susuwatari

It is well known that I tend to leave long voice messages. I do realize that you are not there and yet I keep talking like you are there, which probably goes to show that I’m not that considerate of a conversationalist. When I re-discover my will power I will work on this. Anyway after babbling in Sarah’s voice mail for some time, her voice machine cut me off. For once, instead of getting all offended and yelling fine be that way as I hang up, I actually listened to my options and lo and behold there was an option to listen to your message. You could probably gather from the above sentence that I am somewhat narcissistic. I am fascinated and disturbed with hearing how my voice sounds so different in real life than what I hear when I talk. I of course hit yes, yes let me be horrified and thrilled by listening to this strange voice which is me but not me. Usually when I hear my voice I’m squirming too much with embarrassment to actually listen to it, well this time I did and first was struck by how much I sound like my sister and my mother. No wonder my “Aunt” Sharon got so confused when I answered my Mom’s phone, and yet I don’t sound like them at all. Christina or my Mom never sound as spastic as I do, they are usually dry sarcastic tones while mine is very animated. Not to say that Christina or my mother don’t ever get excited about things, they just don’t have the manic energy to their excitement that I apparently have. Oh yes, I have found a new addiction. Beware Sarah you may be receiving even MORE long, disjointed voice messages.

Ok so I knew that there were discomforts associated with pregnancy – such as strange pains, nausea, and certain violations by doctors.  However, I was not prepared for how incredibly exhausting this is.  I’m told this feeling will pass in a few weeks and by then I’ll be washing baseboards with all my extra nesting energy but let me tell you that is not the case right now.  I think I’ve cooked dinner once in the past month.  Please don’t even ask when was the last time I made any effort to clean.  Our house is a disaster zone right now.  On top of a month of neglect there are piles of maternity clothes laying all over the living room.  I amazed myself by spending an entire hour sorting through these last night.  My usual routine is to drive home, let out the dog, buy some fast food, eat immediately, and then lay on the sofa.  I consider getting up only to use the bathroom, eat more food or go to bed.  Oh yeah, it’s thrilling around here.  Wes and I are probably the biggest homebodies you’ve ever met and we’re still getting bored of sitting at home.  We’ve tried going out and doing things on the weekends to mix it up a bit but we always end up back where we started.  We went to the history museum for all of 2 hours, I then had to go home and take a 2 hour nap to make up for it.  We went to dinner and the mall to walk around for a change of scene, and then I fell asleep on the couch at 9pm.  You get the picture.  I’m pretty much a walking zombie right now who gorges on rice krispy treats and doritos instead of brains.  I spend the rest of my time in a trance trying to concentrate at work and actually get something done.  This leaves me with nothing to work with by the time I get home so it’s back to the sofa for me.

My parents are coming in town next week for Thanksgiving.  I have a personal goal to have cleaned up the house enough to not terrify my mother and to do enough laundry to have clean underwear for at least a week.  I like to challenge myself.  Oh yeah, and we have friends coming in town this weekend to stay at our house.  I just remembered that.  (One of those other things you get with pregnancy is stupid – some people call it forgetfulness or “momnesia” – but really you’re just more stupid.)  So maybe panic will settle in between now and Friday and I will actually get all that cleaning done early.  Or I’ll just ask Matt and Sara to close their eyes.  Whatever works!

You may be asking where have you been all last week, what have you been doing? Well the answer to that is saving the world you ungrateful fools, or more accurately Japan but in doing so saving the rest of the world I’m sure. I’ve been playing Okami , an awesome game that feels like you have been dropped into a Japanese watercolor and folklore story. For all of my friends who have been lamenting that there are no good new games they would like to play, well dry your tears I have found a new addiction for you! Come join me in ignoring your family, friends, and pets. Curse as you try to make the brush strokes correctly to make the sacred tree bloom or a breeze to cool your little wolfy brow.

So today I feel like crap.  This has nothing to do with the baby other than pregnancy making me more susceptible to infection.  I managed to catch a cold and now I can’t stop coughing my lungs out.  I’ve had this since Friday and it’s getting worse.  This always makes me feel bad for the FedEx and UPS guys that stop by our office.  They see me hacking away and then have to hand me their stylus and signing doohickie and watch me rub my germs all over the place.  They must go through a lot of sanitation gel.

We went to Target yesterday and Wes made me stock up on snacks.  I’m supposed to eat lightly all day long.  We went up and down the aisles and I threw everything that looked good into the cart.  Unfortunately the things that looked good don’t really add up to a healthy diet.  So far today I’ve had a rice crispy treat, mini blueberry muffins, a travel cup of corn pops, and cheese and crackers.  For this afternoon I have a sugar free pudding cup and a piece of Ghirardelli chocolate (this was a last minute contribution from a coworker).  The sad thing is it’s almost 3pm and I’m pretty sure this isn’t enough!  I need to go to the grocery store so I can add some fruit and veggies into my carb-tastic diet.  The good thing is that I think this is really working and I haven’t been feeling nauseous today.  So hooray for not feeling even worse than I do!

You may join my pity party in the comments if you so desire.  Misery loves company and all that.

So I have started going to church again, I have been thinking for some time I would like to go but I had two problems. One, I’m pretty picky about churches. I’ve been very spoiled by the churches I’ve gone to and I demand that the churches be pretty (you need something pretty to look at if the sermon goes on too long) and the sermon better have some humor or story telling in it! I also am a very strong believer in the separation between church and state. I don’t mind praying for those in office but I refuse to be told by a minister who I should be voting to put into office. The second one is that I’m allergic to Christians (the fanatical ones). I start getting fidgety, panicky, and itchy. Before long I’m looking for the nearest exit or the nearest can of mace. Anyway for over two years I’ve been driving by this beautiful church which is right next to where I work. Well last weekend I finally went and inside it was beautiful and they had an awesome choir and like a little violin orchestra playing! It was full of the pomp and circumstance that I love and the lady giving the sermon actually had some humor in it. Perfect! It’s weird, I just had a feeling of rightness being there after I got over my nervousness, though I do sorta feel like I’m sneaking into the church since everyone else there is pretty wealthy and I’m the poor bum sneaking in the back hoping no one will notice. The good news is that the guilt is gone if I can’t afford to contribute that week to the offering because I know my little pittance that I can offer is more than compensated by the rich guys around me. This week they had a bagpipe band come and play for us for the feast of St. Andrew. I was wondering why they were putting so much effort for this when during the role call of Scottish clans more than half the congregation and all the preachers (yeah I’m still trying to figure out who the ministers are, I think there are like three of them) were standing up. There were a lot of kilts in the church this morning. Too fun! Hmm as for the Christian phobia, so far so good, I haven’t maced anyone yet. I do bolt for the exits as soon as church has ended. Hey baby steps here, I’m doing good to go. I actually find it very intimidating going to church by myself, I guess it’s because I’ve always gone with my Dad. If your interested here is where I’m going St. Peter’s Episcopal Church. It definitely is not the right church for everyone, but it seems like it might be the right one for me.

Other than the fact that they are totally unnecessary.  Is there any reason why I shouldn’t buy these?

Because I am in love.

Today I had an Eagle Owl fly directly over me so closely that I felt it’s wingtips on my head. I also got to see a hawk, a Vulture, and a lot of owls. I want a little screech owl for myself. So cute! To top it off it was a seminar at work so I even was being paid to go! Sweet diggity. Here’s a link to the group who offered the seminar. I’m thinking of taking Sarah and my folks out there during Thanksgiving to check it out.

You know that post I left a few months ago about figuring out how this whole birds and the bees business works?  Well I guess we figured it out!  (Turns out it’s not very complicated.)  So watch out.  I might be turning this into a Mommy blog.  Today, Wes and I went to visit my OBGYN and she performed our first ultrasound where we got to meet our little eight week old baby.  Our baby is very small but it does have arm and leg buds that it waves around in the air (or amniotic fluid… whatever) and it has a crazy fast heartbeat.  Our doctor has also reassured us that we have now fallen from the 20-25% miscarriage possibility rate to a steady 3% rate that will hold until birth barring any unforeseen complications.  Her instructions for me were to get lots of rest, eat often, and avoid falling down and hurting my stomach.  These are reassuring things  that help justify the gratuitous amount of time I spend laying on the sofa eating leftover Halloween candy and slurpies from QT.  Embrace the laziness!

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Dear baby,

Today Mama and Daddy got to see you for the first time.  You look kind of like a little blob but we could see your head and little arm and leg buds and watch your heartbeat.  Right now you are very small.  The baby books like to compare you to types of food so right now you are the size of a large raspberry or a pinto bean.  Two weeks ago you were the size of a booger (the book said an orange seed but I thought you looked more like a booger) so I’m very proud of you for growing so much!  In four more weeks I will go back to the doctor and get to listen to your heartbeat!

I haven’t been feeling that sick so I guess I got super lucky with you.  Sometimes I feel nauseous but the doctor says that I just need to eat more often and this will get better.  Good thing we have all that leftover Halloween candy to snack on!  I haven’t had any crazy cravings but I have been really wanting sandwiches lately.  I’m also still able to enjoy Mexican food so I forgive you for the discomfort I feel most of the time.  Just leave me my chimichangas and we are good.

Most of the time I feel really tired.  This has made it really difficult sometimes for me at work.  I really feel like a nap time would help out a lot!  Since that is not available most nights I come home and just collapse on the sofa for the rest of the night.  Luckily your dad is not bothered by my frequent napping.  He just plays video games while I sleep.

One more important thing.  Last night was a very important night in history.  Mama and Daddy stayed up late with Aunt Patience watching the results come in that chose Barack Obama as our President-Elect.  Mama is very proud that this man will be our next president and feels hopeful bringing you into the world with this man as our leader.  You’re too little right now to understand why this is meaningful but we’ll explain it to you when you’re older.

love,
Mama

Baby Ehrlichman 8 Weeks - The x's mark where the baby is

I’m pretty excited. I didn’t actually think Obama could win. I also didn’t expect to feel this excited and proud of my country, I thought Bush had beaten that out of me after his second election. It’s strange to feel hope again……

Well I voted this morning after waiting a little over an hour and a half, and I’m counting myself lucky it wasn’t longer! I’ve got my sticker and everything. I ended up choosing Obama. I think they are both good candidates, but after a long deliberation last night after looking at both of their websites I decided I like Obama’s energy plan better, his push for diplomacy, and I liked how he wanted to help farmers (who are my bread and butter). Also McCain’s very strong Pro-Life stance turned me off. As well, I personally don’t have a lot of respect for Sarah Palin, I don’t think she’s as retarded as she is portrayed on TV comedy skits but I don’t feel she is smarter than me, which is one of my main requirements for leading the country. I will tell you what did not influence me, the state of either candidate’s balls were not my main consideration unlike my friend Kris. I’m actually a bit concerned about this fascination of his. The good news is that fact that I voted for Obama means my sister will talk to me. The bad news is that my friend Kristin is ready to smack me for negating her vote.