moving status: slowly but surely...

abbey's room has changed from pepto to white at her request... now we just have to put the rest of the room together.

this is the baby's room, which is currently storing much of abbey's possessions. much to be done.

family room on the lower level. note the boxes of dvds yet to be placed -- this weekend a trip to ikea for a shelf is in order. (also, our cat seems to have laser eyes.)

the bedroom with the daily load of laundry piled high. that's my chore before bedtime.

and our living room, as seen from the dining room. can you see the sleeping dustin?

tomorrow afternoon begins the cleaning spree at the old place. bah. BAH, i say. but i want our deposit back, so clean i must.

my stomach is getting bigger. MUCH bigger. just a couple of months to go...

in lieu of actual post....

i offer you this, courtesy of c. george:

a trip to the liquor store...

... when you are very very pregnant always ends in hilarity. or in awkwardness.

we have some lovely friends who are helping us move this weekend and in exchange for their kindness, i'm making chili and giving them beverages. so i went into the liquor store this afternoon and there's just no getting around people staring when you are waddling around in your pregnant state whilst carrying a bottle of jack daniels and a bottle of smirnoff.

do you use the old "it's not for me!" line with the clerk preemptively, so that social services isn't called? i figured i wouldn't say anything unless something was said to me first.

i may as well have had a crack pipe in my mouth and a tourniquet on my arm, the way he stared at me before ringing me up.

my uterus is irritated.

it's true. much like i can be.
basically i began getting weird cramping all around my lower abdomen last evening -- and it sort of wrapped around my back, so i called the clinic and they had me come in for monitoring. no infections or anything to cause it, so basically my uterus had become irritated and had begun cramping up. which seemed a little too close to what contracting could be, so i've been told to "behave" in terms of my activity level and moving/packing/etc.

and it's tricky, b/c once you get into that deadline mindset of "THINGS DUE AT A CERTAIN TIME," it's hard to get out of that. my deadline mindset is what makes me good at my job, but when it transfers over into home life, it makes things difficult.

so now i'm just... sitting. that's all. i'm hoping if i don't do much today, i'll have a good stockpile o' energy tomorrow to finish the itty-bitty tasks i have left. and here is the part where i make a list to get it out of my brain and somewhere else so i don't think about it again for a while.

1. pack up clothing
2. pack up bathroom and hall closet
3. pack up non-perishable kitchen stuff and appliances

..... i think that pretty much covers it. tomorrow should be okay for the most part. and of course there will be an assload of little things i'll have to deal with this next week -- fridge stuff, hangers, all that little crap that i don't want to deal with b/c i don't need to fit it into a uhaul... i hate that crap, but it's unavoidable.

THANK YOU to all the lovely people who will be lending a hand on saturday. i shall provide you with chili and beverages and my eternal gratitude. i'll even name my child after you. (as long as your name is oscar, that is.)

now i guess i have to make myself do nothing until tomorrow. hmm. it's tough to switch gears like that, but i'll bet that cable tv can help me out.

time for a video update!

for added fun, count the number of times i say "um" throughout the video!

on this valentine's day...

i give you my heart.

i have a few questions.

1. how does the song "girlfriend" by avril lavigne even get into my head?

2. why can't i just get my ass in gear, grab and box and start putting stuff in it?

i have no answer for question 1. however the answer for question 2 goes like this.... i'm going to try very, very hard to be organized for this move. yet the thought of being organized is quite daunting.

but here's my plan...
1. assemble box. go 'round the house and take abbey-specific books (lemony snicket, harry potter, etc.) from the myriad of shelves both up and downstairs and put into abbey-room box.
2. assemble second box. get books that abbey has outgrown and put into baby-room box.
3. assemble third box. pack up all clothing not needed until post-pregnancy. which is most of my clothing, for the exception of 1 dress, three skirts and three pairs of pants. seriously.

see? why is it so hard to just get started on that? maybe b/c it's easier to stay in pajamas with a blanket on my feet whilst dinking around online.

must set a timeline for myself. 30 minutes left to be lazy, then at 10 a.m., i shall pack. then afterwards i will reward myself with yummy chocolate dustin brought home last night.

we'll see.

**UPDATE**
have achieved collection of abbey's books into three boxes. have gathered up baby's books and boxed those. next task... hmm.... lunch. then maybe deal with the misc. crap in the bedroom? so far, so good.

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii've been up since four a.m.

dustin's expression upon watching "mr. brooks."


my expression most of the time. (we call it "the face.")


dustin is the fetus whisperer.


ahhh, the bulge continues to grow.


yes, those are jeans with the entire top portion made up of a spandexy material. kind of like wearing pajamas everyday, i tell people. and usually i don't wear my shirt up high to show off the spandexy part -- it's usually hidden.

movie night.

"rescue dawn" = good.

"mr. brooks" = bad. really bad. i'm saddened that scripts with dialogue this horrible become movies. and the weird, spontaneous laughter between brooks and his inner voice? just unpleasant.

"the ten" = yet to be watched, but i have high hopes for it.

photo time

i grabbed a glass from the dishwasher only to find it had developed a crack while it was being washed...

dustin is amused by my ever-changing shape. here we are, 28 weeks and in the last trimester.

dustin is even more amused by my own viewpoint of what is happening.

this is what i see everyday. but suddenly i'm seeing it a whole lot more.

and the verdict on last night?

it was option B.

a long night, indeed.

must now go sleep more.

poor kiddo....

... i've not seen her vomit like that for quite some time. which means that:
a. it's out of her system and she'll sleep just fine and go to school tomorrow;
or
b. it's only beginning to rear its ugly head and it will be a long, long night.

fingers crossed for option a.

as you've noticed by now...

... i've added a video clip to the blog. we used to have a dv camera and both dustin and i could remember using it in minot at a friend's house one night... we were pretty sure that bram was there. so the other night we're looking around for tapes, and after reviewing many a tape, we found it. so now it's on my blog for everyone to see. just your average night in minot.

entering the third trimester....

... and i'm realizing the golden days of pregnancy are on their way out. those days where i had energy, those nights where i could sleep straight through --- GONE. i thought i've just been tired b/c we were out of town, but it's been a few days since our return and i can't sleep enough.

which, you know, is useful when you have packing to do. YES, we are moving! end o' february we enter suburb-ville, usa. if we could find that space here in s. minneapolis, i'd have rented it, but it just wasn't happening. so we'll be renting a house in a first-ring suburb and it's very lovely, not much more than we are paying now, and has a REAL FENCED BACKYARD! yes, it's true! that excites me on a number of levels... for instance, we have no back yard, which means if the dog needs to go out, we have to brave this cold fucking weather to do so. at the new place? we open the door to the deck (yes! a big deck!) and out she goes!

we were planning on just having abbey move into the basement bedroom in our current place b/c our cool landlord offered to put in an egress window... then it occurred to me that i felt like i was just pushing her off into the basement, giving her room to the baby. it just felt icky and i didn't want this transition of TWO new siblings withing two months (her stepmom is pregnant as well and is due two months after me) to be any harder than it already will be. that PLUS the fact that we have no storage room here. at all.

our new place is farther from her school, but really in the cities moving 10 miles away isn't that big of a deal as far as i'm concerned. plus it's right off of interstate, so it's a quick drive. and it's really close to dust's office and my office.

so we're happy with it. and i think it will help abbey's transition from only child to big sister a great deal. but yeah, the moving process still sucks. and i'm bribing every person i know with beer and snacks to help out.

dustin's still rockin' it with quitting smoking -- even with a slip here and there i have to remember that he's been a smoker since he was 18 (he's nearly 31 now) and this is his first real attempt at quitting -- so i'm super proud of him.

regarding polls of baby stuff: i think our plan is to go into the hospital with those three names, and although babies often grow into their names, i want to make sure that he LOOKS like an oscar, a sam or a simon. and maybe he'll not look like any of those. but it's good to have options.

it's interesting how people get SO worked up over how much they don't like a name. there have been a few that REALLY REALLY hate the name oscar. not just dislike it, but HATE it, and have no problem voicing that opinion. and now i'm beginning to see why people don't tell anyone their name choices.

he's kicking me right now. and i'm beginning to feel how big he is, simply b/c when he moves now, i feel it ALL THE WAY ACROSS my belly. it's nuts.

i spent some time sorting through abbey's bins o' toys that having been emptied since a few years ago... felt good, but now i feel way too accomplished for the day and will now spend the remainder of my night doing very little. hurrah for doing little!

be sure to vote!

at right you can see i've added a couple of polls regarding baby's birth date and some name options... if you have a moment, add your two cents.

good to be home.

it's always nice to catch up with people in ND, but it's really good to be home. we were able to meet up with my pa and my ma, which is always nice.

the plane ride to minot ruled, thanks to the dramamine. the ride home --- not so much. turbulent, on the edge of a winter storm hitting minot. i will never, EVER again fly without dramamine.

isn't that just lovely? however i do think the wind helped push up to minneapolis faster. and abbey always enjoys a plane ride.


and she was very impressed with the actual glass glasses in first class.


we met up with some friends at the Blue Rider... below you see noah.


and here is patrick, taking a picture of me, taking a picture.


and dustin and paul... will their hilarity never cease?

before this we went to visit bram's grave. mind you, none of us had been back there since the funeral in october, so we kind of knew where to look. KIND OF. i think bram was probably giggling hysterically at four idiots, wandering around a cemetery in the miserable fucking cold, looking for him. we made a few phone calls then then finally found it (thanks, Joe!). well, we found the wreath that was on top of it, but the snow and ice had mostly covered all of it, so we did our best to de-ice and de-snow it. it didn't seem right to leave it covered up and not able to be found. we tried several things, including kicking at the ice with our shoe heels and pouring Heet on it (which, by the way, WON'T light on fire if on snow)... finally dustin and patrick took turns thwacking away at it and finally it was uncovered. immediately The Cure pops into my head and i completely lose my shit. we're all freezing and my toes are killing me, but i just didn't want to leave.

the rest of the weekend we spent mostly at the farm... i think abbey is delighted that she's still young/small enough to get piggyback rides from dustin.

so there's the weekend.
today's plan: read some of bram's poetry (his mom kindly gave us a copy of his poetry book), weep and then watch some TV. in short, i just need to get some rest.

but yes, it's good to be home.

update on weekend in ND soon to come...

but tonight i'm too busy watching the state of the union address... i wonder if W. will get tongued by michelle bachmann again....

something i learned today...

... is something i already sort of knew: if you are pregnant and you think that scrambled eggs sound like a good idea, know that you are wrong. damn wrong.

also, dustin amuses me...