Home Girl Blog

6 things (but mostly people) I'm thankful for at this moment

1. Häagen-Dazs Coconut and Pineapple ice cream. Pineapples with dairy are my official pregnancy craving. I consume insane amounts of cottage cheese/pineapple/walnut salads regularly and a couple of days ago, discovered the Häagen-Dazs Coconut and Pineapple ice cream. Took my level of post-craving-indulgence satisfaction to a whole nother level.
2. My husband...for many reasons...but at this moment, for loving my family, and understanding our freakish need to be together sometimes. My sister is flying in for Thanksgiving and he woke up this morning and booked my mom a flight so she could be here too. It felt so good to call her at 7 a.m. and tell her, "Pack your bags! You comin' to Austin tonight!" Tyra Banks ANTM style. 
3. Daughtry. Duh?! Because they frikkin' rock?! And because Chris pimps a bald head and black eyeliner like no other.
4. My job and my bosses. A year ago, my feelings were a bit different. I'm thankful for bosses who are thoughtful and considerate.
5. My dogs Okie and Stella (a.k.a. my first kids). I know I have a human baby on the way, but in our case, baby makes five. ;)
6. You guys, dammit! I HEART blogging and what is a blog without readers, eh? You guys are awesome.

It's Friday! I miss grown up drinks.

Not that I am or ever have been a lush, but I enjoyed the occasional glass every now and then with dinner or at a party or just to relax and I miss that. I did go through a phase where I had to have Alizé...yes, I said Alizé...every Friday for like a month, but it was a phase. I know Alizé's not the most sophisticated drink, but I needed that spiked koolaid fix for a minute. Summer, I don't want to hear any jokes out of you...but I know better.

Anyway, I miss the burn in my chest (now temporarily replaced by heartburn) and the way one glass of wine would relax me. I'm enjoying my pregnancy, but I really look forward to that first grown-up sip. I have a long way to go since I plan on breastfeeding for about a year, so I'll try not to pine over it too much. When I can drink again, I'll have a glass of white wine. I hope it's a pleasant glass with Billy or with a friend and not a necessary glass after a long day with a busy baby. Most likely it'll be a combination of both.

Practicin' at 6 a.m.

So I woke up at 2:30 this morning to pee and never went back to sleep. I tried for a while, but when I realized it wasn't going to happen, I just gave in to my wide-awakeness and listened to Billy sleep. I placed my hand on my belly to feel the baby move around in there and just relaxed with my thoughts until about 6 a.m. By that time I couldn't take it anymore. Normally, on a weekday, I'm out of bed at 8:45-8:30 on a good day. But today, dark and early at 6 a.m., I was up making coffee and curling myself up under a blanket in my favorite over-sized chair in front of the tele with the remote.

Most surprising discovery: Nothing interesting is on television at 6 o'clock in the morning. There are the news shows, but I don't care about OJ's stupidity and who recently called Hilary a biyach on CNN, so...

I played back the episode of Private Practice that I missed yesterday. This week's episode was all about giving birth. Even before I got pregnant I couldn't watch/listen to women give birth on television. So of course now that I'll be going down that road in a few months I have ab.so.lut.ly no interest in watching actresses scream and sweat and such.

I had fast-forwarded through about two-thirds of the show, but had to stop and rewind and suffer through one of the birthing scenes in real-time because Taye Diggs had the precious heart to remove his shirt to reveal himself in a wife-beater whilst sweating...arms glistening and all. Far be it from me to not appreciate the hard work of all the writers and staff over at Private Practice to not take a moment to appreciate all the hard work they put into this episode, so I went ahead and watched those scenes in real time and just muted the volume. I LOVE this show, and not just because of Taye Diggs--the writing is SO good! The end of this episode was SO crazy and SO good and SO unexpected. I won't spoil it further for anybody who hasn't seen it yet, but when I realized what was about to go down, I actually said, "Yay!"  out loud. Dayum that writer's strike. I hope Hollywood gets their ish together real soon. I wonder if all this season's episodes of Private Practice are already done. I hope so.

It's 7:55 a.m. now and I'm still wide awake. I predict sleep will come over me around 2:00 this afternoon. This is going to be a long day. 

Waste Not

I not-so-recently bought All Natural Chunky Peanut Butter because at the time it sounded really yummy and healthy, but now I don't want it. It's been over one month and I haven't opened it yet. I don't want to be wasteful, so I'm planning to use it to make Peanut Butter Bones for Okie and Stella's Thanksgiving Day treats. I figure we have sweet potato pie, why not give my sweet babies a little something sweet and homemade for the holiday too?

I can't help it...

It's very difficult for me to watch a film with any amount of suspense without going online to moviespoiler.com to check out the ending. It's a sickness. I tell myself I'm not going to check, but the moment there's even a hint of suspense about what might happen to somebody, I have to get online before I can watch any further.

I was watching Tristan and Isolde late Sunday morning. It's a beautiful and painful love story. The second it was apparent that there might be a traitor and that someone would get caught and possibly killed, I paused the film, turned on the laptop, read the spoiler online and then watched the rest of the film with peace of mind. It didn't spoil it for me either. I was still emotional at the end and everything.

Even when we record boxing matches or football or soccer games (I don't love sports, but if it's a close competition, I'm always drawn in) I have to go online to find out who won so I can watch the rest of the competition without getting my nerves worked.

It's all about keeping my nerves cool.

R.I.P. Dr. Donda West

Sucks. I just read that Kanye West's mom died last night, apparently, due to complications during cosmetic surgery. She was only 58. I feel sad for Kanye, 'cause according to everything I've read, seen and heard over the years, his mom was his rock. If the reports that she died in cosmetic surgery are true, that's a dayum shame...a sad reason and way to have to die at her age.

AP report: Rapper Kanye West's Mother Dies

Surprise Surprise

I actually enjoyed a gospel concert. Actually, I should call it a gospel production. My husband's church had their annual concert this weekend. It had everything: gospel music, of course, a little theatrical production, some spoken word, plenty of lyrical and interpretive dancing. Basically all the things that would normally annoy me about a church service on a regular Sunday. When I go to church, usually about once or twice a month, I try to arrive a little late...after all the singing and dancing and productions...so I only hear the preacher's message, which is the part of church services I appreciate the most.  But Friday night and Saturday night (they had two shows) were nights for entertainment, and I have to say, were actually very entertaining. It was obvious that they put a lot of work into it. Billy actually took the week off to practice at home during the day and to make all 3 rehearsals during the week.

There are pictures...not so great ones, but the best I could get from my seat with the lighting and everything, <<here>>. That's my Billy, in the band, in the tan jacket.

I took some video on our camera too of Billy playing . (double click for larger view)

I also got the end of a dance-off between the two choir directors.

My favorite part of the show was this old man's old school performance of a song called Thank You Jesus (you been so good to me). I know there must be a hundred gospel songs called Thank You Jesus, which is one of the reasons I don't love gospel music--it's very redundant... full of clichés. But this old guy took it back for a minute to a bluesy version of the song. When the lights went down and that blues guitar started playing and an old head came out to the stage, I knew it was on. It reminded me a lot of Memphis and the church I grew up in and my old pastor/cousin who was an awesome human being. This was the highlight of the show for me.

I also enjoyed the spoken word performance. This guy named Brett performed a piece called "I. C. D. A. T." and it was really good. Some people in the audience snapped during parts of the performance, particularly on one part where he said something like, "The stairway to heaven is like an ES.ca.LA.tor RUn.ning in re.verse? The. first. wiiill beee laaaast? and the laaaast wiiill be first?"  It was a nice performance.

There was a pretty interpretive dance too...and not one of those...interesting... interpretive dances like miming what the words look like, but a literal interpretive dance by the signers who interpret for the hearing impaired during the curch services. It was very beautiful.

It turned out to be a fun night. After the show, Billy and I went to my favorite restaurant on the planet, IHOP, and had a good time. Spinach omelet, wheat toast, grits, and Billy. I couldn't think of a more perfect evening. :)

I was actually almost tempted to go to the second show on Saturday night with our neighbors, but it takes a lot for me to go into the city on a Saturday, and Friday was a long day so...

It's Friday! Question: How does it feel?

Answer: Prob'ly feels quite alright.

Smells Like Some Sexy

Ladies, y'all know how sometimes the scent of a man's cologne has an effect...an...effect...on you?

I went into Banana Republic with Billy last weekend and decided to sample their colognes on the way to the counter to check out. Their new, industry award-winning scent for men, Black Walnut? Is so right and so wrong in so many ways. Before I even finished exhaling from inhaling the first whiff that I had sprayed on the sample card I was already spraying it on Billy.

Ladies, you want your man to smell like this. Fellas, your woman wants you to smell like this.

Nursery Design Redo

I thought I was so sure I wanted a moody, purple nursery. I'm glad I chose that color early, because it has SO changed. I got the idea from this pillow. The feel is still very modern, but the new color scheme is chocolate brown and powder blue. I'm pretty sure this won't change. Billy helped me pick the paint samples this time, so I'm more sure that this will be a better fit. It matches the rest of the house more. Three things that haven't changed and I'm 100% will not change are the crib, book shelf and changing table/dresser...unless they sell out or are discontinued or something. The room is small, and these pieces fit perfectly. I have an old chest of drawers that I'll paint red. The chair I chose is of bright orange fabric.

He's REAL Y'all!

We saw him on Thursday morning. He was wide awake this time and it was crazy cool to see him smile and put his foot in his mouth and put his hand in his mouth and rub his eyes! Every time he moved his head or did something, I said, in a shriek way too high to not be ashamed but I'm not, "Hey Little Baby!" Billy was laughing at me and the tech was smiling. I didn't even care about looking goofy--which is pretty much my way. Anyway, I hope you can tell what these pictures are of...

His sweet profile:

 

Him facing the "camera" with mouth and eyes closed:

 

Him facing the "camera" smiling! They say babies aren't psychologically mature enough at this stage in development to smile in the literal since...that it's just exercising facial muscles, but whatev. I'm convinced our sweet baby is smiling because he heard me saying hi...really.

 

We saw our baby Thursday!

Check out his pics on my baby blog to see him smiling!

I also loaded an album over there of some pics Billy took of me before we went out dancing Saturday night, so y'all can see me at 25 weeks preggers. 

I'm ALL boobs and belly!

Happy Birthday Summer!

Update: It just hit me that we've been sister-friends for ELEVEN.WHOLE.BIRTHDAYS! It was the fall of '96, right? Where is all this time coming from and going?! Seems like just yesterday we were on campus pulling all nighters then sleeping through the next day's exams.  

That really only happened once, y'all, but it was funny as hell.