Broke My Traffic Record

So, high five everyone, I broke my "Longest Time Sitting In Traffic" record this morning...two hours and five minutes.  That was the worst traffic ever.  But when I got to work, I found out why-http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local/los_angeles&id=9223404

Apparently early this morning a woman got out of a car on the passenger-side onto the freeway and was struck immediately.  Police find the whole story fishy since the driver of the car took off, so they've been investigating and shut down the 210-East, which connects to the I-5 South, which connects to the 14-South: the two freeways I need to get to work.  I was checking my speedometer and clock-I drove seven miles in one hour.  It was ridiculous.  Lucky me, faculty are no where to be found this morning...so I'm in the clear as far as that goes.  But I had a bad feeling this morning when I woke up; maybe Baby H can predict the traffic future.  It also didn't help that I had bad dreams of people poking my belly really hard.  Maybe Baby H was just kicking up a storm and it translated into my dreams.

More fun, er, bad news...we got a notice yesterday saying our lease is up in October, not November like we thought.  I found our lease right away, and sure enough, up in October-how did we not remember we signed an 11-month lease?!  If we renew our lease for 12 months, they're raising our rent $85 dollars.  If we try to do a 5 or 9 month lease (yes, 5, not 6), they raise it to $200 extra dollars.  Month to month is an extra $375 or something crazy.  UGHGHGHGH.  $85 isn't too much considering what it could be raised to, but for the amount we'll be paying I'd rather move closer to my work.  Although I did a quick search last night and there is nothing available in the price range we can afford that's remotely close to my work.  It's so expensive to live in California!!!!  And I barely make enough $ to pay off my debt, let alone live...but I can't leave my job due to my benefits for Baby H, so I'd have to wait until after maternity leave to really look for another one if I wanted to.  And it took me four months to find this job, I don't know how long it would take to find another.  The hubby and I are getting the itch to leave California, but his line of work can't really be found outside of Los Angeles.

So in conclusion, we're in a little bit of a pickle.  I don't want to stress nor do I want my hubby to stress (I think he takes it a lot harder than I do), but I don't want to affect Baby H's development.  So, as hard as it is, I'm going to try and think positive thoughts...send some positive energy my way people!

Week 23: Mango!

I'm not as stressed about our pup Coltrane today as I was yesterday, but she still had a freakout last night.  Hubby had to basically grab her and hold her down next to him until she calmed down.  And I mean hold her down.  It's not a typical day if Coltrane doesn't act up.  We just don't know what to do with her still.

So today marks week 23, and Baby H is the size of a large mango!  I feel him a lot more now, and I know I'll be feeling him even more the rest of the journey.  I feel like I've ballooned in the last couple weeks.  It doesn't help when people ask, "So when are you due?  December, oh I thought you were due like next month!".  Thanks ignorant people, way to make a pregnant woman feel like a whale.  And yes, a co-worker did say this to me yesterday.

Before I forget, this time last year the hubby and I were in Washington taking our engagement photos!  Since we bought an engagement/wedding package from our photographer in Seattle, we decided to get our photos done a few days before our wedding.  We decided to get them done around Pike Place Market-such a fun memory!

Okay, back to present time.  Good news...last night a surprise arrived at our doorstep (no, not the stork, waaay to early for that):

Our first present!  Well, technically our 50th or something like that, thanks to all the lovely presents from Nana and the sister-in-law.  Funny thing is, it came with no gift receipt or who it was from except "Amazon".  So, it could be from Nana...?  We aren't sure, but it was exciting to see a box arrive at our doorstep for Baby H!

Yesterday afternoon I had a little downtime at work, so I decided to get organized with the free planner I was given from my doc's office.  I like it because the color scheme looks like it's from our wedding...

I've received confirmation of our maternity tour of the hospital I'll be delivering at, as well as confirmation of our "Prepared Childbirth" classes.  I can't believe we have classes set...with 17 weeks left to go more or less, it feels like time has just flown by!  Granted I've only known I'm pregnant for 11 weeks-but those 11 weeks feel like only two.  I don't mind time flying through these hot months though...I've been tossing and turning at night since it's been so hot and muggy.  We left the AC on last night and our fan on in the bedroom, but it was still kind of warm when I woke up.  I do miss Washington summers because it would cool down a lot at night.  We now live in the desert basically!  Cross your fingers that the heat dies down sooner than later, I miss wearing sweaters and long-sleeved shirts.

So our 1-year anniversary is coming up this weekend, and we have no plans.  : (  I really wanted to celebrate at Disneyland since we honeymooned in Disney World (and we won't get a chance to go to D-land until Baby H gets a little older), but it's going to be so hot this weekend I'd rather not stand in long lines in the heat.  We're thinking of postponing that trip until Halloween time since the decorations are really neat then, but we'll see how I'm feeling at that point...I'll be between 30 and 32 weeks along!  Holy cow.  And I know I won't be able to ride the fun roller coasters, but Disneyland to me is about the experience anyway.  And yummy food, heehee.  I get an excuse to eat a little more, right?!  But yeah, we are going to try and brainstorm some ideas in the next couple days on what to do-I have Monday off so it will be a long three-day weekend.  I'm open to suggestions people!

End of Week 22: Tough Spot

I wish this would be a happy post about my recent happenings, but I'm pretty stressed out about our five year old french bulldog Coltrane.

Coltrane, our five year old french bulldog

She has always been really protective of me since a little pup, and has caused me much stress being around other people, especially in the home.  She constantly jumps and nips at someone who enters the house/apartment, and if it's a group of people, she'll single out one person and always lunge at them whenever they come near me.  It's really frustrating because she gets worse when I interject, even when I'm the one she's trying to protect.  She has some weird glitch in her brain that just makes her focus on attacking that one person, no matter what.  After five months or so with her, I hired a trainer to come to our home to fix it.  I know one visit wouldn't do much, but I had to try something.  It didn't help as she still lunged at my ex-boyfriend whenever he got close to me even though I tried following our trainer's advice.

She also hates dancing, high-fives, sudden movements, dice rolling, card shuffling, hugs and other dogs at the dog parks.  Most of this she hates when I'm in the room, but she still hates other dogs at the park when she's with the hubby.

I thought she would grow out of this, but at five years old, she's just gotten worse.  My husband is with her more than I am since I work full-time, and takes care of her almost more than I do.  But she still hates when he gets close to me; when we hug, she's gotten better about jumping at the hubs, but she will still come and sit right in between us on the floor.  Whenever we play games with dice or cards, she'll become alert and sit at my husband's feet and start licking him constantly and try nipping at his hands when she gets a chance.  We have to put her in her crate when we play, and then she will just start licking her crate for up to 30 minutes.

I have tried everything from squirt bottles, ignoring her, crate training, even tried to reward her when she did the right thing, but nothing has ever worked.  Ever.  My theory is that she was neglected when she was a puppy; I saw her for sale at six months old, and she was half the price of her brothers and sisters because no one adopted her when she was eight weeks old (which is when most of them go to other homes).  I put a down payment on her, but didn't get her until she was eight months old.  I have no idea how she was treated for her first eight months of her life, and because she's so protective and doesn't like loud, sudden noises, she may have been abused or witnessed abuse or just neglected.  But these are just theories.

Now that I'm pregnant, I have a feeling she's gotten even worse because she senses the baby and is in over-protective mode.  Last night was the worst I've ever seen her.  Hubby came and laid on the couch next to me, and she started lunging at him.  When he told her to stop, she wouldn't.  When I got up and started to pull her away, she lunged at his face.  She really tried to bite his face, which she has never done before.  I put my full weight on top of her and it made her worse-she really wanted to attack him.  Her eyes were super dilated and wouldn't take them off of the hubs.  As I was trying to pick her up to put her in her crate, she was using her full force to pull away from me to get at him.  He didn't do anything except try to lay next to me.  It was kind of a terrifying experience.

What's really sad is that the other 80% of the time she's a big sweetheart.  She just lays next to both us in the mornings and cuddles.  She plays really well with our other pup Miles, and never hurts him intentionally.  They get rough, but just dog-play rough.  She's fun to play with, and since she's a lazy dog she's pretty quiet and mellow the rest of the time.  And when we used to hike all the time, she was great at following us off leash (but not when lizards or rabbits were present).

I have to admit I've never been really great with pets in the past; I've had so many animals in my life come and go: terrible luck with cats, as almost all of them were run over...rabbits came and went...hamsters disappeared and even one ate another one's head off (gross right?)...rats were released into the wild...goldfish would die easily...chinchilla was too much to handle...turtles were high-maintenance...I even had a puppy in middle school, but I was no where near responsible enough to take care of it by myself so she left me after a couple months.  I had a puppy before Coltrane too that I adopted from the pound-he was a big lab/pit mix, and even after a month of class-training, I couldn't control him from biting my ankles and being a nuisance.  He left me about a month after Coltrane came into my life.

So I'm really in a tough situation right now with Coltrane.  She literally scared me so much last night to the point where I don't know if we can handle her anymore.  We don't have the money to get her proper training, and she may not attack the baby, but I don't want her attacking my husband while he's watching.  And I get worried when the baby starts to grow up as a toddler, and he'll be moving around, dancing, basically doing things Coltrane hates.  It's scary.  But at the same time, part of me doesn't want to give up on her either.  Even though she has some weird OCD brain glitch, I want her to be well-taken care of.

So for those friends and family out there reading this post, it would be very much appreciated to get some advice, as I'm at a lost of what to do with her.  I thought dogs were supposed to be man's best friend and cause relaxation instead of so much stress and worry.  I've put up with this behavior for over four years now, but I don't know if I can take it much longer.

Baby H's Nana is MAGIC

After my blog entry yesterday morning, the day went by a little smoother.  My coworker ended up spraying Raid we found under the sink in cracks and crevices, and we had to open all the windows to make sure I wasn't breathing it in too much.  His funny comment: "We don't want your baby to come out with three eyes or something!"  After that I saw one or two ants, but not as bad as before.  And this morning no ants were in the kitchen.  Success!

After work I picked up a steam cleaner from the same coworker so that we can really get our carpets sparkly.  Miles still piddles everywhere when he gets excited, which is very annoying, so the entry to our townhouse is pretty filthy.  Hubby is motivated to move around all our furniture on his day off today, so we want a clean slate to work with as well.  When I got home yesterday, I was so exhausted from just sitting in traffic again; but after hubs went to work, I pushed myself to work out.  I turned on one of my videos...if you don't remember the gem I talked about last month from the late 80s, here's a recap photo:

Sad part is, when I first tried this video out, I got a slight burn doing the interval training but I wasn't winded or anything.  This time around the video tired me out a lot more.  That's what extra weight does to you.  I am proud that I got through the whole thing though.  Who knew raising your arms over your head over and over for 45 minutes really wears you out?

I managed to take photos of items that Baby H's Nana sent us yesterday, and wowsers, she is a creative wizard AND the best Nana.  These two boxes were full-one box of awesome clothes, one box of items she made herself.  Here are the highlights:

Top left: Breastfeeding cover up, 3 awesome taggie blankets with robots!
Top right: Cute pajamas Nana made
Bottom left corner: Nana-made pjs and sweatsuit
Bottom middle: Baby H's first Mickey outfit with other cute outfits
Bottom right: Swaddle blankets, leftover rings from the taggie blankets and swaddle wrap

Top left: How cute are these suspender outfits?!
Top right: Not sure if you can read the note, but the onesie with the camera says "Like Father, Like Son"
Bottom left: Adorable long-sleeve onesies
Bottom right: These could be my favorite polo onesies I've ever seen

And to complete the whole package, a Monster's Inc. onesie and Baby H's very own Sock Monkey Onesie and sock monkey doll

By the way, thinking of the camera onesie, I forget to mention all the time how proud I am of my hubby and his photography.  He gets better every time he shoots, and I know he gets upset with me when I don't want to pose for him all the time (too self conscious!), but he's still a wonderful photographer.  Here are some photos he's taken from our Yosemite trip back in July:

And then photos from the Bodie Ghost Town we visited as we were leaving Yosemite:

Also, here are some images from our cousin Chris & Lisa's wedding...which I think are better than our own wedding photos (unfortunately)...

FYI Barbie...hubby is going to have some skills when he takes extra photos of your wedding!  ;)

Week 22: Rough Start

You guys, I apologize for the upcoming Debbie Downer rant I am about to write...but my morning has had a really rough start...they may seem small in the grand scheme of things, but they all add up to one bummer of a morning!  I promise to write positive things at the end of my post though, just to try and look at the bright side of life (oh Monty Python).

It wasn't the worst of my morning, but Miles took forever to do his business outside.  I think it's because this brave cat has been hanging out where I usually take them to potty, and it's probably marking all over the place.  But Miles wouldn't poop.  It took way longer than usual, which caused me to leave a little later than usual this morning.  Okay, what's 5-10 minutes going to do (DOMINO EFFECT)...

My commute this morning took ONE HOUR AND 15 MINUTES.  Traffic has been so bad lately due to school (I think).  When I lived in Washington, it took almost two hours to commute to the university I was teaching at, but that was only two days a week.  I have to sit in this traffic five days a week.  I'm in a car for over two hours of my day.  That's almost 11 hours a week in a car, in traffic, with terrible drivers all around me.  But if Miles would have pooped right away like he usually does, I would have only been 5 minutes late to work, but nope, I was 15 minutes late.  The good news is the one faculty member who is here at 8am sharp is with his grandkids today, and everyone else usually comes in an hour or two later.  Phew.  But ask the hubby, I really stress when I'm late to anything.  All in all, I usually can handle my long commute-I've been doing it for almost two years now-but lately it has been getting to me.

I get into work, and the first thing I see as I walk into our kitchenette area:

Okay, it may not look horrific, but I've been battling these little ants for over a week now.  They were all over the counter and even on the coffee maker.  I put in a request to our campus facilities to set up traps/spray for them nine days ago, but of course nothing has happened yet.  I had to flush them all down the sink, then smush the rest.  Needless to say it was an epic battle, but I came out the victor.  Part of me really hates killing anything, but when they invade your space, you have to do what you have to do.

While I was fighting the insect infestation, I was juggling heating my oatmeal, answering the phone and checking my emails.  Today is the day where students can sign up for their private music lessons online, which is a big day since a lot of these students have been really antsy to get their time slot.  And what happens?  The online system ISN'T WORKING.  I had to contact web support again (this isn't the first time something on our website hasn't worked), and after 10 minutes of juggling confused, stressed students the system turned back on.  But of course my oatmeal boiled over the bowl in the microwave and I spent a few minutes cleaning it up.

Present time: I'm a little more calm and collected, now that I can sit and eat my oatmeal and blueberries.  But then...I'm still pretty down about my four-week checkup with the OB/GYN from last night...

The good: Blood pressure is great, Baby H's heartbeat sounded great, the OB/GYN I saw yesterday was hilarious...but I gained weight.  Um, a little TOO much weight.  I'm glad she had a sense of humor, but wowsers, I can't believe how much weight I have gained in four weeks.  She didn't believe it either-the nurse practitioner had weighed me before I saw the doc, and then the doc made me get on the scale again just to double check the nurse had it right.  How embarrassing.

I came home to a very supportive hubby, and I'm so thankful for that.  But man, I've never felt so disappointed with myself.  The slightly good news is that I am able to still gain 10 to 15 pounds, but that's over the next 18 weeks, not four.

I made the dinner I planned, then I made us take a walk afterwards.  I'm determined to really watch what I eat now, and stay as active as possible.  Oh yeah, I told my doc that when I'm on the elliptical machine I get very minor cramps in my lower abs, and she said "Those are contractions.  You probably need to take it a little easier."  Holy $!*&.  So I can exercise, but very, very moderately.  Sigh.

Oh and the last of the scary news my doc told me...I let her know I'm flying out to Washington at the end of September and asked if that was okay or not.  She said as long as my pregnancy so far has been normal, I should be fine, but I'll be at about 27 weeks along, and there is a small chance that I could give birth at that time.  If that does happen while in Washington, I'm NOT ALLOWED TO BRING THE BABY BACK.  WTF?!  Apparently I can't transport him between state lines?!  The probability of this happening is extremely low, but that what if sent my brain spiraling.

So that's me in a nutshell at the beginning of my 22 weeks of pregnancy.

Okay, positive note, like I promised.  My bestie Barbie and I were chatting through gmail this week, and she asked me what were the best and worst things of being pregnant.  The worst, which I faced yesterday, is gaining weight (so far...I think I've had it easier than most considering I didn't know I was pregnant until after the first trimester).  But the best part-that made me really ponder.  I think the best part is having the ability to produce a little life inside of me.  Knowing that I am capable of growing something for so long and that it is a part of me and my hubby, it's simply a miracle.  Now that I can feel Baby H way more often just makes me smile.  And that my friends puts all the rough moments I had this morning into perspective.  Big breath and sigh.  I can do this!

H is for...hungry

As promised, here are photos of the current "Nana Box" that was sent to us (that's what my mother-in-law wants to be called :) )...

Hubby's old stuffed animals!

I love the onesie, but as the title of this entry states, this mama gets hungry way quicker!  I've been trying to bring healthy snacks to work so that I can graze all day, as well as on my long commute home.  Baby H has been moving so much more lately, no wonder he's calling for "womb service".  Hahaha, get it?  Maybe pregnancy makes you have a weirder sense of humor as well...

I'm a little exhausted today, due to lack of sleep from emotional stress.  Once something sets me off, I just can't stop obsessing over it, therefore the waterworks turn on and they just won't stop.  When I pulled myself out of bed this morning, my eyes were just big swollen messes.  Thankfully I just looked in the mirror and noticed they're back to normal, phew.  I'm feeling a lot better this morning, but I wish my work had a siesta time; I could use a mid-day nap.

I was able to work out yesterday as well as take one of the dogs for a quick power walk after dinner while the hubby was at work...but my lower back is starting to hurt more and more each day.  I wish I could lay flat on my back, but all the pregnancy websites advice against it at this point since it could interfere with the blood flow and nutrients to Baby H.  I may have to give in today to just stretch it out.

Lastly, I found out Baby H moves a lot when I play this exact song...maybe he's dancing.

21 Weeks: World's Largest Gummy Bear

Today marks week 21 for Baby H.  I receive a few different pregnancy email updates, and my favorite so far is from pregnantchicken.com...instead of the normal comparison of my baby to a fruit or vegetable (which today is a carrot or banana), pregnantchicken.com referenced Baby H to about the size of "the world's largest gummy bear, although, it's a lot heavier at 5 pounds".  Heehee.  :)

I was going to wait until I was 7 months pregnant to tell this story, because it does correlate, but I've decided to share one of my more miserable tales as a pregnant lady.  It's been a while, so the story is not word for word, but this is basically how it went down...

When I was 16 weeks pregnant, the hubby and I went to Starbucks for breakfast since my pa gave me a "Congratulations, You're Pregnant!" gift card (only my dad).  The lady cashier noticed I had a bump and was really friendly about it.  But then she opened her big mouth as she was handing over our drinks.

Barista: "So, let me guess how far along you are..."  <brief pause>

             "7 months?"

I laugh hard, and answer, "No, I'm only 16 weeks along."

Barista: "Oh wow, this is your first, right?  Usually first timers don't show until farther on.  Are you having twins?!"

Me: "No, just one.  Um, I guess it's just going to be a big baby."

She kept going on, making me feel worse, and then talked about her kids, blah blah blah.  I tuned out at that point because she made me feel like a cow.  Seriously lady, great customer service skills you have, making a first-time mom feel gigantic!  Hubby and I ranted the whole way home about her.  And so far from other moms I either get the excited congrats, horror stories of pregnancy, or forms of the above blunt barista.  Sigh.

In other news, I'm excited to be heading up to Washington next month!  I'm not a fan of the airport process, but I'm a big fan of traveling.  I received this flyer in the mail and don't think I'll be traveling this year to it, but maybe next year:

There I am in the front of the corner photo, cheesing away

This was an eye-opening conference last year, and learned a lot about preparing for group tours!  Most of the other people there are heavily involved with their college ensembles touring, so they had a lot of good information.  This year our choir director is on sabbatical in the spring, so the wind ensemble will be traveling to northern California, and I'm sad I'll miss it (but I'll be on maternity leave!).  Next year the choir is traveling to Austria and Germany!  I don't know if I'll be able to go or not, seeing how Baby H will only be 1 year old, but you never know, maybe Baby H will be an international traveler too.  He'll already have experience traveling to New York next August for my bestie's wedding!

Tomorrow I'll be back to post some photos of another lovely baby care package the mother-in-law sent us.  She's so sweet!

Mid-20 Weeks: Karate Kid Hovland

So I broke down and bought a donut last week...one of my weaknesses (I feel like Homer Simpson).  I ate half at work, and then half after my dinner while the hubby was at work.  I couldn't tell if Baby Hovland likes or dislikes donuts, but it sent him into a serious kicking frenzy!  I'm pretty sure I've felt him squirm/move around the last couple weeks, but after that donut, oh boy, I knew he was kicking or tumbling.  Probably from the sugar rush.  I texted the hubby and over the next couple days he kept wanting to feel him kick.  This weekend as we were sitting on the couch, I started feeling him move again and hubby was able to feel one solid kick.  His reply..."Feels like gas".  Yes, yes it does.  But I know it's the baby.

Nothing too exciting to report from the weekend-I did the grocery shopping on Saturday, and most the time I love it, but this time made me hate people.  Granted shopping on a Saturday morning with everyone else is always going to be a nightmare, but what I hate is having to do grocery shopping at two different stores.  I generally buy most of my groceries from Trader Joe's, but their lack of produce and ethnic foods sends me to bigger chains.  This time I actually started at Von's, thinking I could get everything there for a cheaper price, but alas, I still had to drive over to TJs for a few items.  It really makes me miss the grocery stores in Washington.

Hubby and I discussed baby shower plans in Washington at the end of September since my sister-in-law and mother-in-law are going to throw me one there (which is AWESOME).  Originally we both planned on heading up, but with two pups who would have to go to overnight daycare, it would just cost too much.  So I'll be heading up alone.  I'm a little sad, being this obviously pregnant lady on a plane by herself, but it'll be such a short trip I'll be home in no time.

This morning I woke up a little later than usual...I have two alarms that go off-one to warn me I have 10 more minutes of sleep, then the second is the "seriously, wake up" alarm.  I didn't hear the second alarm, or I did and my sleepy self turned it off and went straight back to bed...so I scrambled when I saw I overslept 20 minutes.  Whoops.  I was able to take the dogs out, get ready, make breakfast for myself, make lunches for the hubs and I, AND have these pictures taken of my mid-20 week bump:

I feel like my belly has grown a lot over the last couple weeks, which I read is supposed to happen.  I've also only gained a pound since last week-what a relief.  I worked out five times last week and have been eating better...with the exception of yesterday's brunch at the Souplantation, our new favorite place to go-probably because it's a buffet, but we didn't realize they do breakfast.  Boy did we eat our money's worth and then some.

This week I'll be making a lot of phone calls to Simi Valley Hospital-it's time to set up all our fun birthing/newborn classes in the next couple months!  I've already scheduled our maternity ward tour for October, but I have to wait for them to call me back to set up the four-week pregnancy class and breast-feeding class...babies are a lot of work!  I just can't believe how time is flying by...before we know it, Baby Hovland will be kicking and screaming outside my tummy.

Week 20: Is It Friday Yet?

Happy Hump Day everyone!

I really wish it was Friday, but alas, it's a foggy Wednesday.  I heard that this week Los Angeles has had lower-than-average weather, and I'm definitely thankful for it since where we live is always 10-15 degrees hotter than everywhere else.

We received our second baby box from the mother-in-law on Monday, and here is what she sent:

CUTE clothes from Heidi Klum's baby line...who knew?!

Keepsakes from the hubby's childhood!  Such a cutie pie.

Hubby ran some errands at Target yesterday, and along with a few necessary items for the apartment, he found these:

When we met up with my bestie and her baby to help with our registry, baby had this cute toy that hung from his stroller and you could pull it down and it would shake back up.  Hubby fell in love with it, so he found a similar one (the lion).  I asked if he knew that our baby will be a "lump" for the first three months, but he really loves buying toys (for the dogs, himself and baby now ; )).

I've been a little more tired this week, but that's probably because I should be going to bed a little earlier than I am.  I've been working out every day so far, which feels good since I counteract it with snacks and dessert.  Here was my view yesterday on the stationary bike:

Can you see how nice of a view we have in the cardio area?  Lucky to have a nice gym at my work!

I've calmed down a lot about bringing up a newborn in a one-bedroom apartment...the internet saves the day!  I have been researching articles and blogs about other families raising a newborn in the same situation, and all of them are so reassuring.  It's not surprising to read a lot of these families are in New York City, but the way they describe what you absolutely need just made me feel, well, not alone.  We have a pretty large apartment (or townhome technically since we have no one below us, only garages), and if we rearrange our furniture we can make it work.  It's probably not a good idea to move when our lease is up (one month before the baby is due), so cross your fingers they don't try to raise our rent to an absurd amount.  We will also look into a shorter lease, just to see our options.  And Pinterest made me feel good about saving $$$...I've found a lot of recipes that I want to try, especially crock pot ones, so that will save us money since a lot of it goes to eating out.  All in all, I'm halfway through pregnancy and feeling very optimistic about our future family!  (No crying spurts so far this week, I swear!)

Case of the Mondays (for the hubs)

Happy Monday everyone!  Well, it has not been the greatest start.  I tried waking up early to get ingredients prepped for a slow cooker meal, and that took a little longer than I thought.  So I was running a tad bit late to work.  But then when hubby went to move his car since it was blocking mine in the garage, it wouldn't start.  He purchased a new battery last week and installed it himself (which was a pain as it was over 100 degrees in our garage), and it worked all weekend until this morning.  After meddling with it for 15 minutes and nothing happening, we decided to just get a Triple A membership for him to get his car either towed or a battery jump.  When I took the dogs out to pee, he tried starting it one more time and it magically worked.  I was only a half hour late to work, but I hope he gets the problem fixed, and not just temporarily.

Other than that, my Monday has been smooth sailing so far, but it's still early morning so we'll see what happens!

This weekend was pretty lazy and relaxing.  We have a membership to the L.A. Zoo, so we decided to check it out Saturday morning.  It's not the best zoo, especially in comparison to zoos in Washington or the San Diego one, but it was neat to check out the animals again.  What we really dislike about this particular zoo are the people...for some reason, we always see these huge families with really bad-mannered children running everywhere, knocking on the glass when it specifically says not to, shouting and running in front of us to look at things.  What annoys us the most is that the parents don't even care or do anything, it's so obnoxious!  We try not to be the grumpy couple at the zoo, but when the above happens at every turn, it's hard not to.  We spent a few hours there and decided to get lunch...and discussed how Baby Hovland will have good manners instilled in him.

When we got home, we had a knock on the door and found a package from the mother-in-law...and holy cow, this made my day:

Would you look at that skill?!  Little crocheted "amigurumi" rattles for Baby Hovland!  They are so cute, and I can't believe she made these on her own.  And next to it is a very cute onesie from Macy's-here's a better picture:

Baby Hovland is definitely getting hooked up.  Apparently she sent another package, but surprise-surprise, we never received it.  And we wonder why the USPS is losing money.

Sunday I cleaned the apartment all morning; I told hubby I think this is my "nesting" phase, or at least it comes in waves.  I get this urge to clean, organize, create, etc. and I'm on robot mode.  Once I finished, we went grocery shopping and found a store called "BuyBuy Baby" next to the Sprouts.  We never heard/seen the store, so we decided to check it out real quick.  The first thing we both noticed when we walked in was it looked exactly like Bed, Bath and Beyond-merchandise was stacked to the ceiling in the same fashion and organized similarily.  We took a lap around the store and noticed the prices were about the same as Babies R Us, until we found a few carriers.  I pointed out the one I registered for-it's this very ergonomic carrier, and it's not cheap, but the store was selling it for $230-it costs $120 on the carrier's website!  Once I saw that, we beelined for the door.  On our way out we saw this cute grass-bottle dryer that we registered for as well; Target sells it for $15, they were selling it for $24.  How ridiculous...so to all my friends who have babies/thinking of having babies, DO NOT GO TO BUYBUY BABY!  What's weird is that same day my mother-in-law sent me an email with their website, asking me if we ever knew about it.  She read our minds!

Well I hope everyone has a good Monday, or that it goes by quickly.  I'll be posting soon about how my crock pot meal turned out, and how Week 20 arrives--I can't believe I'm almost half-way through pregnancy!  Time really does fly by fast (especially when you don't find out you're pregnant until the second trimester...).

19 Weeks, 11 month anniversary tomorrow

After my stressful start to the week, things have calmed down significantly.  I literally cried myself to sleep Monday night, overwhelmed by every little detail about the baby.  Hubby came to the rescue yet again and calmed me down.  Damn you hormones.

I've been getting more than 6 1/2 hours of sleep this week, and I feel really good.  I still wake up every couple hours to turn over or visit the bathroom, but I haven't been groggy at work which is nice.  And this is all without coffee anymore!

Since it's still summer and not too much is going on at work, I was poking around Pinterest and found this really awesome website where they let you "register" for anything you want from ANYWHERE.  Since we have three different places, this site is super handy-all we have to do is tell our baby shower invites the link and they can see what we registered for where, and in addition put anything else we want from any website, store, etc.  It also gives you other sites where things are sold with different prices!  It's called babyli.st, and I spent a good chunk of time condensing our registries.  Babies need so much stuff, and I thought registering for a wedding was a lot of work!

My goal this week is/was to get more exercise and eat better, since I gained a little more weight than I should have.  Monday I hit the elliptical machine during my lunch break, Tuesday we took a nice family walk after dinner and saw two guys ciphering gas out of a big rig into their truck.  At 8:30pm.  Maybe we didn't leave Van Nuys after all.  This led to a discussion on where we should move next...anyway, then today I'm going to try and jog/walk at the gym during my lunch.  I've been eating a lot more fruits and vegetables and only went out once for a co-worker farewell lunch at Toppers Pizza.  But they have a great lunch deal where you get a trip to the salad bar and a mini pizza with two toppings; I think it was a good amount of food.  Although yesterday I went to throw my lunch scraps away outside my office and saw a McDonald's bag poking out, which spurred this overwhelming craving for french fries all day.  I was miserable!  But, I didn't cave in, and came home to cook a yummy steak dinner with twice baked potatoes and broccoli.  Phew!  Crisis averted.  While I was cooking, I turned around and saw this:

It's a little blurry because every time I try to take a photo of these two, they move so I had to act quick.  It was adorable...but of course they were just waiting for me to feed them.

Tomorrow is the hubby and my 11 month anniversary!  Where did the time go?  I really didn't imagine being almost over five months pregnant when our one-year anniversary would come around.  But life is unpredictable, and as hubby put it Monday night we wanted to have a family eventually, but life dealt it to us a little earlier than scheduled (or something like that).  And then my usually pessimistic husband tells me all we can do is stay positive and happy.  That took me by surprise...but also made me relax a lot more.  If he can be calm and happy, I can be calm and happy.  I usually am the positive one!

I'm definitely ready for the weekend...we might take a light hike, but no set plans which is fine with me.  Is it Friday yet?