Week 33: Good & Bittersweet Times

Last week flew by, but here we go with photo updates starting Thursday since not much else happened earlier except that it rained like crazy on Tuesday...and of course my lovely Hubs turned 34 on Wednesday!  I gave him a present from Leif-dress shoes for his CAS Awards night...but of course, they turned out to be almost exactly the same as his other dress shoes, so he's going to return them soon and we'll do some hiking shoe shopping.  :)

Thursday, February 18

Co-worker Kyle had his going away lunch on Thursday.  He's the one who had my position then moved over to the Assistant to the Chair position.  He's a really sweet guy and super knowledgable-I'm going to miss him!

Lunch at Acapulco close to our university-Kyle is all the way at the end; I'm there two seats to the right. 

And that day I was super tired and out of it; I took a Benadryl on top of it all because my allergies were haywire, and that didn't help.  Of course my interview for Kyle's position was at 2:30pm-pretty much soon after lunch.  Food did help wake me up, but I was honestly out of it for the interview-especially since I knew the panel (which Kyle was on too, haha).  I blanked on one question mid-way and am unsure if I answered it correctly, but I did something right...I was told the next day I got the job!  Woohoo!

Friday, February 19

Some of the staff went to lunch once more to say goodbye to Kyle, and we took a staff photo before he left:

Over half of these lovely faces are student assistants and we're missing one other staff person.  I'm huge, right?

I was a little stressed that day because 1. I was trying to train my student assistant on my position while 2. Learning how to do Kyle's job in oh, about half an hour.  It was nuts.  I still am unsure on a lot of things, but good thing I'm a quick learner.  They asked for me to start the following Monday, but I can't do anything until I get the phone call from HR...

That night we celebrated Hubs' birthday since it was in the middle of the week...I invited our friend Daryl over, and we had a nice time.  It was SO cute-I lit Hubs' candles on the cake, and Leif blew them out immediately.  At least he knows what to do now!

My sweet boy loves cake.  Who doesn't?!

Happy 34th birthday Hubs!

Our friend Daryl enjoying cake too.  :)

After Leif went to bed, we just ordered pizza and watched South Park.  Fun Friday evening...but of course Hubs had to pass out earlier than later.  Darn his dairy problem.

Saturday, February 20

CAS Awards Night!

First we thought we should bring Miles to the dog park so that he wouldn't be so crazy with the babysitter.

Miles making new friends.

When we arrived to the dog park, Leif was passed out-but he woke up a little later and came out to see the pups with daddy (daddy is a trooper and stays in the car with Leif as he naps!).  He traded daddy his hat for sunglasses.  :)

We got home way later than we wanted to, and it was a mad dash to try and get ready while watching Leif.  Hubs let me get a head start, and we should have had our babysitter come earlier so that we could get ready easier...but the driver they sent for us was nice and patient.  We were 20 minutes late out the door, and we could have taken our time-the car was sent at 3:15pm, the event didn't start until 5:30pm and that was just cocktail hour.  We left the house around 3:40pm, got to the hotel at 4:45pm, and had to kill SO much time-we didn't know anyone there and so we meandered around for quite a while.

Pretty hotel!

Look at my huge bump!

Handsome Hubs.  :)

In the cocktail room, they had this harpist play.    

Beginning of cocktail hour-this place was way more packed right before the event.

Decided to grab a drink for Hubs/water for me at the bar-cheaper than the cocktail room!

We finally loaded into the main event-they had this Irish band play which was fun.

Beautiful location!

Selfies :)

Good luck Hubs!

Yay!

No need to choose, they just give you surf and turf!  We were all trying to figure out what that yellow thing was on our plate-turned out to be a weird little squash.

We didn't realize it until he got up, but Bryan Cranston from Breaking Bad/Malcolm in the Middle was sitting at the table in front of us the whole time!  He was honoring Director Jay Roach.

Ed Asner presented the last award of the night, and he gave such a pervy little speech about how the movie Up got him laid more than ever.  LOL.  I don't know the lady next to him, but he kept staring at her boobs the whole time.  Good times.

Hubs unfortunately didn't win-his team lost to Game of Thrones, which I thought was BS because they should have separated the categories into Drama/Comedy and Action.  Better Call Saul was up against Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead!  No fair.  Next time though-I'm sure he'll be back!

The Awards ran long and we didn't get home until 11:45pm.  Apparently Leif was very good with the babysitter...I'm sure Miles was worse than him.

Sunday, February 21

We went out for breakfast that morning, and we believe the world is trying to teach us a lesson about going out to eat.  We put our name down for a table, they said it would be around 5 minutes, and the next thing I see is other people getting called to sit that came after us.  Hubs didn't want me to make a big deal, but I'm glad I went and checked because they had crossed our name out for some reason!  Then we asked for a booster seat, never came (we are so bad luck with booster seats!).  We ordered Leif's food before ours, and it came after our food.  Good thing the food was good, because we were getting very grumpy.  Oh, and Leif fell out of his booster seat and onto the floor (we had to ask the manager for it finally, but bad choice)...that scared us big time.  To top it all off, this Lexus SUV parked so close to our car that Hubs could barely get the door open.  Seriously people?!  Rough start.

Hubs then went over to Daryl's house to watch NASCAR/update our Xbox (no internet is wearing thin), and after Leif and I took a nap (oh yes-he was asleep on our way home and managed to stay asleep thanks to Hubs), we played most the afternoon.

He sure loves Buzz Lightyear.  What do you think -Buzz Hovland?  lol.

And there's your update.  As you previously saw my bump, I'm so huge I'm surprised I'm not toppling over.  I can't believe I have six more weeks to go!  By the way, I learned that if you show up to an Awards Night pregnant, you get more compliments and congrats than if you weren't pregnant.  So that was fun!  Lots of really gorgeous ladies would come up and say how beautiful I was, and men would congratulate me.  It was weird, but very uplifting considering I felt so huge.

We will see how February wraps up-I'm just trying to stay sane at work as yesterday I had very stern phone calls/emails, all because I was told to do something by my predecessor...for example, I needed to switch copiers out of the office across the hall into my office to do stapled programs and asked about computer switching when I take over.  The Dean's Office called and said that was a job for someone else (who I CC'd-but I was told to contact them in the first place) and that I'm not officially over there until HR calls me so I can't worry about that yet.  Sounds harmless but you should have heard this lady.  Then I get a parking pass request from a faculty member for the day of and even though I was forwarded an email from Kyle with the same kind of request and kind reply, I got a stern "we will try to accommodate your request but we need parking requests turned in 24 hours in advance".  Kyle didn't get that notification!  WTF.  So yeah, rough start yesterday.  I know Hubs was struggling at work yesterday too.  Damn Mondays.

On top of all of this, I'm still having trouble breathing-I think it's allergies still, but it could be a cold; I don't have a headache and generally feel fine, I just have a stuffed up nose and sore throat when I wake up.  And I refuse to rely on my benadryl as it makes me even sleepier than I am!  Sorry to be so whiny...I just haven't had a "perfect" day in a while where I feel rested, work is good, I can breathe and Leif behaves.  Is that too much to ask for?!  Haha.

Okay, back to the grindstone.  Hope everyone else is having a lovely day!

Valentine's Day Week/32 Weeks Pregnant

Hi everyone!  Hope you all had a nice weekend, and for some of you, having a nice day off.  My work combines President's Day into our Winter Break, so I have to be at the office today...but Hubs has the day off and took Leif to the Science Museum.  Wish I could go with them!  Here's how Week 32 of pregnancy went in a nutshell...

Wednesday, February 10

If I have the time, I'll make a healthy protein shake before work.  I had a little helper on Wednesday.  :)

While I was making Leif dinner, Hubs played trains with him.  He's starting to make a cute "concentration" face.

 Thursday, February 11

I had back to back appointments at my hospital that morning; met a doctor they assigned me due to last minute scheduling.  He was nice, but not my favorite.  I re-booked him for my follow up just because he already knows my chart, but I'm hoping to switch OB's after that.  I really dislike when doctors point out how much weight you are supposed to gain while pregnant.  I've talked to other pregnant/previously pregnant ladies, and most of them say how much they love their docs for not pointing that out because they understand...maybe I need a girl OB.  But then again, my last OBs were all small Korean ladies, and half of them mentioned weight, half not.  So I guess it's a gamble.  I got to see a quick ultrasound of Baby #2, and again the doctor pointed out how extroverted he is about his gender (first image we saw in the ultrasound was of his little ding-dong...hello!).  But he's growing fine, and for some reason the changed due date wasn't in my previous OB's notes...ugh.  So we recalculated and it looks like he's due April 5 now-same day as my niece!

Next appointment was with the Head Labor & Delivery Nurse who walked me through the delivery day, touched up on breastfeeding, plans, and the actual Labor Ward.  Then she walked me through it.  It's nice, but of course, it's a hospital, what more can I say?  The whole talk though jogged my memory of Leif's birth and frightened me all over again (we had a long chat about the epidural process).  Since with Leif's birth the doc popped my water/hospital gave me pitocin to speed up contractions, I never went through a "normal" start to the birthing process.  I'm nervous about what's going to happen with #2-will my water break naturally?  Will I experience contractions?  Where will it happen?  AHH!

I had to stop by two more places in the hospital before leaving-one was the pharmacy; doc prescribed me codeine as my rib pain hasn't subsided and it feels like I almost break my lower ribs whenever I sneeze/cough (which sneezing is now almost daily thanks to the crazy weather/allergies).  So far it's worked wonders!  Thank you doc.

Second I had to go to the Records Department to get my leave of absence paperwork filled out...we've come along way in tech/how paperwork is handled that the doc set something up online, then someone else fills out the rest of the paperwork.  It's weird.  So I had to set my last day of work and I chose March 24-it's during spring break and I'd like to take some time to relax/get the house prepared.  And who knows, Baby #2 can come out earlier than later.

After work/Leif pick-up, we headed to the store (Von's to be precise) to grab food for Leif's Valentine's Party the next day and extra food that I can't get at Trader Joe's (where I do the majority of my grocery shopping!).

He doesn't like to smile for photos anymore...but here we are checking out. 

Friday, February 12

My co-workers are the sweetest!  Here is what I was given:

Since it was a nice day, I decided to try and take walks on all my breaks and half my lunch break.  Right around the corner we have an orange grove with a duck/turtle pond!  Definitely a nice way to relax and a great place to walk.

Weird to see so many students walking around campus and then to see no one in the Orange Grove.

Look at all the turtles sunning!

As I was heading back to my office, decided to snap the courtyard within the music building.  Those trees are so pretty but they are the culprit of my crazy allergy attacks!  Benadryl to the rescue...

 Saturday, February 13

We did some quick shopping and grabbed a couple suits and accessories for Hubs since his Awards Night is the following Saturday.  I returned a dress to Macy's and Hubs was sweet and grabbed me some new maternity clothes from Old Navy...all my warm weather pregnancy clothes was towards the first trimester with Leif...so I don't really have anything that fits now that it's climbing into the 80s!

Hubs and I decided to have a very low-key Valentine's weekend and we ended up ordering Indian food from our favorite place.  Apparently the dish we thought had no dairy in it had a little-Hubs passed out immediately after our late dinner!

Sunday, February 14

Happy (belated) Valentine's Day!

We drove around for a while to get Leif to nap in the car...he's starting to resist nap times (Saturday was a pain, but we finally got him down)...we took turns going into a few shoe stores and ended up getting lunch at one of our favorite places-Salsa & Beer!

Leif chowing down on his quesadilla

Kept trying to get Leif to look at me...at least Hubs did.

Success!  No smile, but at least a cute look.

We were kind of disappointed in this location (yes, there are two), just because the food quality can be hit and miss here.  It's not like it's terrible, but it's just not up to par with the other original location.  And we asked two people for a booster seat-they both said sure and both never retrieved one.  Sigh.


Pregnancy these days...ugh, I'm so huge.  I'm trying to get in more walks and do some light weight work, and eating a little better/less carbs, but I'm BIG.  This baby may be as big/bigger than Leif.  I don't know how baby is supposed to get any bigger, I'm just hoping I don't gain any other weight in my face/arms/legs...

End of January/Early February Update (Week 31 of Pregnancy)

 Weekends are getting tough to get out since I'm starting to slow down a lot; but we try!

Saturday, January 30

We tried going to the zoo since the weather was perfect, but it was crazy-packed at 11am.  So instead we decided to check out the free "Travel-Town Museum" within the Griffith Park.  In summary: a bunch of old trains, 95% of them you cannot go into.  There were tons of families there, so kids did enjoy seeing them I guess?  We stayed a total of 30 minutes I think...Leif seemed to like it, maybe more the fact that he ran around free.

We grabbed lunch at one of our favorite places in Burbank afterwards "Zankou's Chicken", and then decided to treat ourselves since we didn't have that much of an exciting Saturday...

Seriously people-if you want to make this gal super happy, just get her macarons.  I LOVE MACARONS.  I even have a small starter kit to make them, but it seems so complicated I'm so scared to attempt it.  But they're so expensive, so maybe one day I will just dive in.  I found a place near my work that had great Yelp reviews, so we stopped in-and I have found my new favorite macaron place.  Hubs treated himself to frozen caramel popcorn from a place called "Mad Poppers"-it is delicious and has lots of fun flavors, but it doesn't compare to macarons!

That night I finally finished one of many craft/art projects that I have started.  Yes, I admit-I'm terrible about starting something and moving onto another project.  With this finished though, I only have two on my plate compared to what was like five at one point!

Ta-da!  The photos were done almost a year ago, but the middle canvas took me forever to figure out what I wanted.  I'm still not extremely happy with it (it could be better, but that's how I look at everything I make!); but I'm just proud I finished it.  Once baby #2 reaches the one-year mark, I'll take a tub photo and replace one of Leif's.  :)

And this wasn't a craft project - I'm just happy I figured out how to organize my necklaces!  They were all hanging off a standing paper towel rack and they were getting tangled; so found these babies on Amazon for cheap.  Bathroom is coming together (after living here for over 14 months!)

Monday, February 1

We are now up to five books before bedtime-I'm so glad Leif likes to read with us.  Sometimes he'll grab the book and flip through it (like the above photo), but most of the time we read to him.  

Thursday, February 4

Leif spotted the helicopter I got Hubs a while back, and so he broke it out.  I have a cute video posted here, but the sheer delight in Leif's face just melts my heart.

Sunday, February 7

Saturday the sixth was kind of a weird day (we've just had some weird voodoo with weekends lately)-we had our friend Susie come over to watch Leif in the afternoon so that I could potentially upgrade my phone, and we eventually did, but it was filled with anxiety and weird emotions.  Oh how lovely it is to have fluctuating, crazy pregnancy hormones.

Anyway, we didn't get a chance to update my phone through my iCloud, so we decided to get a nice breakfast on Sunday morning at a place that had free wi-fi.  

Figuring out what to eat

Problems we encountered unfortunately: 1. Wi-fi didn't work.  2. Waitress kept forgetting to bring things, which made me remind her a couple times. 3. She didn't bring out the right food for me.  4. The description of food did not match what came out for Hubs.  5. It was so EXPENSIVE, especially for food that I could have made at home.  So we will not be returning any time soon unfortunately (which reminds me, I really need to Yelp them since they had a 4-star rating which Hubs and I thought they did not deserve)...

And Superbowl...ah.  Back story first: Leif had another bad cough this weekend (which is worrysome-I think we need to take him in to see his pediatrician-it really hits him every two weeks and has since December); sleep was rough, but nap time is worse.  Susie came a little earlier than expected on Saturday which was before his nap, and I think because he was excited she was there and kept coughing/waking himself up, he only slept for 15 minutes.  Then Sunday I tried getting him down for his nap but he just wouldn't go.  So early bedtimes both days, but the no nap-time threw a wrench in us watching the Superbowl-which wasn't a huge deal because we didn't really care about it that much-but we started watching it at 4pm, didn't finish it until 9pm (thank you DirecTV recording access).  I had to keep consoling Leif every few minutes because he'd cough so much that he woke up screaming/crying.  I felt so bad for him, and I'm so stressed at home when he's sick.  So, I'm stressed out almost every other week.  Good times, right?  Not much we can do except take him to his pediatrician at this point.  Of course on his 2-year checkup he was fit as a fiddle with no cough, so we/they didn't say anything then.  I'm just worried that it could be a number of things, one main reason is his daycare.  Hubs says there isn't much we can do about that since he's in a class of 10 and they can't manage him individually at all times, but I think they're not doing much preventative care.  I may have to talk to his daycare too.  Sigh.

So that's it so far.  I left off last posting about relocating offices-I believe I was hired initially for this current position (Program Office Coordinator) but to then transfer over to the Assistant to the Chair position, as my predecessor will be leaving to be an Air-Traffic Controller.  Since they have to do a formal search, I had to submit my application/resume/cover letter two weeks ago, and they just went through applications today.  I think they're looking to interview next week and hopefully have someone in by the time Kyle leaves which is February 19...but wish me luck anyway, you never know.  That position pays more, but I will definitely miss the perk of having two months off in the summer.

Okay, be back soon to update you on Valentine's Day, Hubs' Birthday Celebration, CAS Awards Night, etc... :)