (I don't mean to be whiny...I just get so tired and cranky at times.) Add to this the fact that Hubby and I are sharing one car to save on gas until summer school is over. No big deal unless of course you are seven months pregnant and the alarm goes off at 3:45 a.m. so both you and the Hubby can be out of the house by 5:15 a.m. so Hubby can be at work by 6 a.m.  I do not need to be at summer school until 9a.m. Grrrr--tired much is an understatement these days.

But it has been nice in that Hubby and I get to have breakfast in his shop together every morning. Then I leave and make the hour drive down to my work. 

Now summer school on paper looked very good--pay is great (and we need it with the impending arrival of the Sweet Pea) and it is only Mondays thru Thursdays from 9am to 12pm. No big deal right??? Except again, by the time I make it down there I have already been awake for five hours and am jonesing for a nap!! So I teach the little ones until 12 pm. Now I am done but Hubby isn't done until 3:00 pm and it is HOT in his Weld shop in the afternoon while I have to wait for two hours for him to be done. Sometimes I head over to the coolness of the Barnes and Noble, but I can't really indulge my love of books with any actual buying because everything is being saved for the baby stuff we are still in need of! Egads! Plus have I mentioned the exhaustion??? I am afraid if I sit in one of those big, comfy chairs Barnes and Noble has I will fall asleep in the middle of the store and snore or worse yet drool!! EEk, no thank you on the public humiliation.

                                                          

So yes, this whole teaching summer school thing sounded great back in April but now I just have a countdown going to the end of the month. Because come August I have an appointment with my bed for extended periods of napping and resting before the September arrival of the Lil Sweet Pea!!!

                                               **Doesn't that bed look dreamy and snuggly???**

Much luv!
Laura

Baby Kick Counts

I went to my doctor this week for a regular appointment. I am now 28 weeks along in this wonderful pregnancy! Everything is good--the baby's heartbeat is strong and they measured my belly and said I am right on target for where I should be at this time in the pregnancy. The Lil Sweet Pea has been way active and all was good!

That is until my doctor told me I now need to do Baby Kick Counts twice a day. If you are unaware of what this is in simple terms I am to lay or sit still twice a day (once in the morning and once in the evening) and count how many times the baby moves or kicks up to 10 in an hour.If I am not getting ten kicks in an hour or activity seems to slow or be non-existent I am to call the office and let them know. Well, at the doctor's office I thought "No problem! The Lil Sweet Pea is like a kick boxer right now!"

That is until I got home and tried to do my first "official" Kick Count. I ate dinner and laid down on the couch because I figured this is usually when the Lil Sweet Pea likes to move. And I waited to start counting. And I waited. And I waited some more. I poked my belly. I jiggled my belly and nothing...not a peep from the Sweet Pea. I started to get nervous. From 5:30 pm to almost 7:00 pm...I slowly spiraled into a nervous panic. All horrible thoughts raced through my mind. Every night for the last couple of weeks right after dinner was the active time...now I got nothing.

Now I tend to be a "Nervous Nellie" at times anyway--especially with medical and/or things I have never done or experienced before such as PREGNANCY!!! So needless to say, I was quickly heading into a complete panic zone! Then all of a sudden at 7:30 pm...BAM!! Ten kicks quick and furious.  WTF??? I thought I was going to lose my mind. But I quickly logged the time and the kicks.

The next day at 6:19 to 6:25 am Ten quick kicks recorded and much movement afterward, I begin to breathe a sigh of relief. Until the nighttime count where yet AGAIN I get nothing for the longest time. Then with much prodding and eating of the sugar free ice cream I get my kick count in. This continues for the rest of the week.  My nerves are shot and the Hubby has told me in no uncertain terms to just stop counting as it appears I am beginning to lose my mind over it. I call my Aunt and ask her but she can't recall having to do this Kick Count. I ask my friends who have been pregnant recently...they tell me to lay on my left side and drink something sweet. Ummm didn't work by the way. I keep checking the book and the pregnancy websites for tips.  My hair gets progressively grayer.

It has been a long week until I hit upon the genius (I thought so anyways) idea last night to just do the count when the Lil Sweet Pea is actually awake and moving!! Duh! So last night I eat dinner and turn on my show and don't even think about the counting. About halfway thought the show the Lil Sweet Pea is on the move and I get my ten kicks in and a whole crap load more after! This morning I get up to go the bathroom at 4:30 am. Come back to bed and lay down and before I can fall asleep the Sweet Pea is up and kicking and I get my morning count in. BIG SIGH OF RELIEF.

I don't know what I was thinking this week!!I mean I think I am a smart girl. I have common sense (most of the time) I am educated.I have a dual certification BA in teaching and hold an MBA for crying out loud but this stuff makes me lose my mind! I am now a firm, firm, firm believer in pregnancy brain!!!! That and it is definitely making my neurotic tendencies come out in full force. I have to work on keeping them in check otherwise it will just spiral into worrywart hell!!

Anyone else have moments like these throughout their pregnancy???? Please tell me I am not alone!! LOL

Much luv!
Laura