Anticipation Killed the Cat (or something)

We head to Ohio tomorrow. I am not going to lie and say that Ohio is my most favorite place ever, because it's not. This is based mostly on the fact that the first time I went it was incredibly -- ridiculously! -- cold. And I do not just mean outside. I don't think I've ever been so cold sleeping before in my entire life. It was not. good.

They say first impressions are everything, and everything involved in that first trip was anti-good impression. I did not sleep on the way out there, and we all know how I get when I dont sleep. I cry, litereally, over split milk. And so you can imagine the things that brought tears to my eyes over that first day. Rather hurt feelings plus general frozeness does not get a place off to a good start in the Book of Amy.

But I must say the last trip -- about two months ago -- was overall kind of delightful. It was very warm (I love being warm!), we saw good friends (I love good friends!) and everything was reeeeally pretty. But those first impressions linger.

And so I'm kind of dreading this upcoming trip. Not because I don't think Ohio will be gorgeous in the fall. And not because I'm not looking forward to spending gobs and bunches of time with my wonderful husband who I've seen barely at all over the last month or so ... but because I know general tension and discomfort await. And I hate that.

(Also, because of all the human growing, flying makes me want to die. I seriously almost barfed multiple times during our last trip, and that's never a good feeling).
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Speaking of human growing, things are going well in that department. I'm sporting me a cute little baby bump now, which is good because it justifies the pregnancy pants. I was not feeling so hot last week and decided a doctor's visit was in order. They did an ultrasound to look around on at my insides and we took a peek at the Rudabega while we were in the area. Yup, it's definitely in there. And yup, there's definitely only one of them. Also confirmed is that it is definitely human shaped, although I'm not entirely convinced that it's not a sea monkey instead of a person.

I asked the doctor if while he was rubbing gross goo around on my stomach with that supid wand thing he couldn't please tell me the gender. Sadly, the particular machine he was using was not high tech enough for such a revelation at this stage, and in explaining he made a rather big overshare and a certian large ... male ... phenomenona .. that would have to be present to identify it at that time. I wanted to tell him to please stop talking.
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Oh! Maybe when we're in Ohio Luke's mom will make some sort of berry or pumpkin pie. That would totally make me feel better about going.
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I at long last uploaded photos from about August through mid October to my computer. Since I am not at my personal computer at this time, I cannot share them with you. However, Facebook can. Go there.
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I think I'm going to vote this year. This is kind of a big deal. I didn't vote in 2004 ... or 2006 .... I've in the past taken a position that I shouldn't vote if there is a chance that I will, as a reporter, cover any of the candidates in their respective offices at any time. Perfectably reasonable, I still believe.

That excuse is now gone.
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Luke is getting home late tonight from work, which leaves me with the job of packing for him. I've never packed for him before, so we'll see how this goes. One thing is for sure: he won't be taking that stupid demin jacket with him. No siree.

The reason we are going to Ohio is, of course, his sister's wedding. There are a lot of things that I could say about that, but I won't say them. I will instead move on to what I shall wear.

The problem here is that I have one, that's right one!, dress that I can possibly wear in my bulging state. It is red. And Luke wants to wear his dress greens.

I don't plan to pack them for him. First of all, he looks way too sharp in those, and me in my dumb clearence maternity dress will look incredibly stupid next to him. Second point, me in red? With him in green? Way too much like Christmas. No thanks.
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Major pet peeve: Christmas stuff before Christmas time.

Some of my coworkers (one of whom is smart and the other... not ...on so many levels) decided that they should take down the lovely sign for delicious creamy blended drinks and instead hang up a sign featuring egg nog (which is gross!) and little pictures of snow men and christmas trees.

It is OCTOBER! It is NOT christmas! It is not even NEAR christmas! What is the problem with you people?!?!?!

(Also, someone ordered said stupid egg nog drink today and I involuintarily made a face. He then said 'maybe I dont want it' and I had to bail myself out of weird situation by saying things like "that was rude, I'm sorry," and "I'm pregnant, involunitary faces at the names of food items come with the territory. Forgive me. I make faces about hamburgers too.")

It's not just about apples....

I was reminiscing (I love reminiscing) about days of yore ... or ... you know, last fall ... and I realized that the truth is apples or no, I just like baking in the fall. Yesterday I made some scrumptious pumpkin apple muffins and today I discovered mini no bake graham cracker apple tarts. And they are delicious!

The truth is that I am supposed to make dessert for small group on Wednesday. Now, with humility never being a real strong point of mine, I have said a thing or two about making truly delicious desserts. I feel that this has to be my piece de resistance, if you will.

So I decided to go after something new and extra tasty -- thus landing upon this apple graham cracker business.
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I am entirely and truly addicted to Heroes. I just finished Season One, and, wouldn't you know it, Season Two arrived in the mail yesterday. Go me.

So while I sit here and wait out the timing on this ridiculous lab test so I can get on with my life, I'm watching the first episode of Season Two, see how like it.

And then I'm thinking about jetting down to the cafe by the water and reading a book while drinking a hot liquid. Mmmm delicious. Then I will visit the lab. And theeeeen I will take some of my delicious cooked things to the Fellowship House where I will probably not spend much time, but be sociable nonetheless.
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And tomorrow! Tomorrow morning Luke gets home, and I think he'll be here for a day or two. And then on Wednesday! I'm picking up Abigail from the airport (yay for THAT) and then on Saturday? I'm picking up Hyla (yay again).

10 Apples Up On Top!

I think my two favorite things about fall are the pretty color changes and the fruit. Let's be honest -- apples when they are in season are about as good as it gets. Apple pie. Apple crisp. Apple muffins. Apples and caramel. Apple cider.

Apples everywhere!

Tonight I made apple and pumpkin muffins -- my house smells so, so good. Delicious!
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One of my other favorite fall things is reading books. And what's better than reading books? Buying books! Tomorrow is the public library sale and I am soooooo excited. I've promised myself I won't buy anything except childrens' books. Except under special circumstances, a really amazing book, something.
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Meanwhile, Luke is in the field doing field stuff and, you know, not talking to me. That's how it goes.

I love Fridays, though, because if I can get home early enough, I can take a late afternoon nap. (I LOVE naps!). And then I get to stay up a little later than usual watching movies or whatever. And THEN I get to sleep in as late as my little heart desires. Lord, but I love sleeping.

Now, tomorrow I have to stick pretty close to home, for the most part. Why? Because of the most ridiculous lab test in the whole wide world. And you really dont want me to go into detail about this because it's just ridiculous and kinda gross. So I'm going to stop.

Bathtub!

Luke left again this morning for the field. He was only back for two days ... just enough for me to realize how much I miss him when he's gone. As always.

Now,when we were on our honeymoon we drove past a creek -- MacDonald Creek -- which prompted me to sing a song about how Old MacDonald had a creek... and in that creek he had a manatee [best thing I could come up with right then].

After being in the field for several days Luke is very tired and wants to sleep (get this) even more than I do. Boy howdy, that's a lot. So he snookered me into going to bed Tuesday before I was tired enough to go to sleep. So to entertain myself (and OK, fine, to annoy Luke) I decided to lay in bed singing the bedtime classic Old MacDonald had a Manatee, with a fun fill in the blank feature for Luke.

But Luke was, well, sleeping. So the song went something lik this.

Amy: Old MacDonald had a manatee, ee-i-ee-oh. And for that manatee he had a .... [waits for Luke to answer]
Luke: thermals
Amy: Thermals?
Luke: Thermals
Amy: no, a bathtub!
Luke: no, make him take thermals.
Amy: [huh?]
Luke: [sits up suddenly] did I just say thermals?
Amy: ummmm yes, instead of bathtub. Weird.
Luke: I was having a dream that Sgt. [blah blah blah] was saying that [soldier blah blah blah] was going out, and I told him to have him take his thermals. And Sgt. [blah blah blah] said "no, a bathtub!" and I said "no, his thermals!"


Uh-huh.
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This is the part where we say a lot of good things about Hyla, who is coming to visit me in a week and a day!

Woohoo! Now, she made the mistake of hitting me up 15 minutes after I got out of bed, on a very cold day a few hours after my husband left for another four days in the field. Excitement for anything, save more sleeping, is hard to round up at that hour.

However! At 4:55 p.m., after eating some delicious food, excitement is more than ready and, so, YAY HYLA!
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Speaking of delicious food, I've been craving grilled ham and cheese from the basement cafe on the House side of the capitol building. Major problem with that is the location of the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. and me, well, here.

So I had to come up with my own ... I pretty much did that. So I ate two of those, without worrying about gaining a bazillion pounds...
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And why am I not worried about gaining pounds? Because I went to the doctor yesterday, heard my baby's heartbeat and found out that I had gained LESS than a pound in the last month! And don't you know that I've been pigging out on cinnamon rolls, nachos and all sorts of tasty things. So I can eat two delicious sandwiches and chips if I want to or not ....

Embracing the Pants

Several weeks ago I bought pregnancy jeans, then stuck in the closet for a rainy day ... or a day when my other normal person pants or so tight and I am so fat that they are necessary.

This morning it started raining ... and about five hours later I realized that my favorite stretchy size 8 cropped jeans were really uncomfortable in the waist.

After walking around in my sweat pants for an hour or two (OK, fine, I put them on and then took a 1.5 hour nap. technicality) I realized that it was time to embrace the pants.

And boy howdy that was a good idea -- these suckers are so comfortable! No stupid waist band, just awesome stretchiness. And I can breathe. It's like a new day in pants land.
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About all that rain. I was really OK with this whole constant raining thing when I moved here in January. It rained and rained and rained all the way through June, and I was still OK with it.

But then -- THEN -- I realized that sometimes it is sunny here. (!!) It's actually NICE!

And so when it started to rain again ... well, now I'm not so OK with it. Because I know it CAN be simply beautiful

*and the rain, rain, rain came down, down, down ....*
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Luke is in the field. Getting rained on. I hope he's OK. His phone is off tonight.