About Pregnancy:

• Take pictures during pregnancy.  You may not want to — especially toward the end when you no longer fit in vertical shots, but you’ll enjoy laughing at them years later!
• Have backup names.  You never know if your baby just won’t look like his/her chosen name.  Like my husband for instance.  When he was born, his Mom decided that the name “Susan” she had chosen for her baby just didn’t fit. 
• About Pee.  Sometimes, especially in the last month of pregnancy, Moms experience a phenomenon called Involuntary Voiding of Urine.  This is also known as “peeing when you’re not really peeing.”  It happens.  But sometimes PWYNRP can be a sign of your water breaking.  In this case, get to the hospital!
• Enjoy sleeping on your stomach while you can.
• Enjoy sleeping while you can.
• Don’t eat too much.  Yes you are now “eating for two,” but don’t get confused and eat for 3 or even 4, because if you do, you will later need to eat for 1/2 to lose the extra weight!
• Invest now in a comforable Baby Carrier — like a Bjorn.  Carriers are a great way to keep your hands free while holding your new baby and still doing other important things at the same time — like showering, jogging, and driving. 
• Don’t register for the Wipes Warmer.  In reality you will be holding a clean diaper in your teeth while changing your baby on the back seat floor of your mini van and digging through your diaper bag for whatever wipe you can find — regardless of its temperature.
• Diaper Champs are great.  Diaper Champs use real bags not special refill bags and it’s easy to stuff and flip dirty diapers in.  But watch out.  Once babies are standing up it’s also easy for them to stuff and flip your car keys.  We’re pretty sure this is the way we lost our Fisher Price Loving Family Mommy, leaving our Loving Family as a now “blended family.”
• Don’t be embarrassed about False Alarm trips to the Hospital during the last month.  I heard, “No, it wasn’t your water… just pee again” a couple of times before finally making it to the Hospital for the real thing!
• Give Up Dignity.  Yeah, go ahead.  You might as well do it now.  Your stomach will be touched and patted by strangers.  And your previously-private body parts will be prodded, examined, and measured many, many times.  It’s all part of the initiation into motherhood.  Plus… it’s also preparation for Game Day when you will have an audience of 5 or 6 down there watching the Big Moment! 
• Enjoy every moment!  You are a Mommy.  Congratulations!

I haven’t bought new underwear in a long time.  I finally walked into a Victoria Secret today to make some much-needed purchases.  As I glanced around at the seductively dressed mannequins, I remembered how much I dislike the store.  Don’t get me wrong there’s nothing wrong with a married woman being romantic for her husband.  I hope – on a good day – to be that for my Husband.  And I acknowledge the fact that VS, even if they were all about purity in relationships, would have a tough marketing dilemma – to sell ”delicate” underwear to happily married (or honeymoon bound) women while not using other nearly-naked women to model their styles.

Having said that, I admit… I both love AND hate Victoria Secret.  I dislike their promiscuous marketing on TV, in magazines, and in their storefront (esp when my Husband is shopping with me).  But I also love wearing their comfy, long-lasting cotton styles.  What can I say? my last purchase lasted 3 years!

As I made my purchases today, I began considering other things I both love and hate.  Here’s the list I’ve come up with so far:

• airports,
• long distance friendships,
• sandboxes,
• mega-stores (Meijer, Super Walmart, etc especially when I’m looking for some obscure item),
• exercise,
• gas station restrooms in remote locations,
• diapers, and
• dentists.

What about YOU?

I posted a couple of months ago about my idea to host a Grown Up Girls’ Sleepover.  You were all very supportive, and I decided to go ahead with it.  I invited a few of my friends and encouraged them to invite their own friends.  My hope was that we would all have the opportunity to meet new friends and deepen the friendships we already had.

Well, I’m finally getting around to posting some pictures from the Sleepover last month.  What fun!  I made up an “Icebreaker” since many of these women didn’t know each other before the party, but they all dove right into conversation.  No icebreakers needed!

We spent a good portion of the evening talking and eating (we had tons of food since each Grown Up Girl brought her favorite snack — Spinach Artichoke Dip, Ice Cream “Dibs”, Cheesy Dip and Chips, Chocolate-Chocolate Cake, and on and on…)

Then we broke out the Dance Dance Revolution.  These Girls know how to “bust a move,” “shake a leg,” and just generally “get down.” 

Then as the evening wore on, our junk food buzzes and the late hour wiped away most inhibitions.  We each dropped an open-ended, deeper-level question into a jar. We then passed the jar around as each Grown Up Girl drew a question, told about herself, and answered her question.  It was a fun time of laughing, a little bit of crying, and a whole lot of growing and deepening friendships. 

We all decided that we would definitely do it again!

Try and find at least one person for each of the following Life Experiences. 

Has a tattoo                                          

Likes broccoli                                      

Is fluent in a foreign language          

Climbed a mountain                           

Lived outside of America                  

Done mission work                             

Been bitten by an animal                   

Saved a life                                           

Met a celebrity                                    

Broken a bone                                     

Had major surgery                              

Run out of gas                                      

Have any of YOU experienced the above?……

So last night as I was brushing my teeth before bed, I was telling Ray a story about something that had happened at the Dentist Office a couple of days earlier.  I started to tell him how the hygienist and the dentist “corrob… er uhm… collaborated” their story. 

He said, you mean “they corroborated“?

To which I denied… “Corrobor…. what?  There’s no such word.  It’s collaborate.”

“No, no, no…”  He was certain. 

“So what’s the difference then?”  I probed, sucpicious that he was making up a word.

He explained that people collaborate when they rob banks, and that witnesses corroborate when they verify an alibi.

I was still suspicious — just like when I KNEW that it was Winona Ryder in Pirates of the Caribbean, and he thought it was Keira Knightley.  Silly Boy… I said, and I think we actually bet on this one.  Of course HE was right.

But this time our dispute involved WORDS, that’s something I know.  He’s more of a math/ programming guy.  Yes, he beats me at everything, but certainly not at words.

So I ran downstairs in my pajamas to get the laptop and bring it back up to bed.  We googled his silly, made-up word “corroborate.”  Hhmm… he wasn’t even sure how to spell it.  I was sooo going to win this one!

And then to my surprise, there it was.

Corroborate.

to make more certain; confirm

and then we googled

Collaborate.

to work, one with another; cooperate

Argh… how come he ALWAYS gets to win?!  Even about WORDS this time! 

(In all truth, I secretly enjoy that he’s smarter than me.  Shh… don’t tell him!)

What we’re still enjoying about Winter

• Snow
• Saturday mornings
• White Chili (recipe below)
• Visiting Library
• Indoor swimming at Fitness Center
• Playing “Trip to the Beach” in our bathtub
• Family Movie & Popcorn nights
• Wii — especially Mario Party 8
• Shopping at Target
• Playdates with Friends
• Playing in the Snow (when it’s above 20…)

What we’re ready to be All Done With about Winter

• Weeks of Sub-zero Chicago windchills (we’re supposed to hit 30 tomorrow!)
• Chapped Lips
• Dry, cracked Hands and Feet
• Pasty, Pale Skin
• The ever-increasing number of potholes in our roads (edit: just saw them patching some after writing this!)
• Icy Parking Lots — so far I’ve only landed on my Bootie once this year
• Carrying snow gear to school every day (Maggie)
• The Flu

White Chili

• 1- 14 oz can chicken broth
• med onion, chopped
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 1 can diced tomatoes with green chilis, drained
• 24oz can of white beans in juice
• 2-3 chicken breasts, cooked and cut in bite size pieces
• 1/4 teaspoon cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon oregano
• 2 shakes tobasco (optional — we don’t use this)

Cook onion and garlic.  Add peppers, beans, chicken, and seasonings.  Simmer 45 minutes.