Not About Babies!

I'm a little irritated with one of my co-workers. Maybe I shouldn't be. I'll let you decide.

I work every other day. Which means that every other Friday I have off. There's another gal that works the days I'm not here because we're the receptionists so someone always has to be at the front desk to answer the phones and do all the other fun things we do. It's worked out pretty well this way for the last few years. I could go to school on my off days and she was completely happy to not work full-time. If one of us needed a day off we could usually swing it so the other one could work. Only working every other day anyways made it so that didn't really happen a whole lot. I mean, every other week you get a four day weekend.

Well, the last few weeks the other gal has needed a lot of time off. As much as I hate working my off days I didn't really have a problem working for her. Besides, I could use the money. That's not what's irritating me. The friday before Memorial weekend is my friday to work. I figured I had to work and we would just leave when we got off work at 4:30. It's about a 9 hour drive to the in-laws which would put us getting in around 1:30 in the morning - if we didn't run into too much rush hour traffic or any other complications. Since being pregnant I have a hard time staying up past 10. I really didn't want to be driving still at 1 am.

I figured since I had worked for the other gal several times in the last few weeks that she would be accomodating to my schedule. But no. She has plans to go to her cabin with her husband and all her kids on Friday so she can't work. It doesn't matter that it's only an hour drive for her as opposed to the 9 hour drive I have ahead of me and that she'll be up there with her whole family for the next 3 days or that she sees her kids a heck of a lot more often than we see Hubby's parents and this will probably be the last day off I take before the baby's born. And I hardly ever ask her to work for me and I work for her A LOT. I was even willing to switch her days and work Thursday if she would work Friday. See how nice I am? Am I justified in being a little irritated?

Fortunately my boss was as irritated as I was. He can't make her work her off day but he had her pretty close to caving in. But he talked to another co-worker who fills in every once in awhile (usually when I need time off and the other gal won't work - shocking, I know) and she'll be here all day and will fill in for me. So I still get the day off even if the other gal can't be bothered to work for me even though I've been so nice as to work for her a lot lately. And I'll try to stop being irritated.

This is Turning Into a Baby Blog, Isn't It?

As you all know, I was hoping to go on a Babymoon. We had pretty much decided on a trip to St. George with a possible day trip to Las Vegas. That is, until we looked at our finances. We really can't afford much of anything these days. Which is really sad because we haven't even started buying baby stuff yet. Good thing lots of other people have taken that upon themselves! But we still wanted to go somewhere, especially since I doubt we'll be doing much travelling for at least the next 6 months. So, we've decided to go visit Hubby's parents in New Mexico. We figure if we don't go now we probably won't for awhile and they really love it when we come to visit. We're going to go down for Memorial weekend and make that our Babymoon. The good thing about this is that I actually really like my in-laws, and pretty much the only thing we'll have to pay for is gas. I just hope I won't have to stop every half hour for a pee break. That will make for a really long car ride...

I signed up for childbirth classes at the hospital. I'm 6 months along so I figured we probably should get going with that. Should be an interesting experience. I've known a lot of people who haven't taken them but I think it's probably a good idea for me. They go over a lot more than just the breathing during labor. Like how to care for a newborn - something I really haven't had much experience with. Hubby has been around his niece and three nephews since they were born. He even lived with his sister when they got his niece. I've only been around for our newest nephew and not on a daily basis either. So I'm feeling a little less than adequately prepared to care for a newborn baby. I hope these classes come in handy.

We're still deciding on a name which is why I've been a little secretive about the ones we're thinking of. It's just that we don't know for sure, not that I'm afraid someone will try to talk us out of our decision. I kept my opinion to myself when a girl I know decided to name her son Oscar (All I could think of was a green monster that lived in a garbage can and thought that was a terrible name for a baby), I figure other people should be able to do the same. We're fairly set on a first name - seeing as Hubby and I really have only been able to agree on one. But we're having a more difficult time with a middle name. We've thought about Native American names since Hubby's family is Native American. But some of those names are hard to pronounce. Some of Hubby's friends want him to give our son a Malagasy name in honor of the years he lived in Madagascar. But again with the really hard to pronounce. And spell. We could name him after someone but then we have to decide who. There's a lot more that goes into a name than I tend to think about. So, the name game continues...

Sadly, the Melting Pot was not everything I had hoped it would be and more. Except for the dessert. Maybe it's because the taste of alcohol - even if it's cooked out - isn't something I'm especially fond of. There was beer in our cheese fondue that made it taste way more like beer than cheese, and burgundy in the pot we cooked our meat and veggies in. We now know we don't like burgundy. Thankfully the dipping sauces helped to mask that flavor some. But it turned everything a shade of, well, burgundy which we found just about as unappetizing as the flavor. It was partly our own fault, and if we went back again we'd have a better idea of what to get and what not to get. I think all of the cheese fondues have alcohol in them - some may have less of a bite than the beer. And for cooking the meat I think I would go with the cooking method that's pretty much just chicken broth, or the oil. So if anybody decides to go now who doesn't like the taste of alcohol anymore than I do, those are my suggestions and it will probably end up being a more enjoyable experience. And really, it wasn't all bad. The dippers for the cheese were good, and most of the meat ended up tasting good - especially with the dipping sauces. And then there was dessert. Oh. my. goodness. I'm sure any of the chocolates would have been just as amazing as the one we got and the things they had for dipping were yummy too. Strawberries (my personal favorite), bananas, pineapple, brownies, cheesecake, poundcake, and graham cracker crusted marshmallows (Hubby's favorite). And we got some great ideas for making our own fondue at home (sans the alcohol) so it wasn't a wasted trip. Especially since most of it was free with our gift card.

Can I just tell you that the weirdest feeling in the world is when you can feel a baby moving around in your belly? It's been going on for a few weeks now and getting stronger and stronger. I can sit and watch my tummy move and it's so weird. I think our baby is going to be a boxer or something. He's breach right now so his feet are down by my pelvis and his head and hands are up so I'm pretty sure I'm watching his little fists beat against my belly. He's got some good strong feet too and he likes to tap dance on my bladder. Fun times for all, let me tell you!

I had my first baby shower this weekend. It was quite a success with lots and lots of people coming from all over. I even had a friend visiting from Sacramento who was able to attend. It was good to see everyone - especially friends I haven't seen for several months or even years - I just wish I'd had more time to spend with everyone. It's really sad that for all the gifts we got there are still so many things we still need to get ready for this baby. It's a little overwhelming at times. My one consolation is that a lot of the things we'll be buying are things we can use for subsequent children (except diapers).

Fundue

Work has been pretty busy lately so I haven't had much time to read blogs, let alone write my own entries. It's still busy but I need a break:)

Hubby graduates from the community college this week. Hooray!!! 2 years down, 2 more to go!!! And maybe when he's done I'll have the opportunity to go back and finish up my bachelors degree. Unless I turn into a baby factory instead which really sounds less appealing. Part of me wishes I had just buckled down after high school and gotten my education taken care of then but I think I would have missed out on a lot of the experiences I had because I didn't pursue a college education right away. And I doubt Hubby and I would have met because we would have been in different places instead of hooking up at the community college. See? Everything happens for a reason.

To celebrate, I think we'll be going to The Melting Pot. I love fondue but I've never been there before. Somebody gave us a really nice fondue pot for our wedding and it's one of our favorite gifts. I recommend everybody register for one when they get married. Or buy one yourself, although the one we got was kind of pricey but super nice of someone else to buy for us! But anyways, back to the restaurant. We got a gift certificate for The Melting Pot back in March but haven't used it yet as I was either too sick, or didn't have enough of an appetite to go. But now I'm feeling mostly better. The sickness seems to be limited to mostly the morning now, and my appetite is returning. Hooray! I only have 16 more weeks of pregnancy left, it's about time I started feeling better!

So, it should be a fun celebration. And I'll do my best to keep all that cheese and chocolate down.