Helping.

Sorry, I know I'm supposed to do a funny and witty update on Week 28, but I'm just not feeling it today.

There's so much going on in life that is fantastic.....we're having a baby, we're getting a new house (yes we found one!), we have great jobs, we have wonderful family and friends, I could go on! Then, in one small instance, everything can change. Your world can crash. More like dive bomb into a huge shit loaded catastrophe.

Yesterday a family member's mother committed suicide.
The mother wasn't blood related to me, but she was still family.
And while we weren't close, I'm close with the family member and my heart just aches for her.

I want to scream and hit and curse and punch.....anything. Or anyone.
It's just not fair.
Why?!
Why do people think suicide is the answer?
Why do they think that's the only way to be less of a burden to the world?

IT'S MORE OF A BURDEN!!!

It's HORRIBLE for those loved ones that are left behind.
To clean up your mess of unpaid bills, personal items that would have to be given away or sold, explanations to thousands upon thousands of people for the rest of your loved one's lives about why and how you died. Not to mention the funeral preparations and dealing with telling their kids that grandma isn't going to be around any more.
All while they're dealing with their own lives.
Now they have to deal with what you left behind!
AND THEY DON'T DESERVE THAT!!!

It's selfish.
And thoughtless.
And mean.

I know why people commit suicide...most of times--------->depression. That nasty little bitch. Depression and I have a very close and personal relationship, so I know first hand what this woman was probably going through. Except I've able to get control of it, with the aide of extensive counseling and meds. She didn't have those opportunities. It's truly sad how debilitating that disease is.

Worst part about it, is that in situations like this the survivors always blame themselves. They wish they could have done more. Or wish they could have known.
But nothing anyone could have known or not known before would have help this woman. NOTHING. The only one to blame here is her. No one else.

As family, how can I help those left behind?! How can I help my family member?!
That's the question that has been running through my mind non-stop.
What can I do?! How can I support?!
HOW CAN I HELP?!?!

I want to be there for her and her family. I want to be the strong & steady post to lean on. I want to take away her pain and worry and stress.
I want to HELP!

But I don't know how.
Or even if they want or need help.

But it's just something I feel I need to do. I think any human would/does in a time like this.
I just wish I knew how.

And I'll probably never know how.
And I'll probably do the same thing that any person does in this situation is just be there for the ones hurt as best I can and be as strong as possible.
I think that's all I can do for now.

Sorry for being Debby Downer, but I just had to get this out.

Two Things Thursday.

I'm here. I'm alive......Mother......

Its just been batshit cray cray 'round these parts.

First off, I think we found a house......SQUEEEEEEEEE.
Keep your fingers crossed.

Second.............

This happened last weekend:

Belly in the Bikini.
Yup.
That's how I roll.

More to come!! Stay tuned!

Pregnancy WEEK 27 (May 19th- 25th)

Heeeeellllllllllllllllloooooooooooooooo Belly.

Apparently me ‘not feeling very big last week’ was a bunch of bullshit, because this week, she’s all out there and then some! Makin’ mama knows she’s there, fo shizzle!

Little brat.

Lets see, this week, the cravings have been the standard chocolate and ice cream….theme of my life. I’ve also had this amazing love for brats. We had some Wednesday night, and it was like the best meal I’ve ever had in my life. I mean, I’ve always like brats, but I don’t know, for some reason, the other night they were better than ever.

The back is better. Walking helps soooo much. And I feel so much better when I do walk, in general I mean. I can totally tell if I take 3 or so days off walking, because my back and legs are all tight and won’t corporate. I didn’t do very well this week, on getting in my miles, but next week I’m going to try harder.

OHHHH, most important thing! Before I forget! I want to thank y’all for commenting on how wonderful I look!!! I’m telling you, I totally felt poopy and lumpy and dumpy and an all around disaster lately, and y’all cheered me right up saying I’m all cute and crap. Just warms a girl’s heart!!! You guys seriously made my month!

You know, one thing I’ve noticed about being pregnant………all the attention! Crap on a cracker y’all! It’s like the moment you find out you’re with child, and tell people, they just can’t get enough of you. Don’t get me wrong, I’m definitely not complaining! I LOOOOOOVE IT!

Hello, My name is LauraBelle, and I am an Attention Whore.

Is that bad?

That I’m living all this up?

I’m bad. I know.

This isn’t about you LB, it’s about the baby. Focus.

Sorry, little pep talk there.

But really, it’s so cool when people gush over your belly and ask you a hundred questions. It never gets old.

And the other day, I was just walking through the store and these strangers were just looking at me and smiling. I could tell they saw the belly and knew, and it immediately showed on their face.

It’s so cool. I just wish people were like that all the time.

It’s amazing how many people walk around with a scowl on their face, including me! The world’s such a better place when we smile.

Ok, way off topic there.

Moving on.

This week Little Ida has actually doubled in weight over the last 4 weeks weighing in over 2 lbs! Her hearing is progressing as the nerves in her ears are maturing. The book says she can start to recognize our voices! That’s so neat!

Her taste buds are also developed now. So when I had that spicy brat the other night, it’s no wonder she was doing summersaults in there later!

And her hiccups are happening more and more. At first I thought they were just movement, but then I noticed the repetition to them and figured out she was hiccupping! It’s a weird feeling to me, and doesn’t really bother her at all, according to the book anyway. Kinda just feels like your stomach has the hiccups, but it doesn't hurt. It's like little belly spasms almost. I don't know how to explain it. lol.

Next week will be the start of the 3^rd Trimester!!!!

Can y’all believe it?!?!

I sure as shit can’t.

This is flying by!!!

Ten Things Thursday

Random-dump......in progress.

1. You know your life revolves around food when your last few posts on FB are about pizza tacos and donut holes.
*palm to face*
It's fine.
I'm pregnant.

2.  So, my sweet, sweet friend Ms Sarah found this on the interwebs the other day:

It's a TeePee plaything. For kids. (Although I think adults could have plenty of fun in there too.)
And it's CAMO!
Only she could find something so unbelievably redneck.

3.  So the whole baby registry thing started on Monday.

It actually wasn't as bad as I thought. I had a pretty good idea of what kind of 'big' things I wanted, like the stroller/car seat combo. Check this bitch out:

IT'S PURPLE!!!
And it's a good brand, and it's safe, and blah blah blahshitty blah.
But it's PURPLE!!!
It's also about about 350 bones.
EEeeeeeek.
Thank you to the parentials who are putting money towards that major purchase.

Ya, I had everything under control on the registering thang until I hit the bottle aisle.

WTF people?!?!
How can there be this many choices for a little plastic boobie-milk holder?!?!
I just went with this Tommy Tippee natural brand.
Apparently it's the top in the UK. And fast growing here in the US.
Super.
I'm sure the nugget will arrive and hate those damn bottles. It's just the kind of sass I expect from her.

4.  On another note.....someone please tell me where I'm going to fit all THIS BABY SHIT?!?! 
I mean, good God, there's towels, and socks, and bottle cleaners, and nipples, and toy thingies that lay on the ground, and bumbo-whatevers, and pack-n-plays!!!

Holy OurHouseIsn'tBigEnoughForAllThis SHIT!!

5. Oh, one more thing. I made Ryan go with me to Target to finish up the registering there. I would like to say that I was super impressed. He didn't complain or bitch at me for going down the same aisle 14 times or anything!
He even saw this toy thing that the baby can lay on face down and play with things and he was all, "She'll need this for tummy time."

WHAAAAA????

Who are you and what have you done with my 'I've never held a baby in my life' husband???

Needless to say, I had a little smile on my face when we left there!

6.  I want ice cream.

7.  This weekend is Memorial Weekend!!!!! 3 DAYS OFF WORK!!!!! Bet your ass I'm a happy little camper.
We're going to Table Rock Lake....as usual.
This preggy butt is going to be in a bikini.....all weekend....soaking up the sun!!!
And I don't give two poops who sees me!
And I got permission to get on the boat so I don't have to stay land-side all weekend! Yeesssssss! (Don't worry, I'm not going to be skiing or wake-boarding or doing double back flips off the front. Even though that'd be badass to have a picture of me skiing pregnant. I know, I know, not a good idea! Ok, moving on.)

Anyways, I'm excited.
And I'm going to bring S'Mores makings.
Again, with the food. Jeez.

Only bad part about this weekend is I won't get to see our cousins, Alex and Mikenzie. I haven't seen those girls in forever!!! But we'll be seeing them on the 4th, so I'll just have to wait.

8. We have a new decor addition to our lovely abode.......I'm beyond thrilled about this.

It doesn't even fit there because it's so big.
The husband has been waiting since December for this beast to get finished. He couldn't contain his joy when he got to pick it up. It was like finding a stack of playboys in his neighbors trash when he's 12. Pure joy.

And if that's not enough, this is on the wall opposite of that deer head:

Awesome.

And to top off this interior design of the century, we have this in the corner:

A signed KSU basketball, a KSU mirror, and some books.

It's like I live in a redneck frat house.
My friend Rachel is probably dying right now. (She's a badass interior designer.)

Wanna know who loves our decor? (Besides the husband.)

He saw the big deer head the other night and just stared at it. He couldn't quite figure out what was going on with that. Don't worry Wyatt, you're not the only one.

Good news: Ryan actually has ANOTHER deer head that he 'shares custody' with another guy, and we'll be getting that back soon. (They switch off every other year, it's a long story.) So, soon we'll have TWO giant deer heads on the wall.

My excitement is boiling over with this impending action.

9. I think I need these:

Ya'll can get me a pair. I'll let you.
I wear size 8.5. I'll be patiently waiting for the package to arrive.

10.  VERY IMPORTANT!!! 
Please, please, please continue your thoughts and prayers for those in Oklahoma!!! This tornado was epic and so destructive. It just breaks my heart every time I see pictures. 

If you'd like to help, please go to the Red Cross Website HERE to donate! Anything helps!

Tomorrow is Week 27 recap!!!!
(Can you believe that in just a few days I'll be starting my THIRD TRIMESTER?!?! Ya, me either.)

Liar, Liar, pants engulfed in an horrendous inferno that chars your asscheeks.

Or liar, liar, pants on fire works too.
Whichever you prefer.

So, I just got through reading this article about Food Fraud. We all know about it. Stores say that there are zero calories in some spray butter, but in actuality, there's like .9 calories, so really, it's just shy of 1 calorie per serving, but legally they can say 'zero'.
Bastards.

But have you ever thought about what is in your food? And if it's the real thing?

I mean we all know that chicken nuggets bought in a box are probably not a whole lot of pretty white breast meat. We've all heard/seen Food, Inc., mmmmkay, we're not dumb.

But what about spices?
Or olive oil?

Ya, I never thought to look at the labels on those things, because what else could you put in there, right?!
WRONG!!!

In THIS article,  the author talks about fillers and even plastic resins that are put in food to make them seem what they are, but really aren't.
Sicking.
Down right sicking, folks.

For example, olive oil:

According to the USP database, products being sold as olive oil have been shown to instead be soybean, corn, sunflower, safflower, canola, or palm oil, and in one case, even lard. Some products were olive oil thinned out with these ingredients; others were combinations of those oils with no olive oil present.

 WTF people!

And spices:

Cases of lead being added to paprika, turmeric being bulked up with rice flour, and ground black pepper containing bits of twigs and buckwheat flour.

Lead. In paprika!!!

The article goes on to talk about honey, juices, seafood, coffee, etc. It gives you examples of the crap that they put in there, and then what you can do to 'fix it'.
Most of the time, their answers are to buy straight from the source, at a farmers market, etc. Or at least buy organic.

Pretty much validates that we all need to get our asses to the farmers market this weekend, huh?

Pregnancy - WEEK 26TH (May 12th – 18th)

Even though there’s a belly up there, I feel like she slowed down on the growing sitch this week. For some reason I just don’t feel as big as I look up there. Weird.

Well, as far as my back is concerned, I’m doing better. But I’m just going to chalk it up to having issues for the rest of the pregnancy. I’m trying to take it easy….and by that I mean I’m not lifting 2-tons of misc crap…..just 1 ton. But I’m really trying to take it easy. Really. And as long as I don’t bend over too much I feel pretty good. Whooooray.

Good news is she’s been moving around A LOT. I can’t believe how much she moves around!! It’s by far the coolest feeling ever. The other night I could feel her pushing on my left side with I think her head or hands, but then I felt small pushes on my right side too (which I think were her feet), at the same time. So I think she was all stretched out in there! Lol.

 And you know, energy wise, I’m doing really good. I’ve been a little engergizer bunny lately. The other night I got to bed at 10:30pm and woke up at 5am and although I was tired, I kept going. I’m dreading that 3^rd trimester slow down that’s right around the corner for sure!! But hopefully it won’t be that bad.

Last weekend I got to see my sister-in-law Jennifer who’s pregnant with her 3^rd, a girl also. She’s technically 2 weeks behind me, due in late August, but comparing belly’s I think we’re about the same!! It was so much fun to sit and talk with her about her symptoms and cravings and aches and pains. This pregnancy for her is different than her other two on all levels, she said. So it’s neat to share all my troubles/triumphs with her!  It’s funny, we’re both craving a lot of the same stuff too: chocolate and ice cream. And cereal! These two little girls are going to be fast friends for sure! I just know it!

And on to my little girl!

She’s about 15in long right now, weighing in at 2.2 lbs. They say she’s the size of a cucumber, but that just seems weird to me. Makes me picture her all long and skinny.  If you’ve noticed a huge change in her height this week, it’s because we’re now measuring her length from head to toe, instead of head to rump like we’ve been doing in the past.

One of the biggest changes this week is she’s starting to open up her eyes! They’ve been shut up until now, so the retina can develop. But now she can open them up, focus, and look around. Not much to look at, but they say if you shine a flashlight on my belly she’ll kick in response. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m totally going to do it!!

Baby Girl’s brain wave activity is also developing at high speed this week. Not only can she hear what’s going on, but she can now respond to it by a faster pulse rate or kick. And I gotta tell ya, I definitely feel the kicks!!!

So, how was your Sunday afternoon??? Mine??? Oh just rainbows and shitstorms. In Hell.

**Right after I wrote this a huge 2 mile wide tornado touched down in Oklahoma City today. It hit an Elementary School head on. PLEASE pray for everyone in Oklahoma!!**

While I've always enjoyed a good thunderboomer every now and again.....granted, I've gotta at least semi-like them living in the midwest where Mother Nature is obviously on a PMS sabbatical as of late.....last night was a teeny bit piss-my-pants scary.

Picture this. Wyatt and I are tucked away in a nice long afternoon nap, and at about 3:15, my phone goes off with a weather alert about our county being in a tornado warning. This is not the scary part. I've lived through numerous warnings and such, even a few actual tornadoes very close to my house, so a little warning is no big deal to me. So I grudgingly get up and shake my fist at the Bitch of Nature, and head to the living room.  I'd like to point out that my protector, Mr. Puppy, is still sound asleep in the bed. Not a care in the world.

The weather man is all in a tizzy.....yes, tizzy, it's a word....and he's pointing at the radar and proclaiming that there has been a rope tornado spotted about 30 minutes south of where I live. Super.
But living in KS my whole life, I know that the weather can change faster than Mr. Hefner changes his arm candy, so I went and got a bowl of ice cream (crucial storm watching nutrition) and sat back down to make fun of the weather man. By myself, btw, Ryan was at work.

Then I got to thinking. Shitballs. This POS rental doesn't have a basement. Fartcicles. I've never been in a storm without a basement. I mean, in the midwest, it's pretty much a give-in that any house has a basement to wait out the scary twisters. So who the hell built this one floor pile of pick-up sticks without the protection of buried concrete walls?!?! I would like to meet you.....and give you a high five.
In the face.
With a 2x4.

This is where I start to get a little scared.

I did remember that the nice little neighbor lady next door (and by lady I mean a woman about my age and she's also 26 weeks pregnant), gave us her phone number to call in case of bad weather and we could hide out in her basement. Perfect! Except she didn't answer. Double fartcicles.

By this time the weather man is about ready to poo in his pants because there's a 'rather large wedge tornado' on the ground, just sound of the airport and heading straight for my little one floor wonder home. Ryan calls about this time and he's all, "you need to get your ass next door. now!".

OK. Now I'm really scared.

So I load the backpack up full of all the important things. Like my laptop, camera, and kindle. (no judging) And I also fill up my water bottle. No idea why I thought this was a good idea at the time. I throw on my tennies and coat and head to the door. By this time, my 'protector' is out in the living room huddled in the corner by the couches and a tiny bit scared of all the lightening cracks, so I try to coax him to go outside with me.....in the pouring rain.....amongst his scary lightening. It went well.

Swear to God, he looked at me like, "Lady, you cray cray! I ain't goin' out there!!!"

I had to shove him out the door, and we sprinted across the yard to the neighbors. And it's a good thing I wore my coat, because it did absolutely no good. 2.4 seconds in the rain and I was drenched.

I knocked on the door and no one answers. At this point, I'm like...............FUCK!! What the hell do I do now!?!?! When, sweet Jesus, the neighbor across the street saw me and waved me over! Gotta love those Kansans that disregard those 'warnings' of death by nature and stand on their porch to watch.

Wyatt and I forge a boat out of my laptop and his collar and wade across the street. I shove him inside and I shortly follow.....soaking.

I've met this man a total of once and I look like I just stepped out of a shower at a whore house because I've got make-up smeared down my face and my hair is standing on end. I'm pretty. He ushers me downstairs to his wife and small daughter....whom I've never met, gotta love first impressions. Wyatt is freaking out, pacing the room, won't sit down, and crying. I felt so bad. And this guys poor wife is trying to calm her daughter down and have a normal, 'So where ya from?' conversation with me while I'm mopping up the floor after Wyatt and wringing my pretty sweatpants out.

Just shoot me.

Oh, but it gets better.

We survived the power going out.
And the storm.
And no one was hurt and there was no damage.

But as we all head upstairs, looking out the windows to make sure it's safe for us to travel back across the river (street) to home, I hear the distinct sound of a flow of liquid......coming from my dog.....onto their new pretty carpet.

Double FUCKS!!!

I immediately went over and grabbed Wyatt and shoved him outside. Poor guy was just scared, he hasn't gone to the bathroom in the house is years! And here we are, meeting the neighborhood, and my dog just lets his urine flow.
I'm pretty sure we made friends for life with this escapade.

After all that, I was too embarrassed to wait out the next storm (that looked like it could hit any minute), so I made excuses and bee-lined it back over to our house. At this point, if another tornado came a'knockin', I'm totally opening up the door versus inflicting more agony on our nice new 'friends' next door.

Luckily, there was no more bad weather. Just a scared yellow lab, no power for 6 hours, and a very tired pregnant lady.

But good news: The ice cream survived.

So, how'd your Sunday go?

Ten Things Thursday

Hello my little Munchkins!!!

I missed last week and feel all weird so I figured I'd better make time to get this out today!

1.  The back sitch is better. I went to the Dr. and he basically said, 'Yup, you screwed it up'.

Genius Doc. Genius.

He then told me that I obviously can't take anything 'good' for the pain, except for Tylenol, which won't do shit anyway, so I might as well not take anything at all.

Super glad I paid 25 bucks for that stellar advice.

I then headed to my Chiropractor and he had way too much pleasure torturing me. But I did feel better after.

Today I can move around more, I still can't bend over without pain. And I'm not supposed to lift anything heavy, which is no shock. So it'll just take time.

If all I have to complain about during this pregnancy is my stupid back pain, then I'll take it!! Much better than throwing up or whatever other terrible symptoms women deal with. Fo'Shizzle.

2.  Soooooooooooooooo, I'm beyond overwhelmed at work and in life.
Like, so overwhelmed I'm considering taking a sabbatical to some Monk mountain for the next 2 years so that I don't have to deal with anything. Except breathing.

True story.

Anyways, at work we can't do anything right and almost everything we do gets rejected by our Quality department. So, not only do we have all this rejected work to REDO, we keep getting shit piled on our heads with other projects.....that have to be done ASAP. Of course.

Well, to everyone at work: YOU CAN TAKE YOUR 'ASAP' AND SHOVE IT UP YOUR.............well, you get the idea.

3.  OK. So we moved. I know. This is old news. But I thought I'd tell you how it went. Because I know you want to know. I'm nice like that. You're welcome.

Moving on the last weekend in April, you'd think that we'd have beautiful sunshine and 70 degree temps. Nope. Mother Nature decided to shit on us once again. It was 40 degrees and raining. F*ck you very much you stupid cow.

We decided to hire some movers to help with the heavy stuff, and I gotta tell you......BEST decision/money spent EVAH!!!! They had everything packed up and ready to go to the new place in about 3 hours. It was amazing.

AND!! They helped us move the 897lb gun safe out from the basement! I'd pay them their $400 any day for that shit alone.

Puppy and I sat and took pictures while the men-folk did the heavy lifting. It was exhausting. For Puppy and I, I mean. ;-)

Luckily we got everything in the new rental house, and have plenty of room to spare. The garage was a nightmare for about a week, along with the 2 spare rooms, but we've now got everything organized and put away.

Where I put things away is another story.
Because I can't seem to remember where anything is.
It's awesome-sauce.
I love moving!
Yippeeeeeeee.

But at least we're in, right?!
Right.

4.  On a similar note: We've fired our realtor. She's about as good as a drunk koala at finding us a new home.

Long story short, she sold our house (good for her, but really I'm thinking the house sold itself), but she's been a limp noodle on trying to help us find a new one. We end up knowing more about the homes we go look at. And we HAVE to find the homes we want to look at. They send us emails about what's available, but that's it. I mean, come on. At least do some research about a home we're looking at, it's not that hard!

So we called another guy that our old neighbors recommended and we'll see what he can do. I'm kinda treating this as a blessing in disguise. Like, maybe this was meant to happen in order to find 'our' home, ya know?!

5.  Have y'all seen this?!?! It's piss your pants funny!

LauraBelle Fun Fact #597: I used to have a Bearded Dragon Lizard like the ones in the video. Her name was Ozzy and I kept her for about 7 years. She was about that big when I finally had to give her to a pet store because my next apt would allow pets. I'm a weird pet owner. I know.

6.  For Mom's Day I spent the day gardening. Since I can't have a veggie garden this year and am going thru excruciating & agonizing withdrawal because of it, I decided to plant pretty flowers. They'll probably die a slow burning death in the record heat of the summer.....which will most likely hit us in about a week and then I will have lost $30 in the enjoyment of flowers for 2.5 weeks.
I love Mother Fucking Nature.

Anyways. It made the rental look a little more like home!!

Front of the house.

Back of the house with my lounge chairs and patio table.

7. This weekend is my (step)dad's annual Indian memorial dinner. Where we 'feed' his spirit in the afterlife by preforming a special ceremony.
It just begins the next 30 days of sorrow. Because then on the May 25th is his birthday and the 15th of June is the anniversary of his death.
Always a very hard time for me.

8. Wyatt has been a poopy pants lately about moving. He pouts all day long, even though we've taken him on a walk almost every other night (his favorite thing to do). He mopes around like his life is ending. It's pathetic. Damn dog has a better life than I do!!

But the other day after working in the yard, I finally got to see him smile:

9.  I wrote most of this last night and I've been trying to edit it all day. Every time I try to get a break, someone walks in or the phone rings, or the motherfuckingbastard printers malfuction and I have to reach for the baseball bat and threaten them with dismemberment. This has taken me all day. I've barely taken a break to pee.
FML.

10.  I'm praying for all my TX peeps right now!!! While I love this time of year, the storms are always terrible. I hope that everyone is safe and amongst their loved ones!!

Pregnancy - WEEK 25 (May 5th – May 11th)

Wow. Whew. Holy busy-ness Batman!

Lots going on in life right now.

Before we get into that, lets talk about that belly up there!!! My little pouch has officially grown to a preggy belly! I swear to you it grows bigger every single day. And I’m not the only one that notices. I’ll go up to the front office at work and the girls up there are like, ‘You’ve grown again!! And we just saw you yesterday!!’ It’s kinda a high belly, and that’s fine by me. It’s just nice to look actually pregnant and not like some drunk trucker’s beer belly.

OK, we got moved into our new rental house. Woop woop! We also closed on our old house in Park Shity.*sadface* There were a lot of firsts in that house. Mainly where we found out about Little Miss! But I’ll post more about the move another day.

Let’s move on to my pooper. I know, get excited. It has finally stopped enlarging to mega-morph elephant ass. YAYYYYYY. Could it be that I’m finally getting in some regular exercise??? Or that I’m limiting my donut/ice cream intake????

Naaaaaaa.

It’s a trick I tell you. None of those ‘good’ things have anything to do with it.

Right.

Yes, last week I got in 3 good walks, first two were only shorty 20 minutes around the neighborhood, but Sunday, the puppy, hubby, and I went out to the park for a long 2.5 mile walk. I got in a total of 4.5 miles last week and I gotta tell ya, I feel soooo much better. It’s amazing how much just a little teeny bit of physical exertion can give you that extra push during a long day.

And while I haven’t changed my diet…..much….I’m not gaining weight like a walrus at an all-you-can-eat-fish buffet.  I’ve taken y’all’s advice on toning down the sugar sitch. And I’ve added more fruits and veggies to my diet. I’m trying to get in a good amount of protein also. So far I’ve been doing really good on limiting myself to 1….yes….ONE….bowl of ice cream a day. And most days that’s the only ‘sweet’ thing I have. I think the added fruits help with the sugar cravings.

At least 3 days a week I’m making home-made juice with my fabulous juicer. Carrot/orange or Carrot/apple is usually the name of the game. Then other days I get some strawberries and yogurt, or a banana, or both. I’m also getting lean turkey or chicken for lunch, either in a wrap or sandwich. Then I make sure I have some sort of serving of veggies for dinner (and I try to get veggies at lunch too).

It’s not the most stellar diet, but it’s what I can do right now.

I feel better, and that’s all that matters.

Kinda some poopy news: I injured my back pretty bad last Sunday. As my friend Vicky said, “Probably because you’re doing too much!!!” Which she’s a little right. I think all the moving was not a good thing. And with that stupid hormone in my body that’s loosening my joints I feel like an unfolded lawn chair most days.

But on Sunday I wasn’t even doing too much! I swear! All I wanted to do for Mom’s day was plant some flowers so our backyard looked a little more like ‘home’. So I spent about $30 on some pretty annuals and went to town. Most of the day I was doing just fine, then all at once I was bending over at the waist (I know, I know, I should have used my legs), and I felt a ‘pop’ and a ‘shift’ in my lower back. I went down on all fours and had to crawl to the steps to catch my breath it hurt so bad. Damn stupid body!

I put on a heating pad and laid down for a bit. But really it only hurts terrible if I get up from laying or sitting, or if I walk too fast, or if I’m carrying something too heavy, or if I bend over…..so pretty much everything I do.

I go to the doctor today. Hopefully it’s just a pulled muscle or he recommends me to go to the chiro. Either way, only taking Tylenol blows monkey balls. Pretty much takes care of about 2.4% of the pain. I'm trying not to be Crankypants McGee about it, but that only happens about half the time. I'm such a whiner.

Let’s talk about the cravings!!! Holy cow. Literally. I want milk, or ice cream, all the time. Like I should just get a big Bessie milk cow and put her in the back yard for my constant enjoyment of fresh milk. Milk just sounds soooo good. Also….mexican food. Tacos, salsa, tortilla chips. Man alive I want it. All the time. And the good ol’ Cinnamon Toast Crunch craving is still going strong. Every morning, I have a big ol’ bowl. It’s funny, I was talking about my cravings to my mom and she replied, “Well, you know that when I was pregnant with you the doctor said that I had to limit my ice cream intake to one bowl a day. I said that’s fine. How big of bowl???!!!”  So obviously this Little Miss is going to have an ice cream fetish, same as her mama, and grandmama.

Now let’s talk about Baby Girl!

She’s a whopping 9 inches long (rump to crown), and weighs in at 1.5 lbs. Her cute little skin is turning pinker because of all the small blood vessels which are forming under the skin and filling with blood. Later on, blood vessels will form in her lungs, bringing them one step closer to maturity. Her little nostrils are starting to clear out (they’ve been plugged up until now). So she can start practicing ‘breathing’, even though she’s just getting amniotic fluid.

And oh my gosh does she move! Her little ears and eye lids are starting to get more developed so she can hear more and more sounds around her and outside the belly. And her eyes can even detect changes in light! I felt her have hiccups the other day. Which was interesting. It was just a series of belly spasms, but they were regular, so I knew it wasn’t her kicking. But oh, does she kick. Little girl was having a dance party in there the other day! Moving all around and kicking up a storm. Ohhhh, and the best one this week, my bladder was a little full (which it seems to be all day long, no matter how many times I pee) and Baby Girl thought it was hilarious to karate chop my bladder about a hundred times. It’s like she was saying, ‘Hey, I need room, empty that thing!!’ lol. Of course I did, and of course she got quiet right away. Sassy little stinker. I have no idea where she gets her sass. None at all.