you won't be surprised to know that our home is listed in the top 10 vacation destinations of the world

Elizabeth is visiting for a few days.

As you might expect, we've done only the most exciting of activities while she's been here.

A four hour allergy appointment! A trip to Walgreens! Exchanging picture frames at the Hob Lob! Preparing to take down our Christmas trees! 

Don't let her face deceive you. This is the most fun she's had all year.

Watch Sesame Grow, week 30

Well.

It's Monday. 

You know how I'm sure? Because our recyclable bin blew over and the recyclables went all over the yard. And because I spent all morning and half the afternoon trying to get the printer to work and when it finally did, I discovered we're out of black ink. Black was the one and only color I needed. Then I tried to make Greek dip and we didn't have enough sour cream. Not to mention that I almost overcooked the noodles for my soup. Do you know how hard it is to overcook Ramen noodles?? VERY HARD. (Technical note- I can't eat the noodles that come in the Ramen package so I have to buy a weird Asian version that comes with rice noodles instead. I take the seasoning packet from the real Ramen, the noodles from the fake Ramen and cook myself up a very fancee meal. It becomes somewhat complicated for what is in reality a one pan/two ingredient dish.)

But enough about me!

Edition: We didn't take a picture yet but it will probably look a lot like last weeks

Size of baby: Almost 16'' and about 3lbs.
Fun fact: Sesame's teeth have developed and are hanging out below the gums. 
What's on the menu: Based on the Ramen story, obviously only the finest and most nutritious of foods.
Worst part of the week: Billy Ray Cyrus didn't have it all that bad if his biggest issue was his achy breaky heart. I'd like to write a hit about my heartburn and swollen, sore, and achy back. Wouldn't that be a fun song that tops the charts? 
Best part of the week: 1) Christopher feeling the baby hiccup. 2) Two smocked dresses I ordered came today. My stash of girl's clothes is 12x bigger than my stash of boy clothes. That means the baby is almost guaranteed to be a boy.

When life gets slow so does the blogging

I don't know that you'll be able to handle how exciting our life has been lately, so let me present it in bullet form:

* Christopher took a sleeping pill Thursday night and slept until 2 o'clock Friday afternoon
* We got caught up on laundry for all of 3.5 hours
* We bought an over-the-door shoe rack (CAN YOU BELIEVE THE EXCITEMENT?)
* The heating man came to fix the broken heat only to tell me, and I quote, "Have the homeowners move the thermostat to a better location." In a world where it takes the property manager five weeks to even respond to emails, I doubt they'd be on board with any non-emergency construction.
* We discussed taking our Christmas trees down but haven't actually done it yet. The fake tree obviously isn't in danger of dying and the real tree is so carefully preserved in our frigid 50% of the time house that it's held up quite nicely.  I did take the ornaments off the real tree a few weeks ago so all we have is a bare pine tree wrapped in a tree skirt taking up a corner of the living room. It's very klassy. Decorators of the year over here! 

In other words, nothing has been going on our lives are so full of activities worthy of appearing on the cover of Time magazine that I can barely breathe. 

Speaking of breathing, our second childbirth class was this week. Side note: I HATE the word birthing.
We watched a MUCH MUCH MUCH too up close and personal video from the 70's of a lady having her baby and of the six people in the room, only two enjoyed the experience. One was the teacher and the other was the Chatty Cathy Doula in training. Quiet Sidekick Doula in training didn't say much but I noticed she moved so a pillow was in a strategic location between her and the tv.  The other dad in the room, who already has a daughter, almost passed out on the couch. His wife was giggling too much from how embarrassing the whole thing was to look. I looked as little as possible because UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL. Christopher was blessed beyond measure to be working late and miss the class. Unfortunately his absence meant Chatty Cathy Doula offered to be my husband when we had to practice the exercises, but ANYTHING to get away from the video. 

While we're on the topic of babies (since we're on a rabbit trail of topics here anyway), I'd like to discuss for a moment how creating a baby registry is nothing like creating a wedding registry. Wedding registries are all fun and games and "OOOOHHH!!!! Look at this carrot peeler! Let's put that fancy cutting board on the list! Don't forget the wine glasses!! And we need the swivel-top trash can to complete our kitchen decor! Isn't this fun?" Five hours later the people who accompanied you are sitting in the massage chairs wondering when you'll be done.

Baby registries are a whole different ball game. Heaven forbid you choose the wrong ring stacking toy and suddenly your child is destined to be behind it's peers for life. Amazon has more than 7 pages of ring stacker toys to choose from. Wooden, plastic, or cloth? Rainbow or pattered? Turtle or Veggie Tale themed? Five or seven rings? Rainbow or ombre? All organic materials? WHY DO THEY MAKE PICKING A TOY SO COMPLICATED? These toy designers need to simmer on down and remember that kids like playing with boxes from the recycling bin. I excel when it comes to over-thinking very small and unimportant decisions so it took me 15 hours to decided on this one. 

Don't ask how long it took me to decided on a pack n play pattern. 

PS. I can't even imagine how I would feel to be this woman. I take that back. I imagine A LOT of tears. 

Watch Sesame Grow, week 29

Edition: The photographer was experimenting with angles

Size of baby: About the size of a butternut squash. It's obviously getting bigger because sometimes I can feel it hanging out on one side of my stomach and then it pokes me on the other side. 
Size of mother: I have no new comments to make on this topic.
What's on the menu: We're back to Doritos. 
Worst part of the week: The three hour glucose test. I got the drink down, but I HATED not being able to eat for hours and hours AND having four blood tests within three hours. I barely survived without getting sick but I did so as a reward we went to PF Changs for dumplings. I ate more sweets than usual over the weekend just in case I was told to put a lid on the sugar. 
Best part of the week: I received this email from the doctors office a few hours ago: "Sarah, Great news---your glucose values were all normal!!!" 
Other things I have to say: The lady teaching the childbirth class wants me to fill out a paper listing everything I eat each day because she's all about high protein counts. You know what makes me feel guilty about eating so many potato chips? Having her know. It's especially awkward after listening to her give a speech last week about the importance of good nutrition during pregnancy. If she says anything about it tomorrow, I'll tell her my doctor said the quality of the food is more important than the quantity and my potato chips are made from the HIGHEST QUALITY potato. 

I'm resisting the urge to make a Hump Day comment

* Within a span of seven days the following items in our house broke: the heat, the hot water heater, the kitchen sink, the internet, and the water filter in the refrigerator. Our house is cursed. Who wants to come visit?

* I was recently reading an article about a team traveling to Mars. I was feeling jealous not to have been included when I read that it's a one-way trip. And just like that I decided I have no problem staying home. 

* At my last appointment the midwife was talking about birth plans. I didn't tell her I developed a plan called JITB, or Jack in the Box. It works like this: you pick a short tune, preferably a lullaby or some other child appropriate tune (extra parent points if it's educational), to be played you're while in labor. The song plays for 10-15 second before suddenly stopping. As soon as it stops the baby pops out and you have the worlds fastest delivery. Move over, Hypnobabies. There's a new method in town.

* I failed the glucose test on Monday so I go back on Friday for the 3 hour test. I anticipate
1. fainting from lack of food
2. being completely bored
3. failing again

* Since we're on the topic of my health, I had to find a new primary care doctor. I didn't know who to pick so I looked on the website of a large and popular doctors office in town. My method of narrowing down doctors was very scientific- Are they female? Do they look nice? Do I like their name? I am nothing but superficial. I eventually choose a doctor named Greta because she sidelines as a jazz gospel singer. This singing doctor discovery was almost as exciting as learning last summer that I had been assigned to a doctor named Mary Crawley. If you don't know who Mary Crawley is than I not sure we can be friends.

* Speaking of Mary Crawley, this season of Downton Abbey has already DONE ME IN. As if not having Matthew and his wonderful hair around isn't bad enough, now I have to hurt for Anna until the next episode. I MAY NEVER RECOVER.

Watch Sesame Grow, week 28

Edition: I'm running out of new things to say

Size of baby: Sesame weighs about 2 1/4lbs. Just the other month he/she was the size of a kidney bean so somebody's been packing on the el bees!
Size of mother: I am not packing on the el bees. I weighed exactly the same (139) at today's appointment as I did last month. 
Fun fact: The above lead the doctor to say, "Look at that cute little belly! It's like you're not even pregnant!" If only I had a dollar for each time someone says that...
What's on the menu: Thursday I felt like eating carrot cake so I made one on Friday. I guess you could say I finally craved something. IT'S ABOUT TIME.
Worst part of the week: The nausea that never leaves and heartburn that's doing it's best to give the nausea a run for it's money.

Best part of the week: 1. The fact that the nausea is much more bearable than it was the first 6 months. Silver lining, folks!
2. Clothes that fit, especially the sweatpants I hold near and dear to my heart. 
Other things I have to say: Today I did my diabetes test. I was expecting the drink to be the worst thing I ever tasted because that's how everyone and their mother act about it, but it wasn't bad at all. Yet another pregnancy myth. 

Last but not least, Christopher has gained a little too much sympathy weight. 

thoughts on the person occupying Hotel Womb

 I found this on Ashley's instagram; I didn't write it.

It occurred to me last week that I mostly talk about the parts of pregnancy I dislike. It also occurred to me that along with being way smaller, I feel like I'm different than a lot of the other pregnant ladies in the blog world. I don't have an app on my phone telling me the days, hours, minutes and seconds until my due date. I couldn't even tell you what day of the week April 2nd is. I don't do well with major life changes so for the sake of my sanity PLEASE no one tell me how many days are left until April 2nd. I will get a serious case of anxiety and once I know I'll never be able to unknow. Not knowing the gender of the baby doesn't keep me awake at night. I'm curious but unlike someone else around here, I'm not dying to know. Ever since I was little I wanted the gender to be a surprise. I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to have a girl, but I'll find out soon enough. It doesn't kill me when someone touches my belly as long as they don't go too high up or too low down. People make it sound like everyone and their cousin attacks your belly but I haven't found that to be true at all. 

I guess I don't talk about the parts I do like much because overall I haven't enjoyed the process of making a person, but it isn't all bad. Besides, I don't want Sesame to read this in 20 years and think I wasn't happy about him/her. 

* I loved seeing Sesame for the first time. I had seen many ultrasound pictures from further on in pregnancies, but I had never seen a 9 week old baby wiggle around. It was THE cutest. 
* I loved the first time Christopher felt the baby move. He came home from work all bummed out and Sesame gave him a nice little high five through my belly.
* I like when Sesame moves.
* I like when we have story time. Christopher always does the reading because I'm busy holding the baby. Obviously.

* I really like when Christopher talks to the baby. He has very detailed conversations about word definitions and good vs. bad morals. I usually just say something really educational along the lines of "Let's crank up the tunes." Someone has to introduce the child to the (other) main men in our lives, namely Josh Turner and Brad Paisley.    
* I like decorating the nursery. 
* I like being able to make a statement about being pregnant without people telling me "When you're pregnant you can talk." Well, now I am so I do. 
* I especially like that Christopher is around. If he wasn't I'd be somewhat of a disaster.

little cabin in the woods

Last weekend we took a vacation to a cabin in the woods. We don't often take two vacations within three days of each other, but the government doesn't often shut down and cause the camping trip I had scheduled in the fall to be canceled either. Not that I'm still bitter about it. 

Christopher wasn't sure about how fun staying in the cabin would be (see also: very skeptical), but we both agree it was most likely 12 times better than our original cabin camping trip would have been. For one, this cabin had indoor plumbing. Not to mention it was so cute.

It was so cozy I wanted to live there forever.

We didn't do much besides read, play games and eat chips and dip but it was THE BEST time. We also posed with a larger than life buffalo. (Perhaps he was an accurately sized buffalo. I'm never been near enough a real buffalo to say for sure.)

Watch Sesame Grow, week 27

Edition: It's been a while

Size of baby: Almost two pounds; about the size of a head of cabbage.
Fun fact: Today I was laying down when I felt the baby moving around and all the sudden I saw a little something poke up from my belly. I tried taking a video for Christopher but naturally the baby got shy and/or stubborn and stopped moving. 
Size of mother: I thought I was getting quite round but Christopher showed me a picture on facebook of a girl at 17 weeks and said she looks the same as me. Either way there's no denying I look pregnant now. (Of the four people who read this, I really hope Jenn and Allison can tell I'm growing. They're always honest with their opinions of how round I am/am not. ;-))
What's on the menu: Potato products and pancakes
Worst part of the week: The terrible, awful, horrible, no good, very bad stomach virus of 2013.
Best part of the week: My new sweatpants. I love them with all my heart.

I'm sorry this is so long. Maybe this year I'll learn to talk less.

Joining Jenn's New Year's party from halfway around the world.

What were some highlights/low points of 2013?
* Katie got married
* Christopher was gone for the month of January which OF COURSE means something would go wrong. In this case it worked out well for me that our neighbor got shot because it meant I temporarily moved in with Jenn.
* I went to a Josh Turner concert 
* We worked through not one but two very serious issues in our marriage
* We found a church we like
* I tried teaching Christopher the finer points of babysitting
* I used the internet to self-diagnose my ailments and survived some questionable driving situations all in one day
* Jenn and her people left me and I still miss them every day. Obviously it was a VERY LOW point in my year. I was still reeling when Aggie and her tiny munckins packed up and left.
* I went to Utah for a wedding and got stranded on the side of a mountain
* Sesame made his/her presence known
* We moved. Again. 
* I made new blog friends. (I'm especially looking at you, Michelle.) 

Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I generally don't make resolutions anymore because I have a hard time keeping them, but I did achieve my personal goal of watching all 9 seasons of The Office. The other goal I kept was to make more crafts. I even managed to spend less time on the the computer which was difficult because I really love being nosy aka reading blogs at all hours of the day.

This year my goals should be:

* learn to survive on no sleep 

* get less gray hair (anyone know how to make this happen without the use of coloring?)
* open my own personal Dunkin Donuts in the garage

As far as serious goals go:
* learn to use my camera well
* finish my degree (I never talk about it here because I like to keep things happy and light, but I have been studying for a degree in early childhood education for the last 17 years and I am so ready for it to be OVER.) 

Did anyone close to you give birth?
Katie's sister Marylynn had little Rachel. I haven't met her yet but I like to consider her a niece.

Did anyone close to you die?Thankfully no. 

What countries did you visit?
I stayed in good ole US of A for 365 days, but you'd never know by what popped up on my phone when I drove into Kentucky.

I did visit a new state when I went to Utah in July. While there I went tubing, sat in a hot tub, and had various alcoholic fruity beverages which are basically all the things you shouldn't do when you are pregnant and don't know it.

What would you like to have in 2014 that you didn't have in 2013?
More visits with Katie, Autumn, Joanna and all my friends from home. More nausea-free days. 

What dates from 2013 will be etched upon your memory, and why? 
The day I told Christopher about Sesame (August 1st). I wanted to tell him when we moved into our new house so he didn't know until four days after I took the test. I can keep a secret like nobody's business. 

What was your biggest achievement of this year?
Completing the process of packing and moving to a new house without crying. Moving is very traumatic for me and I cry every single time we do it so that was big. I completed my 302 hours of student teaching in about two months. It was the loudest school I've ever spent time in so I was glad to escape with my hearing intact. Beyond that I don't feel like I did anything very monumental this year. 
But I suppose successfully carting around another human being for the last 180+ days is nothing to sneeze at.

What was your biggest failure?
I always compare myself to others too much.

What's the best thing you ate?
I had many good meals this year, but the best food overall award would probably go to potato chips or pizza. I have a very simple palette these days. 

What's the best thing you bought?
A sewing machine and a camera.

What did you get really, really, really excited about? 
Jenn and Aggie's husbands coming home. Going to see Josh Turner. Anna and Jillian's visit in the summer. Every time Christopher came home from work.

What do you wish you'd done more of?
Volunteering. I volunteered at the children's hospital and preschool every week for years before getting married and I miss them both so much. 

What were your favorite TV programs?The Office and Downton Abby. I'm still distraught over Matthew's death. I loved him and his beautiful hair.

What did you do on your birthday and how old were you?
Hold on while I check my blog archives. I do remember that I turned 24. Christopher cooked me dinner and we went to our first dance class. He gave me 24 roses, a DD giftcard (he knows my love language), and a necklace. 

What kept you sane?
The big three- Christopher, chocolate and the occasional cry.

Tell me a valuable life lesson you learned in 2013.