Proof of Fall

This photo might not be the best shot, but I took it from my back deck, as proof that it is fall here in NoVa. This is for people in Vermont, where they've already had the thier first snow fall of the season, and for people in Hawaii, where mangoes fall from the sky more often than snow.

What to Wear...Part II

Here is is a photo of the dress I bought for the upcoming wedding:



As you can see, it's a deep purple dress, with some gold embellishment. Here's a close-up of the embellishment:



So that give you, the reader, a little more to go on to get an idea of what I bought to wear to this wedding. I'm liking the photo I posted that was meant to give you an idea of what the dress was supposed to look like. It's listed online as cheaper, and the top provides more coverage. I might order it online and see if I can't return the first dress...hmmm.

What to Wear to a Wedding (Not Mine)

Husband has the honor of being the Best Man in a wedding in November. I'm thrilled for the couple, yadda, yadda, but I'll be 38 weeks along when we attend this wedding. A pregnancy lasts for 40 weeks, and doesn't exceed 42 weeks. By 38 weeks, a woman is considered full term and ready to have the baby at any time. If a woman is not lucky enough to have the baby at 38 weeks, she waddles instead of walks, pees often, and shifts uncomfortably in her seat, and other things my brain has blessedly erased from my memory. Nothing is comfortable, everything is wrong.

With that in mind, if I'm not in the hospital having the baby, I'm there for that wedding. I'd really like to go in pjs, or the closest maternity-version of pjs that are out there, but since this looks like a pretty fancy wedding as weddings go, and my date is the Best Man, I'll have to spiff it up a little.

Annie's Grandma came with us out to the Leesburg Outlets not to long ago. We shopped for a dress.

I tried this dress on in the store. I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but it's very thin, so the popped belly button showed right through all the pretty red wrapping paper.




I ended up with something similar to this dress. I actually like this dress a little better, because it covers the shoulders (and the bra straps underneath).




My actual dress (I'll try to take the time to take a photo of it and upload it to the post) is a deep purple, not black, with a similar embroidery, embellishment along the top. The actual top of the dress is straps. My guess is that it was a summer, not fall, selection.

So I've got a dress to wear, but I need a cardigan or wrap or something to ward off the November chill and to feel appropriately covered, whilst making the rounds feeling like a beached whale.

My sister sent me the following links for cardigans.

Target 1
Target 2
Old Navy
Motherhood Maternity

What do you think?

More Cleaning

...makes the house look so nice, and makes me so much less stresed out. Tra la la la la.

Yesterday Grandma kindly took Annie so that I had a day in the house to get housework done. Now, this cleaning philosophy might not jiive with the FlyLady (see below for a post on her) but I often waffle back and forth on what should be the first priority in cleaning. Should I maintain or tackle the mess? Should I go into a room that's been recently cleaned and pick up the clutter, do a quick dust, make sure everything looks nice then go tackle a room that's been neglected for awhile OR tackle a room that's been neglected for a while, get it looking nice, and turn around to see the recently cleaned room in shambles again?

The FlyLady would try to tell me that consistent maintenance in each room wins the gold star, but my energy doesn't extend that far. Yesterday I decided to maintain first, then tackle projects second. It took most of the day to run some laundry, tidy up a few bathrooms, get the kitchen back into shape etc--basically to maintain areas that were in good shape just a few short days ago. In the interest of full disclosure, there were also several rest breaks in there as the pregnant lady doesn't seem to work for more than 2 hours at a time without needing a break.

Today, I'd like to try to tackle a few areas that have been neglected for a bit longer, specifically the bedrooms. Clothes are everywhere. Annie's off season clothes and the clothes she's grown out of need to be stored. The drawers also need to be organized so the dresser works for not one, but two babies. I have a lot of stuff I'm growing out of and growing into; plus Husband started a new job so his work wardrobe has shifted some. All of these issues need to be resolved and the clothes need a home. We don't have the most closet space, unfortunately, or I doubt this would be as much of an issue.

So, finding a home for lost clothes is the plan for today, combined with Annie helpfully grabbing at the neatly folded stacks of clothes and whipping them around her head. She does it with such glee though, so it's hard to get upset. Hard to get much done, but also hard to get upset.

The Weekend

This weekend we cleaned house, had the Husband's family over for brunch, and had our final Teams of our Lady piloting session. A fairly busy weekend all in all, but thinkgs worked out pretty well.

The reason I attribute things going so smoothly is that we were actually able to spend the day at home Saturday! I can't remember the last time we had a Saturday where we weren't scheduled to be somewhere or do something that took a significant part of the day. Husband and I were both home, both able to clean and tidy, and both able to look after the baby.

Husband even sorted through all the computer's operating disks, game disks, and miscellaneous computer stuff to get it all organized. Previously everything had been lumped together in one box. The box kinda exploded when the new computer arrived and Husband installed the programs and games he wanted on the new computer hotness. The end result, our basement is looking good!

So Saturday we cleaned, and Sunday we welcomed guests. Since we'd been home, we had time to prep some of the food to minimize the kitchen time, we were able to set up the dining room table so everyone would fit, and able to put together a few games and toys for the neices and nephews while they were here. Husband even had time to run outside with the guys to kick the soccer ball around 20 minutes before dinner and getting dinner out went smoothly. Although a lasagna takes more time in the oven than the cooking directions state....otherwise a smooth day. It was so, so nice to have things clean, organized and ready to go in the house.

Did I mention how much I loved being home and using the time to clean Saturday?

Project Runway Finale

I'll admit it, I'm a Project Runway fan. Saw some episodes during the first and second seasons, but with the third season, I made a point of following it all the way through. Last night was the finale to determine which of the four (not three!) designers would be the ultimate winner. Very excited to watch because each designer was likable with their own strengths and weaknesses.

Even Husband watched a few episodes this season, and had his opinions on the designs. He may not out-and-out like the shows I like, but he is very tolerant and will sit and watch with me. He notes that there are two categories of reality shows. The first is the Survivor sort of show, where everyone is back-stabbing and double-crossing. The second are the types where they do a make-over, redesign a room, you win a prize and these shows may have some drama, but they are ultimately designed to help and promote the people that are featured on it. The positive reality shows he doesn't mind watching with me.

Last night Husband was out, and it was Annie and I alone for the night. I thought Annie would settle early and I'd have the evening free to do my thing and watch the finale. Annie had a horrible night. She took forever to settle and I completely missed the finale. I was ok with that, until I went to the bravotv website to pull an interesting pic for the post and found it plastered with congratulations to the winner. Bravo usually replays the same show over and over, so I'll probably catch it within the next day or two. Sigh.

Update: Sure enough, Bravo was running the episodes from season 3 today. Did I get to catch the finale? No. Why? Husband scheduled a raquet ball game this afternoon and neglected to take his equipment with him. When he called to ask me to bring his stuff out to him at work, I don't think it would have gone over well if I told him it didn't jiive with my plan to watch tv today.

Further Update: It was on this evening! I was glued to the tv (and not making dinner) when Husband came home from work and the raquet ball game. He was able to catch the collections come down the Runway, and we watched the end of the finale together. Everyone had a lot of talent, I'm not suprised at the outcome. Laura is a one trick pony, Michael Knight still has skills he can develop (that will take him far in the fashion world) but both Uli and Jeffrey had good looking collections. While I do agree taht Jeffrey had the best collection, in terms of the variety and cohesive look of the collection, I don't think telling Uli that she had a lot of marketability and success in women's design was enough to make up for not winning.

Cleaning the Flylady Way

"The house did not get dirty overnight and it will not get clean overnight" as quoted from Flylady.net. If you're familiar with her cleaning approach, she has a system of housekeeping that relies on routine. She emphasizes making small, consistent changes that will last and enable one to keep a tidier house. She also mentions that it's easiest to start if you work in brief bursts.

The brief bursts work well for a lady who's 8 months pregnant with a messy one year old. I've been working on small patches around the house--my bathroom is looking good except for the tub, the kitchen sink is shined, I'm running laundry--but that I haven't accomplished any real cleaning project, like a single room or floor of the house. With all the small patches I feel like I'm making progress, but I'm also looking for that moment where things really come together and I can look around and say the house is looking pretty good. I guess I need to repeat the mantra until I get to that moment. "Baby steps, baby steps, baby steps."

Endodontic Experience

Us pregnant ladies are supposed to make sure we receive regular dental care. Dr. Spock explains why dental care is so important and why dental problems seem to crop up for pregnant ladies:

Gingivitis (an inflammation of the gums) is a common problem, which may be the result of increased blood flow to the gums caused by pregnancy hormones. It can lead to bleeding gums and has been associated with complications of pregnancy, such as premature birth. It isn't known whether gingivitis directly causes premature labor or whether it's a marker for poor self-care and other health risks that might predispose a woman to pre-term birth. It's always wise to take good care of your teeth; just consider the potential risk of pre-term birth as one more reason to pay attention to this aspect of your health.

I did not worry too much about dental care during the first pregnancy. Well, I worried about it, but I didn't do anything about it during the first pregnancy. I really, really needed to have my teeth x-rayed to check for cavities. Since it's very difficult to get a full set of x-rays during pregnancy, I figured I would wait until until Annie was born, then I'd go to the dentist.

I made appointments for a dental cleaning and exam when Annie was 6 months old, thinking she's old enough for to manage the appointment. Alas, I was already pregnant again. So for this second pregnancy, I was taking good care of my teeth, but more by default rather than actual design.

I had a cleaning, but no x-rays. Not a huge deal, but the dentist told me to come back as soon as the baby was born so we could get a good look at my teeth.

A couple weeks ago, I was up all night with a toothache. Went back to the dentist to check it out. He was glad I came, but wanted to proceed cautiously as I was still pregnant. He draped two lead-aprons over my belly, assured me a quick x-ray was safe, and targeted the tooth that ached. He then referred me to a specialist.

The specialist is an endodontist. To become an endodontist, you must go to school for an extra two years. An endodontist is defined as someone who studies "a branch of dentistry concerned with diseases of the pulp." He recommended a root canal cause that's what he does. So I had a root canal yesterday.

It wasn't as uncomfortable as I expected. When you have a cavity filled, they use the drill. The drill vibrates and is pretty uncomfortable as far as I'm concerned. For a root canal they don't really drill so much as file the tooth. Kinda feels like having your tooth flossed from the inside. Not so bad really. Today my tooth is a little sensitive, where you want to chew your food on the other side of your mouth, not go to the dentist for the toothache kind of thing. Overall an improvement. I still need to return to my regular dentist for a crown though...

What to name the new baby?

Husband and I are trying to come up with a name for the second baby. For our first daughter, "Anne" was the only name I suggested that he didn't hate. Our daughter is named "Anne." It was the only name we had for a girl's name. How are we supposed to come up with a name for another girl (or any other girls we have for that matter)?

We decided to solicit the suggestions of friends and family. One Sunday at brunch, Husband's 7 year old nephew suggested "Pear Blossom." Funnily enough, I have a neice on my side of the family whose name is "Cherry Blossom," whom he has never met.

I then suggested to the 7 year old that we might want a name that reflects a saint's name. He then suggested "Claire Theresa" since "they're both saints!"

In that vein, a priest friend suggested such names as "Scholastica" and "Philomena."


Above is a picture of Saint Philomena. Her biography (as quoted from Catholic.org) states, "
Little is known of her life, and the information was have was received by private revelation from her. Martyred at about age 14 in the early days of the Church. [Eventually her bones were allowed to be transported to a shrine.] Miracles began to be reported at the shrine including cures of cancer, healing of wounds, and the Miracle of Mugnano in which Venerable Pauline Jaricot was cured a severe heart ailment overnight. Philomena became the only person recognized as a Saint solely on the basis of miraculous intercession as nothing historical was known of her except her name and the evidence of her martyrdom. "

Thanks for the suggestions, we'll keep working on it.