Two days ago I was a miserable unproductive wretch and completely hated life. Yesterday, went to Starbucks, was productive, all in all a good day.

Today I opted to just work at home. Bad idea. I was a miserable unproductive (well, semi-productive) wretch for the majority of the day. I'm pretty sure that being at the end of my pregnancy, not being able to pursue new projets at work and hormones are making me sort of bi-polar. I mean literally - good day, then bad day, then good day, then bad day.

I decided to wrap up work 30 minutes early, pick up the kiddo, and get out of the house. Washing my face, brushing my teeth and putting on some blush seemed to do wonders for my mood. Probably also for my breath. Sam was tired but well behaved. We got some yummy groceries because I've been really incredibly inspired by this blog I stumbled across Ohdeardrea. She is inspiring and awesome and goegeous for many reasons, but at the moment she is most inspiring to cut out the sugar (succes today!) and eat healthier. She's vegan - I don't think I can go that far, but she has me considering vegetarian. Like really considering it.

Anyway, Sam and I picked up lots of goodies to make yummy, veggie treats. We also got goodies at Sbux because heaven forbid I not consume their products for even a single day. We got home both in a better mood, feeling at least human and had a delicious dinner. I went for an Ohdeardrea inspired Things on Toast dinner for myself - hummus, avocado and sea salt = de-freaking-licious.

Sam ended his Friday evening with one of his favorite past times - warm bubbley water in the kitchen sink. Glad Santa brought him so many toys. ;)

Hoping for a more balanced day tomorrow.

Wrapping Up

Next week is my last week of work before starting my maternity leave. This is pretty crazy to me because I planned to work right up until I went into labor and instead I'll be off a full week before my due date. Weeee!

I've been working from home for the most part and only going into the office one day per week. In order to keep myself from going stir-crazy and unproductive I've been dropping Sam off at school and then heading to the local Starbucks to work for the morning. 

Productivity things.

I usually work from 8ish till lunch time. The benefits are that I feel a sense of peer pressure to actually focus on work and not scan the latest Apartment Therapy articles because my Sbux neighbor will see that I'm not working and silently shake their head at my sloth like behavior. So I read proposals. I write emails. I eat some junk food and/or the healthier food I'm hiding in my giant bag. 

Yesterday, my favorite Starbucks friend and the cutest dog I've ever seen was there as well. 

He also happens to have the best name ever, Nick.

Most important part of my work day was taking a baby bump picture in the bathroom. If I ever spent time with other adults I could actually have photos of myself OUTSIDE of the Starbucks bathroom. But I am a loser face and husband gets home so late that I'm usually in my giant fluffy robe by the time he can take a photo of me. That's if I'm even awake by the time he comes in. So, bathroom photos it shall be.

15 days till dooms day...I mean due date.

And finally, when I got home I found Sam's Lego carwash in the bathroom. These Legos, he loves them, and Tripp loves them, and they're taking over my house. And I hate them. The end.

One more week of work left. I have to force myself to give a crap and wrap everything up. Seriously.

Progress but not really.

Okay so I've been able to make some progress on not eating total crap. Mainly I've incorporated more healthy meals, including sweet potato and black bean burritos. Yummy! Lots of vitamin A and protein. But I haven't been able to curb the sugar.

That is not an accurate statement. I am weak and have not practiced self control. And now I hate myself a little bit. I'm trying to go cold turkey as of tonight since curbing sweets doesn't seem to be within my abilities right now. So just seltzer the rest of the evening. Sigh.

And tomorrow I'll try to make it a whole 24 hours. I know that going cold turkey after about the third day the sugar cravings tend to go away so let's see how these 72 hours go.

Lastly, here's my stomach. I'm pretty sure I still have a vagina but I haven't seen it in ages...so can't be sure.

Thanks for listening universe. Seriously.

So blogosphere. Just reread my old post and it made me LOL. Especially the part about loving being pregnant. Lots and lots has happened since April of 2011. First and foremost we did indeed meet all the goals I had set out in order to have baby #2. And baby #2 is on her way! In fact if I look down I can practically see a tiny arm hanging down waving at me. And let me just say that I do NOT love being pregnant this time around. Not sure if I was smoking the reefer the entire first pregnancy or if this child had just given me the hardest time while Sam took it easy on me - but NO to pregnancy. This is the last time a human will be growing in this human. Done. Thank you very much.

Minus waving baby arm.

One perk of impending birth is that I finally have the time to start writing again - getting ready for maternity leave! Baby girl is due on January 25th, just three weeks (and one day before Sam's birthday). Work is winding down and Tripp is done with school so I have time to cook and work on insane little craft projects again, hooray!

The real point of re-starting the posts today is accountability. See I've been...uh...eating for two. I mean I took that concept and I just ran with it. Ran right to Cellulite City. And you know what, I just don't want to stay in CC any more. So I've got some plans in place - plans for the gym after baby girl arrives. I plan to make regular use of their babysitting facilities while dragging my jiggly rear up the stair master and making nice nice with the elliptical.

Just as an FYI - with Sam I gained a total of 33lbs. So far this time around I've gained 26 with 3 weeks to go. I'll be happy if I don't go over 33 and if I stay under I'll be way happy. As will all my poor pants.

Before I can get into the gym though I can stop with the eating and eating and then more eating. Particularly sweets. I don't have a sweet tooth, I've got like 17 of them. I've started by putting together some delicious breakfasts parfaits that are in the fridge waiting for me.

They are made up of vanilla yogurt, bananas, blueberries, strawberries and walnuts. Nom nom nom!

We've got guests coming for lunch tomorrow - Virginia and Austin! So I won't be particularly good about my eating since I'll be serving them Better than Robert Redford for dessert. Otherwise though, I'm curbing the insane pregnant lady three desserts per day. Though three desserts per day is really wonderful, especially when you're sleep deprived and cranky and nine months pregnant. Sigh.

I'll be checking in with progress, obviously not planning to lose pounds till after the little one arrives but checking in on how my diet is improving (or not, but it will). Also nursing burns about 500 calories per day - I will be nursing the shit out of this child. I'm going to feed her 19 times per day. That's fine right?

And one last thing: I vow, from this day forward not to pin any more baked deliciousness recipes on Pinterest. Unless I create a board titled Cellulite to which I pin these recipes as a reminder of what not to do? OK, no. No more pinning!!!

And just because, here's my little man and the big man.

Open letter to the universe

Dear Universe,

I am suffering from baby-fever, a common ailment, caused by a combination of hormonal imbalance, oxytocin, and insanity. I am completely capable of having a baby, however, there are a number of things that need to happen before I can comfortably allow more procreating.

1. Must get my next position, with a raise of 15-20%

2. Must find our apartment, which will be our permanent home base. I will not being moving from it again (unless we decide to buy, but I'm terrified of home ownership and hope not to buy, but this is another thing that I am perpetually flip flopping on, it's a whole 'nother blog post.) This apartment must meet several requirements;

a. No carpet, must have hardwood floors for the sake of all our allergies and the grossness factor.

b. Open floor plan, so we can actually have people over, hooray!

c. Dishwasher, no explanation required

d. Washer and dryer in the building

3. Tripp must graduate, should happen in December

4. Tripp must find a job in his new field, web development.

So, essentially all of the planets must align, before baby making can commence. I loved, LOVED, being pregnant. And since we are only going to have two children (which is two, too many for some, I realize), this is the last pregnancy I will have. So I want to relish every second of it. And don't want to agonize over finances or moving, or anything major we can deal with ahead of time.

When Sam is sleeping or being particularly adorable the baby fever flares up. When he is being an exhausted, non-napping terror, my ovaries shrivel up instead. My husband likes to say that I change my mind every week, but really, once Tripp is done with school and homework I will immediately require another baby. IMMEDIATELY.

It would be really nice if hormones could just be turned off when they aren't necessary.

So Universe, what I am asking is - please help me get that next gig, so I have only 3 more obstacles. Thank you.

Dear universe...

I've considered on many occasions updating this blog. In fact I've thought out entire entries but have always felt overwhelmed by how much time has passed and the fact that I can't possibly remember everything that has happened that I need to update on this blog. So I'm not going to bother. I'll just start with where I am now:

-Just got a quasi-promotion which is great and yet, insanely stressful.

-My boss is in town for the past week and a half, also great and even more stressful.

-Sam is turning 2 next week and we are planning his birthday party. Unfortunately, it falls on the day of some sort of "important" Jets game, and now his party has somehow become Jets themed. Oh. Joy. Just what I've always hoped for.

-My in-laws were in town over the three day weekend. Fun, yet stressful.

-Tripp, the husband, is still working his full-time gig, and also going to school full-time. He is currently enrolled in his most challenging class to date. Not fun. Very, very stressful.

-Tripp is also working late all week.

-I have taken up running, and sick as it may seem, I actually enjoy it. When Tripp is home at a decent hour I run the Woody Allen inner-monologue out of my skull.

The tiny bits of fun are being worn very, very thin by all the stressful bits.

The good news: we're all healthy, we both have jobs, Sam is the awesomest, and for the most part, all of our friends and family are healthy and employed as well.

I miss cooking a lot lately. I also miss traveling. Tripp and I could really use a vacation of some sort, even if it's just for three days. I have to talk my miserly, overly-anxious self into parting with some of our money in order to fund a little time off. Hopefully, I will be able to figure out when Tripp next has off from school and whisk him away somewhere exotic - like Florida. It's a recession so we have to dream big in mini.

Unfortunately, no pictures to upload today - all of the recent ones are on the hubby's fancy pants new school laptop. I will return with those ASAP. If only for my own viewing pleasure.

The Pancake Man

My husband is the pancake man. When we wake up on the weekends one of the first things he will say is, "What do you want for breakfast? You want coffee? You want pancakes? Grits?" and then he will proceed to make me coffee and the breakfast of my choice. Today it is blueberry pancakes. While my husband skillfully cooks pancakes to perfection he also manages to clean off the kitchen table and counter tops.

Sam is playing on his blanket, trying to scooch to the toys I've placed at strategic distances from his starting point. Each one he finds he c hews on a bit to make sure it's to his standards. Occasionally he lets out a high pitched squeal to inform us that he is pleased with the toys as well as his reflection in the mirror. These are our weekend mornings now.

When we are done eating our blueberry pancakes and lazily sipping coffee that he makes just right - light with cream and a little bit of sugar - husband cleans the kitchen, puts away the dishes, and then straightens the living room. All I have to do is tell him what I want and he makes it happen. And that's what makes him happy. I've got the easy job - eat the blueberry pancakes my husband makes for me because it makes him happy. If I only we had grown up together I could've had it this easy all along!

So every weekend, I eat pancakes my husband makes for me and drink the coffee he brews for me and this makes the man happy...if only I were more like him.

Oil

Why do people think that drilling for oil offshore will actually reduce the price of gasoline?!?! The fact is that oil is NOT a renewable resource - the oil on the planet is running out. Drilling for it in more places will not stop it from running out. We have to eventually stop using oil - so instead of trying to dig up all the last drops of oil, how about we move forward and start using other forms of fuel - like solar, hydro, wind, etc. All of which are renewable and therefore CANNOT run out.

I don't think that could be more clear. There is only so much oil and it's being depleted - the price of oil isn't going to go down, we just have to start using other fuels. The end.