Pregnant Women are Smug

I had a pregnancy epiphany yesterday, thanks largely to this video which is floating around facebook.



I could totally relate to what they were saying. Those things have bothered me in the past when said by other women and I had already started the "as long as it's healthy" response to "what gender do you prefer?" I just didn't know how to respond otherwise. I suspect most first-time pregnant women don't.

So, here are my (most unsmug) answers to those pregnancy questions:

Are you finding out the sex?
Yes. I wouldn't be able to stand it otherwise. It's like having the results to a long experiment you've been working on and not looking at them sitting on the printer.

What sex are you hoping it will be?
I'm completely fine with either. I have a feeling it will be a boy due to all the testosterone in the house at that time. However, I don't know as much about boys and they don't wear fun dresses as often as girls, so I guess I'm hoping for a girl. But, if it's a girly girl princess, I don't know what I'm going to do because I have a hard time relating to that. I guess most girls go through that stage as some point regardless of how they turn out, so it's no big deal (I know I had a princess stage, Rapunzel to be exact). Ken wants a boy because he wants to play sports with him. I want to garden with her. We both know that girls can play sports and boys can garden, so we come back full circle in that we're fine with either. But I have an easier time explaining the girl's name, so then I want a girl.

Do you already have names picked out and are you telling?
Strangely enough, we've had names picked out since we were married. Way before kids were a glimmer in our eyes. I wanted to name a girl after my paternal grandmother (Katherine) and both of our moms' middle names are Marie. So if it's a girl, it would be Katherine Marie (going by Katie for short... or Kate if she preferred). As for boys, the only part I cared about was that the middle name be Standish (after my dad, brother and dad's family). I didn't want the first name to be Standish or Stan. That's when Ken asked if I'd ever be game for the name Ty. He wanted to name his son after Ty Cobb. We had just gotten married and kids weren't in the picture, so I said sure. When we found out I was pregnant, he asked "so are you still cool with the name?" How could I say no? So there you have it: Katie Marie or Ty Standish.

Do you have any fears?
I painted, drywalled and stripped floors during early pregnancy (with respirator), but I still fear for the health/froglike looks of our baby.

Are you giving birth in a hospital and/or are you doing it naturally?
Hospital and drugs, please.

Have you started the nursery?
We moved some stuff out of the room and refinished the basement floor in preparation, but that's about it. No maternity clothes shopping yet, no designing what the room will look like, no signature colors. I don't even want to think about it yet. Maybe next month. I am thankful to Rob and Jana for lending us their stroller and other goodies. And to Natascha and Emily for their maternity and baby hand-me-downs. I am excited to have a few less things to think about. If only daycare was that easy.

Are you putting your baby in daycare?
Yes. Likely 5 days a week (gasp!). I looked into going 0.75 time, but working the extra day paid for the entire week of childcare. It just wasn't worth it. I'm going to try to work from home some days, but I don't know how effective that will be. So I'm bracing myself (and our budget) for 5 days of childcare. We have looked at one place which was great but we probably won't get in. (We're on their wait list). Another place couldn't see us until July 22nd. And then it would be doubtful for us to get a spot. So, I'm freaking out in that sense because I have nowhere to take the baby when my maternity leave is over (3 months, around Jan 1). It will work out, but right now it's a little overwhelming. We're going to be looking at some more places.


I think those are the most burning questions I can think of . If you have any others, I'd be happy to answer them. I'm going to do my best to be honest and forthcoming about it all. Hopefully, I'll be one less smug pregnant woman.

(Not so) Dry Well

A few years back, Ken woke up one morning to find our basement flooded caused by a backed up dry well in the backyard. He cleaned it out and we've been fine ever since.

Except for Monday night when we had a ton of rain and Ken saw some water coming in through the basement. He ran outside to see the gutter leaders backed up and spilling water next to the foudation. Ken unhooked the leaders from the drywell and came back in to clean up the water. We caught it just in time. (i.e. before it flooded our entire basement -- we are very psyched the painted concrete floor is ok with water -- unlike the laminate flooring we were thinking of putting in). Insert sigh of relief here.

Ken dug a giant hole in the backyard yesterday and is installing a trap with cleanout tonight -- so we don't have this problem again in another 4 years. A pain, but worth it.

Baby Betting Pool

A friend of mine is putting a baby betting pool together. If you're interested in entering the official pool, shoot me an email and I'll put you in touch with the organizer. I'm not much of a betting-for-money-type person -- I much prefer bragging rights. So if you'd like to play on the side, feel free to post your entries in the comments below.

Lisa is one week away from finding out the gender of Lil' Roko. What better reason to start betting on something? The pool will run like this:

Guessing:
1. Gender
2. Date
3. Weight
4. Length
5. Time

Scoring:
-10 for the correct gender
+2 for every day off
+1 for every oz off weight
+1 for every in off length
the lowest score wins. Entry fee is $5. Third place gets $5, 2nd $10 and 1st takes the rest.

In the event of a tie, we will use time as the tie breaker.

Closing time is Noon, Sunday, May 3rd; all entries and fees must be collected by this time. Cash only, no coupons, or other offers valid. This agreement shall be governed and construed in accordance with the laws of Portland, OR. If you are unsatisfied with the outcome in any way, shut the f*ck up and take it like a man.

My new 780 lb bed

After the tomato sale, Ken and I headed to the rock store. Ken wanted gravel to level out the driveway. I wanted basalt boulders to line a new garden bed I was creating. Ken helped me pick out the basalt boulders that would line the bed before heading to the gravel section.

I needed 78 linear feet of the rock. We moved the big guys out of the way to get the smaller guys (lengths between 10-18"). Ken weighed them and loaded them into the car while I climbed the rock pile in search for good ones. It took us about 30 minutes to find the 780 lbs of basalt boulders we needed make up the length. When we were finished, Ken went to pay for them ($0.05/lb) while I headed home to unload them.

The next day, I was nervously ready to start creating the bed. I used a hose to mark the edges of the bed and dug the borders. I installed the bender board to prevent grass/weeds creeping through the rocks and then carefully arranged each stone so that if fit with its neighbors. I started around 10 and finished work at 6 pm. By the end of the day, I had double dug the entire bed, laid all 780 lbs of the rock border, spread gravel around the perimeter, weeded a neighboring bed and watered the grass that I trampled in my rock-laying frenzy.

By 6:30, I could barely move. Ken came home around 8, massaged my sore muscles and put me to bed. I'm still sore this morning but so proud of what I accomplished. I'll plant the bed this week or weekend since it's ready to go. I figure the rock border was my last big project before I can't bend over for a while. I'm really, really proud of it.

The Great Tomato Draft of 2009

Ken and I went to a plant sale this weekend to pick up our tomato starts for the season. We've grown around 15 types a year in the past but decided to limit it to 10 plants this year.

We downloaded the list of available varieties. I had at least 10 I wanted. Ken wanted some too. So we each marked our favorites. If we marked the same one, they automatically made it into our top 10. There were only 2 that made the first cut, so we decided to do the rest in draft order. Here are our results:

1. (both selected) Black From Tula
2. (both selected) Mr. Stripey
3. (Ken #1 pick) Mexican Midget (due to name alone)
4. (Lisa #1 pick) Polish Linguisa
5. (Ken #2) Cherokee Purple
6. (Lisa #2) Shady Lady
7. (Ken #3) Gold Nugget
8. (Lisa #3) San Marzano
9. (Ken #4) Sweet Million
10. (Lisa #4) Red Brandywine

We divided the list into two and each took a section to divide and conquer. Ken was polite and patient but apparently I would stab an old lady in the side for a tomato start since I ended up with all 10 of the tomato plants in my basket before Ken could get #2. He was not happy. I see his point of view in retrospect and should have let him get his 5. I just saw mass lines and tomatoes flying off the shelves so I grabbed everything I could.

Ken ended up getting a white pumpkin and some mustard greens to ease his tomato woes. I got some honey, a blueberry and an alpine strawberry (again, sharp elbows). We'll plant them all this coming weekend. Ken can have first pick of locations for his new "friends" since I'm feeling guilty. Although technically, they were my "friends" first (kidding, kidding).

Here's a complete list of the tomato descriptions:

Projects to Distract Me

Ken was out of town yesterday for work, so it seemed a great time to get busy on some projects to take my mind off of things.

The three I wanted to accomplish:
1. Sand the drywall (the last of it in the basement!)
2. Paint the second coat of the soon-to-be office wall
3. Make laundry detergent.

I'm happy to say that all were accomplished. I even found two awesome old windows when I was walking Kinley that I grabbed. I'll refinish them at some point -- maybe put in some leaded glass or build them into a cabinet.

The laundry detergent was the easiest and most fun. There are plenty of recipes online -- most use borax, washing soda and bar soap (all available in the laundry aisle of the grocery store). From what I've read, it lasts a while, works great and costs $0.02/load rather than $0.30/load for storebought. There are recipes for liquid or powdered versions, so you can make whatever suits your needs. Looks pretty easy. I tried a small batch first.

Homemade Laundry Soap

1/3 bar Fels Naptha or other type of soap... Read More
½ cup washing soda
½ cup borax powder

~2 gallon size bucket~

Grate the soap and put it in a sauce pan. Add 6 cups water and heat it until the soap melts. Add the washing soda and the borax and stir until it is dissolved. Remove from heat. Pour 4 cups hot water into the bucket. Now add your soap mixture and stir. Now add 1 gallon plus 6 cups of water and stir. Let the soap sit for about 24 hours and it will gel. You use ½ cup per load.

And the result?

It worked! I thought grating hard soap would be a pain, but it was super simple. Other tasks including boiling water, stirring and measuring out two 1/2 cup ingredients, so it was really, really simple and made the whole house smell amazing.

My brother came to visit just as I was about to add the soap and I got the "what are you doing?" look, but he quickly got into it too. It's too simple and fun not to enjoy. Kids would love to see this being made... soap, bubbles and stirring. Fun.

We put the warm mixture into a glass pickle jar and only used the original 6 cups of water. So it's super concentrated and solidified into a gelatinous mass within 2 hours (probably why they add more water). But all it needs is diluting, so I'm not going to worry about it. I can just use less of it in the wash (or I can dilute it -- I haven't decided which path to take yet)....

So, so far, highly recommended. I gave Andrew a jar of it and he's going to test it out tonight since he has to do laundry.

16 week blahs

I'm 16 weeks pregnant. 4 more weeks until halfway. According to the websites, it's about the size of an avocado right now. The calm before the growing storm, from what I've read.

It's an odd feeling. I'm no longer queasy (that stopped at 14 weeks) yet I don't feel any kicking or movement either (that starts in another week or two). So in short, I don't feel pregnant right now. I just feel chubby and unattractive. My belly has started showing a little bit -- just enough for my pants to be tight and to be in that weird "is she fat or pregnant" stage. Plus, I don't have the energy that I used to... I need to take frequent breaks during gardening that I didn't use to need. I'm also a lot slower on my bike. Pathetically slow and passed by senior citizens, but at least I'm riding.

I know this is sacrilege to say, but pregnancy just isn't my favorite thing. I'm really looking forward to the outcome, but the second trimester hasn't been all lavender and cookies like I thought it would be. And the first trimester definitely wasn't either. So far, pregnancy's just been hard. Mentally hard especially, watching my body go away while I can't eat and drink some of my favorite things. Going to happy hour with friends and not getting to partake. Avoiding the delicious creamy scallops at sushi and cultured milk blue cheese that I love so much. Forgoing evening activities because I'm exhausted and in bed by 10 pm. This is not the life I'm used to living. Worst part is, I know I could partake in all of these things. A strong drink, some sushi, a hunk of unpasteurized stinky cheese and a late night would probably all be fine. The baby would probably have a wonderful time (just like I would), but I'm trying my best to follow the guidelines. It's only for 9 months, after all. But it's hard. Harder than I thought.

Plus, I'm not much of a girly girl. I've never been much for shopping and I'm not very stylish. I'm not that over-the-moon pregnant woman with grace and glowing skin. I don't daydream of baby outfits and decorating the nursery. I feel guilty that I'd rather refinish some old piece of furniture covered in lead paint and drink a beer than scrapbook my baby's ultrasound pictures with glitter hearts and bunny stickers.

I have a wonderful, supportive husband, family and friends but I still feel alone in my thoughts. It could just be the hormones, but I just don't feel like myself and I'm having a hard time with pregnancy right now. I'm not a wreck, suicidal or depressed (don't worry), but just don't let anyone tell you that pregnancy is a walk in the park. It's a mental mind ___.

Lisa, version 3.5

Lisa Tape Age 3.mp3 -

Lisa, version 0.1

We've been asking our parents for details and photos about ourselves from when we were babies. I'm asking in hopes of getting an idea about:

• how big our kid may be
• how long labor has taken for the moms (10-13 hours, gulp)
  
• what the baby's temperment may be
• what it might look like
• etc, etc.

My parents just scanned this and sent it out. I'm posting it because I find it hilarious and horrifying at the same time. My favorite parts are:

• "Friends and people can't believe how pleasant and happy Lisa is. Lisa at 9 months still hasn't gone through a shy period - Lisa will go to anyone. Particulary men."
• that I didn't need a haircut until I was pretty much 3.

Losing my Marbles

It was a beautiful weekend and I spent most of it gardening. I find it very relaxing and planted a bunch of seeds this weekend.... squash, peas, 2 kinds of basil, lettuce, borage, chives, eggplant, some seed potatoes and my favorite of the year... pumpkins. I figure my little one will be born in early October -- just around when the pumpkins will be ready for harvesting. So it will be fun to watch them grow in tandem.

I also spent a good deal of time weeding this weekend. Especially for Italian Arum, which have taken over our backyard when we re-leveled it. Like dandelions, the only way to get rid of them is to dig them up, root and all. I've been digging them up for years now. One plus though is that we live in an old house and I tend to find "artifacts" in the backyard when I'm digging. I've found lots of trash but also some great medicine bottles, plastic army men and my absolute favorite -- glass marbles. I love finding marbles and it makes my whole day when I find one. I've been saving them (though I can't remember the safe place where I put them all), but I digress. I bring this up because I found another one yesterday. I bright blue glass one just after I planted the pumpkins. Could this be a sign? I guess we'll know in two weeks.

I'm a Celebrity! (in my head)

A friend of mine just sent me a link to the Portland Parks and Recreation webpage. Turns out yours truly is on the front page of their website! There's no description or link, but it's definitely me. I did a science demo with the kids about a year and a half ago. They learned how to pipet and string DNA. Incidentally, that's how I ended up with my current job.

I'm excited! Go science education!

Easter Carrot Cards

Rob asked to see some of the carrot cards from Easter. I make one for everyone -- which, given how Easter has expanded over the years -- has reached its breaking point. There are now over 50 people who attend each year. I calculate that it took me somewhere between 30-60 hours to make all of them (and the game cards).

I've already decided that I'd rather spend that time with our baby (come Easter 2010), so I've already made 4 carrot card templates for next year: boy carrot, girl carrot, boy child carrot, girl child carrot. It took me about 20 minutes. Then, I'll put names on each in order of RSVP -- just like in the past. So it will be personalized, but not to the extent that it was. I just couldn't keep that pace.

So for now, enjoy some of the carrot cards from this year. Each carrot card has a story behind it that relates to the person. For example, mine (the Kool Aid carrot) was from when I crashed my car through a brick wall this year. Ken's was from the Super Leisure Olympics. And Andrew's was from Santacon. The stories continue, but you'll get the idea.

Enjoy.













And here's some of the game cards that we hide in the eggs. There are somewhere between 600-1200 eggs hidden. Scarily, we own 1200 eggs but we learned that if we hide 1200, there is way too much candy leftover. We also have limited room to hide 600 eggs, let alone 1200.

More Easter Photos

More photos from Easter. These are from HfB Dave.

4.875 gallons of beer on the wall...

We always get a k-egg for Easter. This year we got Deschutes Brewery's Green Lakes Organic Amber. Ken had to return the keg tap today, but wanted to save whatever was left in the keg since it was pretty good. He asked me if I had any jars, to which I smiled and gave him access to my lovelies... twelve 1/2 gallon mason jars that he got me for Christmas.

And out to the porch he went. We bet on how many jars he'd be able to fill -- I thought they'd be 2 jars worth, he thought 5. We were both wrong. A total of 4.875 gallons were pulled from the tap. So delectable. I took a sip when we tapped the keg and it was delicious, so I am sad that I won't get to help drink the rest of it, but I'm sure my brother will oblige and take one for the team. And whatever goes flat, I will use for cooking.

Behold, the beauty of our kitchen island (before it went in the fridge):

Easter Photos 2009

Easter Photos have arrived! Many thanks to the Sirkins for taking over 400 pictures of the event!

More details on the event are to come, but for now... Enjoy.

Easter Aftermath

The party was a huge success. We had 54 people over and were lucky enough to get the egg hunt and outdoor games finished before the skies opened up. Luckily, Ken put a tarp up over the arbor, so we could have drinks on the back porch, but man, I've never seen so much rain. Our gravel pathway was a huge puddle -- and I've never seen water puddle there before.

More pictures will be posted soon, but check out my Easter shoes. I adore them and wore them with a giant pink dress.

April Updates

Lots of things going on around here.

* Baby is still in there. It will be 3-3/4 months this weekend. Amazing that it will be 4 months very soon. The good news is I can still wear my normal pants. The bad news is not for long.

* My parents (who are very excited to be grandparents) are coming out to visit on May 1st for 2 weeks. It will be fun to see them, especially since Andrew now lives here too. My mom wants to go maternity clothes shopping, which I think is very sweet. They'll be driving out and checking out sights along the way -- also visiting Vancouver BC and Seattle while they're nearby.

* My peach tree (the one I planted last spring) has lots of hot pink blossoms. I've been hand-pollinating them with a paintbrush. My asian pear, also planted last spring, has lots of white blossoms that are just about the bloom. I am very happy about these things.

* The basment is still in progress. It is mostly finished, but I'm still working on the molding and learning how to use the compound miter saw. Ken and I worked on it last weekend after I learned how to do it "the hard way". I also have to finish the drywall around the closet doors and paint. That probably won't get done this weekend, because....

* This weekend is Easter. We're having 54 confirmed guests (including 2 babies under the age of 6 months). It is supposed to rain. Good thing Ken built the arbor and we have a ginormous (technical term) tarp we can throw over it and tie down. On the docket for tonight and tomorrow are filling over 1000 plastic eggs.

* I will be sad to not partake in mimosas this weekend. That said, I've learned that OJ, seltzer water and lime is an ok substitute.

* I bought my first pair of non-athletic shoes in 3 years. I can't wait to break them out for easter. It is taking all of my might not to post a picture of them here. But I will write an open-blog love letter to them after Sunday.

* The appraisal came back on our house and we were happy to find out that (despite the economy not having the basement completely finished), it is doing great. We were happy to hear that.

* Work is going well for both of us. I'm writing a grant for my job and enjoying doing it. I'm also going to a conference in Minnesota in May. I'm looking forward to it. My boss has been very supportive of my "condition". The pregnancy hasn't gotten in the way of work except for some headaches that come in the early afternoons. I just work through them, but it stinks. Today, I'm lucky that they started early in the morning. At least it's friday.

* Ken and I checked out a daycare facility last week and were shocked that, despite not needing daycare until January, 2010, we're on the wait list with an excellent chance of not getting a spot. The baby's not even born yet, though I felt like we were going through college admissions. And just like admissions, they took $40 from us to hold our name on the wait list. How sweet. We're going to put our names on a few more places, but sheesh, the daycare situation is crazy. You may want to sign up before you get pregnant. (I'm kidding -- kind of).

* I just got the call that my asparagus crowns arrived. I'll be picking them up this weekend. I'm very excited about them and will plant 10 plants.

* I still can't parallel park in my new car and feel ridiculous.

* I'm really looking forward to next weekend when we have no plans except for catch-up things.

3 month doctor's appointment

Doctor's appointment today went well. Ken went with me and we got the results from lots of tests we've had:

my pap smear: which had atypical cells but they found nothing else wrong so it looks fine and I go back in a year.
Down Syndrome/Trisomy 18: Both very low risk (I think it was 1:1300 and 1:10000, respectively. Cut off is 1:50 and 1:100, so no further testing is necessary)
Neck measurement (I think for spina bifida): normal

They heard the baby's heartbeat again today (150-160 bpm, which is apparently normal). So things are looking normal on all fronts so far. I gained 4 lbs in my first trimester (average weight gain is 3-5 lbs), so everything's on track in that regard. I was shocked it was 4 lbs and expecting it to be around 10 lbs given the amount I feel I've eaten in the past few weeks.

In other news, we scheduled our 18 week ultrasound (where they check for anatomy and we find out the sex of the baby). It will be on the morning of May 4th. I'm excited to know and am really looking forward to finding out.

Concert with Andrew

We had a great time. I really like music when I can be comfortable -- have the chance to sit, relax and am not surrounded by smoking, screaming people. This was that concert. The venue was beautiful, music was great, Andrew was happy and the whole scene was very relaxed but upbeat.

I'm never seen a more diverse group of white folk in my entire life -- old, really old, young, middle aged. Ditto for socio-economic... you had the fancy types mixed with the hippies, motorcycle riders and the cowboy boot/big belt buckle-wearing mule farmers (literally, a couple was wearing their matching embroidered jackets of their mule farm). Not a lot of racial diversity, but definitely the most diverse group of whitey I've ever seen.

Husband Points

I have doctor's appointments once a month up until 6 months or so -- when they up the frequency to twice aweek and then once a week when I'm really far along. Ken has gone with me to all of them so far, but forgot about the one I have this morning. So instead of bailing and allowing me to go alone (which would have been fine). He left for work at 6 am to make sure he got all of his stuff done so he could attend. He's on his way now and even asked if he could pick me up a hot chocolate on the way. I feel very lucky and supported.

Things you see on your commute to work

Cars, bikes, pedestrians all fit the bill. But today, I saw a sea lion on my way to work! He was swimming merrily in the Willamette river with a fish in his mouth. I stopped my bike on the bridge in disbelief. He was happy, surrounded by seagulls hoping he'd drop his fish (or give them some). He would dive, come back up, roll on his belly, flop his flippers. You know, usual friday fare.

I watched him for a minute, then kept riding only to pass human feces about 30 seconds later. I gagged but held it together. I'm thankful for the happy sea lion thoughts to get my mind away from the ickiness.

And I did not puke this morning. So far, so good.

Plans tonight

Heading to the Merle Haggard/Kris Kristofferson show tonight with my brother. He loves them and got two tickets. I'm the lucky recipient of the other ticket.

I'm excited that they're playing at Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, a beautiful site with lots of seating for pathetic pregnant women as they sing along. I've always wanted to go inside but never have. So i'm pretty excited. Plus I like the music. Show starts at 8:30. Andrew asked if that will be a problem for me since it's past my bedtime. Sadly, he's right.

Looking forward to it.

Repeat offender

Another public "outburst" of sorts this morning. Gotta love the helmet on my head and bike between my legs as I let things go.

Oh well. It is what it is.