Here you go, Sweet Mary Sunshine!

My friend and fellow blogger, Sweet Mary Sunshine, tagged me, forcing me to finally post something, so here it goes:

1. What was I doing ten years ago?
Hmmm...The sucky answer is that I was doing the same thing I am now. So depressing! It was 1998 and I had been working at the newspaper for over a year. Back then two other reporters, who no longer work here, had attended Bemidji State with me and we all had worked on the campus newspaper, finally graduating to the "big leagues." Erika was four, and I do miss those days. She didn't text constantly on her phone back then and actually seemed to enjoy being in my presence. Oh, the good ol' days!

2. What are 5 things on my to-do list for today (not in any particular order):
- Wrap a present for my friend in Norway, a month past her birthday. Whoops.
- Start marking things in our scary cluttered basement for our neighbor's garage sale.
- Somehow sneak out of the house without Erika knowing and go watch "Sex In the City" movie, which is rated R. I'm trying to figure out how I can do this AND get ready for the garage sale at the same time.
- Finish a lame story I'm working on.
- Take our dog Daisy on a walk.

3. Snacks I enjoy:
Anything cheesy or fresh fruit. Since I've been pregnant I've alternated between craving Mexican food (not TOO spicy) and fruit. Course I did this before I was pregnant so I can't really blame the baby on this one.

4. Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
I would quit my job and be a stay-at-home mom who also travels to exotic locales, in addition to volunteering at my children's school. I've always wanted to volunteer at Romanian orphanages too, rocking and playing with orphaned babies. There are two programs that offer these types of trips. (Just like Sweet Mary Sunshine, only I was thinking Romanian orphans, not Fargo ones.) I'd also spend my summers on the lake, floating on a floatie all day, reading books.

5. Places I have lived:
-Pequot Lakes, MN
-Moorhead, MN
-Fargo, ND
-Murfreesboro, TN
-Nashville, TN
-Bemidji, MN
-Burnsville, MN
(That pretty much sums up my life!)

6. People I want to know more about: Hmmmm. All you faithful blog readers, feel free to do the same by leaving it in the comment section. I'd love to see if anyone actually reads the crap I write. :)

Where's Waldo??

So I snatched away Erika's yearbook a couple of nights ago so I could check out her and her classmates and even several of my own former classmates' children. At least one is (gasp!) graduating from high school this spring.

Imagine my surprise when I saw Erika in the group photo for the Mock Trial team...she also was featured in a Mock Trial photo on that page. The cutline said something about her doing some research. Well, Erika only went to Mock Trial once. She thought it was boring (she thought the case would be more like Law & Order SVU or something exciting) so she quit the team after just going to the first practice.

Then I find my daughter sitting with some friends on the Art Club page. Yep, she's not a member of the Art Club either. She later told me she was just visiting her friends during the club meeting after school one day and they snapped a photo of her.

Oh, and she was featured in a photo on the Spanish Club page, too, and while she takes a Spanish class, she says she's not in the Spanish Club. She also was on the choir page, which makes sense since she's a member of the choir.

I found all this quite hilarious. I told her this has to be her goal each year during high school — trying to sneak into every group photo so as to take up as much real estate in the yearbook as possible.

That's my girl.

On a baby note, everything is going just fine. I'm feeling a lot better than the first trimester and I'm starting to feel the baby move more and more each day. He/she loved watching American Idol this week. I'm hoping this means he/she will be a musical kid.

Babies on the brain

Ever since my friend Heidi's baby shower in January, I've had these four plastic babies on my desk as a type of good luck charms.

Apparently they worked pretty well, my quadruplets.

Months ago there were times when I'd forget I was pregnant, but it's hard to forget now. I feel like I've got a bun in the oven, even if it's not noticeable yet and I'm still wearing my regular clothes. I'm nearly 17 weeks pregnant..the baby is the size of a turnip.

I picked up some baby board and soft books at a garage sale today. I'm trying to prepare myself to read to the baby as soon as he/she can hear, which from what I've read that's at about 22-24 weeks pregnant. We'll see if I can talk Nels into reading to my belly. :)

A school board member told me Monday about a conversation she had with the district's literacy collaborative coordinator. The woman told her by observing adults she can pick out which adults hadn't been read to as a child....and she accurately pegged this board member as one who hadn't been read to as a child. She was one of eight children and her parents didn't have time to read to her... freaky. I wouldn't have guessed that. She seems pretty articulate to me.

So I plan to do some reading on early childhood and literacy and make sure our little guy/girl has a little library before birth, to give the baby a jump start on life. We just have to remember to take the time to read the darn books...something I didn't do as well with Erika.

But then, Erika's a straight-A student...apparently my inattentiveness as a parent wasn't too crippling in her life.

BTW, Nels is off buying my birthday present as I type this. As always, not a surprise. I'm getting a video camera. My birthday is Sunday and I'll be a whooping 37 years old.

Scary.

I feel the earth move ...

While I was sitting in church Sunday during Erika's confirmation I began to feel the fluttering movements of our baby for the first time. I've felt it a few times since then but I never seem to be sitting still and quiet enough for very long.

It was a little surreal. I'm watching my child, who is 14, getting confirmed before the church while my baby was wiggling inside. While it was Erika's big day, her little brother/sister was making his/her presence known. Maybe that's a sign of things to come. I have another little drama queen on the way. Yikes.

I'm now at 15 weeks pregnant. The baby is the size of an apple. Speaking of babies, my coworker and his wife found out they're having one baby for sure - they got to see the heartbeat at their appointment on Monday - but there was another sack there that may or may not contain another baby. Doctor said it's probably a single baby but they'll know for sure at their next appointment in a couple of weeks. They are due Dec. 23 so I'm sure our maternity/paternity leaves will overlap.

Babies everywhere!

Something in the water cooler ...

I just found out today that my co-worker's wife is pregnant! I'm so excited for them. They've been trying for quite some time and used in vitro fertilization...first time was a charm for them. They'll find out Monday how many babies they're having. The baby (or babies) are due at the end of December.

So he sits to the left of me and some coworkers are already speculating that there will be a third pregnancy in the newsroom. Hard for me to think who that could be (except there's one person I hope it will be!) but hey, the more the merrier if they'd like to go to garage sales together on our lunch breaks!

Speaking of garage sales...I went to a great one today on my way to work. I got a Winnie the Pooh bassinet that plays music, a baby jumperoo-thingy and a baby swing...all at a great low price. I was so excited. My car was packed. I loaned the jumperoo-thingy to my coworker Heidi so her little guy can test drive it for us. I hope he puts some great bouncing miles on it.

Our baby is only the size of a lemon right now, but he/she is already getting some fun things to play with/on. We just have to wait about six more months.