The unveiling...

Before E and I left for the holidays we had one last visit to the doctor. We had an ultrasound, and check out our little guy now! He's weighing in at 8 oz. (at least he was on the 19th) and he's looking healthy and (apparently) happy. And that's right - I'm saying he. Check out picture number 2 for the nitty gritty there - the sonographer even circled the goods for us!
Otherwise things look good and he looks healthy. All his organs are developing as expected. They are concerned that my placenta is too low, so they've put me on reduced duty - no running, no heavy lifting, no straining. Oh, and that means FULL pelvic rest too. We've got another appointment on the 6th and hopefully things have shifted around at that point and I'll be able to resume... Jogging.

Enjoy the pictures!

A Rube Goldberg mess

This little thing is a Jeep Liberty water pump and gasket. Apparently, this is the source of my inability to drive, the terrible noise E first heard, and all car problems to date. What happened, seemingly, is that this device, which keeps the engine from overheating (I've learned - why don't they call it a coolant pump?) stopped functioning in my Jeep. When this happened, a pulley seized up, which caused the belt turning on the pulley to spin and wear out (the high pitched whirring and the loud thunking). When the belt wore out, the pretty much all electrical in the Jeep stopped working, killing the battery in the process. This all rendered the car non-functional. Who would have thought such a small thing would cause such a huge mess? Like when an animal sneezes in the Serengeti, we never can be sure what repercussions our actions will have - including you, Jeep Liberty water pump.

The good news? The nice man at Rockwall Jeep/Dodge/Crystler was able to not only diagnose all of these problems in the early morning, but he was also able to repair them in a single day! Not only that, but he flushed the coolant and changed the oil while he was at it. I can't tell you how impressed I was with the customer service. Not only can you tell me exactly what the problem was but you can also have it to me by 4 pm? Fabulous! The fee? Not so fabulous, but hey, water pumps don't come cheap.

Thanks to all for your concern. I promise to listen to E next time about the noise. Oh, and if I hear a noise and lose power steering in the parking lot, I promise to call someone for a ride. No more driving home. That clearly doesn't work.

A thing I am particularly bad at

On a Sunday drive:
E: Has your car always made that noise?
A: What noise?
E: That high pitched squealing noise.
A: Er, I don't think so.
E: You don't think so, or you're sure.
A: Uh, yes.

Today:
After work I walked out to the car and started it up. The high pitched noise was still there. Before we all freak out, I had planned on taking it in on Friday to get it fixed, whatever it was. That was, until, instead of the high pitched noise I hear a loud pop and then a bunch of clunking. Then the noise was gone. The battery light came on, but otherwise, everything seemed to be running okay. I figured as long as I could get home, I could bring the car in to the dealership tomorrow. As I backed out of the parking space, I quickly realized that cars are much easier to drive when they have power steering, as mine didn't any longer. Oh well, I think. People drove for years without power steering. Surely I can drive home. That is, until about a mile from work when the radio shut off. Weird, but doesn't prevent driving. Until the lights started to dim. Then the speedometer quit working. Then, worst of all, the gas quit. I was the ridiculous person on the road whose car won't work, but apparently because all electrical stuff wasn't working I couldn't even turn on my hazards. I coasted onto a side street, sort of, and sat for a second weighing my options, which were few. I looked up the police non-emergency number on my phone and called them, because, well, I needed assistance. The police came and blocked the road so I wouldn't be crashed into by crazy frustrated commuters, and they also called a tow truck for me. The tow truck came and loaded up the Jeep and drove both me and it all the way to Rockwall where we left the Jeep at the dealership (for a fee).

Firsts for me: Calling the police to block traffic. Getting a car towed. Riding in a tow truck.

Lessons learned: Listen to E when he says to take the car in on Tuesday and not wait until Friday because that noise might actually be something serious and not something that can wait.

At least I learned a lesson.

Booked the babymoon

There's a trend (apparently) among expecting couples to take a babymoon, which apparently one last hurrah before the baby comes. Supposedly this is like a honeymoon, but seeing as how our honeymoon consisted of bikinis, champagne, tequila, and lots and lots of lounging on tropical beaches, I just don't see that as a fitting thing to do whilst preggers.

Instead, we're going to visit our friends in Denver! I know I've mentioned this before, but we actually booked tickets now. (What an amazing deal. Southwest, what did I do without you? Oh yeah, enjoy my flight more but pay more than twice as much for it.) We'll be in Denver from January 22nd until January 25th, which is, I realize, one of the coldest times of year to visit Denver. Maybe it will make me appreciate my Texas humidity more. I know it will give me a chance to appreciate my friends more. That, and visit all the resturants we miss so terribly since we've moved. You know, lots of our travel revolves around food...

Plus, this is right after our anniversary, so we're trying to bill it as a anniversary present to ourselves. Seems to be working.

Keeping up with the Joneses...

Pretty good for a first stab at holiday home decoration (outside).

Cubicle confusion

In an effort to be more seasonal at work, people have taken to putting up holiday decorations. Someone at work has a decoration for all of the different holidays that happen around this time, but to my knowledge, no one has decorations for all of them. This can apparently lead to some confusion by coworkers who aren't familiar with the holiday season in the states. Because everyone I work with has lived here for plenty of years, the only conclusion I can draw is that they have not been paying attention for any amount of time in their lives or they are just complete idiots.

Coworker (leaning on my cube wall): "I see D has put up lights and a tree."
Me (not looking up from my keyboard): "Yep, very festive."
Coworker (very serious): "I guess she celebrates Christmas and Kwanzaa."
Me (looking up): "Oh, that's interesting."
Coworker (gesturing to lights): "Well I can only get that from the lights - they're very colorful."
Me (with a furrowed brow, thinking he is surely joking): "Don't people just have colorful lights for Christmas sometimes?"
Coworker (with the air of someone who clearly knows more than you do): "I'm pretty sure the colors mean that she's celebrating Kwanzaa too. There are red and yellow and everything."
Me (sarcastically): "What about Hanukkah? I see some blue ones too."
Coworker (inquisitively, making motions to D's cube): "I guess maybe. We should ask."

Is he kidding? I can only hope so. Happy holidays people, whatever they might be to you. Or you can be like D, and apparently celebrate all of them.

Equatorial expansion...

There are things that change when you're pregnant. Lots of things. This is only natural. I can't expect to carry a baby to term and at the same time retain the same figure I've had for as long as I can remember. Case in point - the holiday party we attended on Saturday night. This event, which is held every year by the company we both work for, is a semi-formal affair filled with adults dressing either as if they were going to a cocktail party (the majority), as if they were going to prom (a minority), or as if they were going to a regular day at work (for shame). I typically try to avoid looking as if I were ready for prom and aim for the cocktail dress. I have a number of beautiful ones, and the one I wore to last year's holiday party seemed perfect. After all, we've moved states - we won't see anyone from last year. This dress is empire waisted - surely the small amount my stomach has grown will look like nothing. Right?

Er, maybe, if I didn't know what the dress looked like last year. I'll be the first to admit that my selfish desire to look fantastic in this dress makes me feel like a terrible mom-to-be. However, when I put on the dress and realized that I no longer can look directly at all of my feet, I turned into a self-conscious mess. I think when I look more like I'm expecting a child and less like I've just let myself go I'll feel a lot better about the whole thing. Right now it just looks like I have a new and fantastic appreciation for pie. And cake. And Blue Bell. And pretty much all Mexican food, especially those smothered with cheese.

E, who loves me very much and grows more excited about our child with every single centimeter of growth in my mid-section, tried to reassure, but let's face it, there was no denying that things had changed. I tried to take solace in knowing that at 17 weeks of pregnancy I can't fully expect to look the way I did before. And hey, those pregnancy pants are starting to look mighty comfy. This big belly thing might have it's perks after all. That, and I get a baby when it's all finished. You can't argue with a baby. They're too dang cute.

Internet, I've missed you so

Today is a monumental day for us - the internet is restored! We went away for the weekend, and when we returned... No service. Router = working, but internet = gone. I had no idea what a serious problem this would be for me until I decided to pay the electric bill. But how? With a stamp? I don't think so.

After two days of attempting to foil whatever internet gnomes had taken our beloved service away from us, E broke down and called the service provider. There are few times I hear him get so riled up as when talking to a service person. "What do you mean did I try restarting my computer?" I'm no better, so I am eternally grateful that he does this duty and saves me the trouble of talking to someone I don't know about exactly how I reset the cable modem.

Today E even left work two hours early to come and meet the cable repair guy. After two hours on the phone Tuesday night they came to the conclusion that the hardware they provided us was faulty. Of course, E had already reached that conclusion before he made the call, but I digress. The internet repair man came and repaired the cables leading into our house, which it seems were destroyed by a mongoose (or never installed correctly in the first place), and he replaced our cable modem, which now functions as an expensive doorstop at the cable company.

Hooray for the internet! Bills = paid. Email = read (and attempted to be returned, though I'm terrible at it). Blog = updated. All excellent for a Thursday. Now if only it weren't going to be so cold for our golf game tomorrow afternoon... Could the internet repair man fix that too?