Labor and Delivery Play List

I am in week 29 of my pregnancy, and I cannot avoid thinking about labor and delivery any longer. I must be brave. Before I dive into the labor and delivery chapters in my pregnancy books, I want to start with a fun assignment--my labor and delivery play list.

I need some advice before I begin. Do you think I should have an up-tempo play list or a soothing play list? I have no idea. While we were at lunch today, G was telling me about his running play list. He has the Bourne Identity theme song on there, and he says it makes him run faster. Do you think fast songs will make my labor progress faster? Hmmm.

I can remember laughing out loud at some of Shelley’s choices for her labor and delivery play list. Some girls are bigger than others, indeed. Ugh...I hope Ella is not a big girl.

Anyway, I would love your recommendations.

I'll bite, too

. . . a month late.

1. Name one person who made you laugh last night? Yang, as always. Gollum made me laugh, but he is not a person.
2. What were you doing at 0800? Sleeping in, but moving from the bed to the couch because my back was hurting.
3. What were you doing 30 minutes ago? Arriving at work to catch-up on some things before Monday. (Obviously, I haven’t started working yet).
4. What happened to you in 2006? I switched law firms, started golfing, said goodbye to a good friend that moved to another state, met up with my high school girlfriends in Las Vegas (it was the first time I had seen some of them in years), attended my friend’s wedding in California, and ran Hood to Coast.
5. What was the last thing you said out loud? Thank you to the gas attendant.
6. How many beverages did you have today? So far, some water and a cup of peppermint hot chocolate. I’ll have more milk and water before the day is up. I miss Diet Coke.
7. What color is your hairbrush? Black.
8. What was the last thing you paid for? Gasoline...Yikes. It was still shocking even though I drive a Honda Civic.
9. Where were you last night? On my new couch watching episodes of Rome.
10. What color is your front door? It still has the manufacturer’s primer on it. We will paint it when we install the new siding and brick work on the front of the house. I had a purple door at my last house and loved it.
11. Where do you keep your change? In my purse and car. I used to raid Yang’s change cup in his office (he always had lots of quarters) when there was a snack box at work. Now that the snack box is gone (employees at my firm took too many candy bars without paying), I rarely use my change.
12. What’s the weather like today? Cloudy and cool.
13. What’s the best ice-cream flavor? Cherry Garcia.
14. What excites you? Parenting books, walks in the forest, good food and good movies/TV.
15. Do you want to cut your hair? Not yet. I’ll cut it eventually.
16. Are you over the age of 25? Yes. I’m almost 29.
17. Do you talk a lot? Less than I used to.
18. Do you watch the O.C.? No, although I do love low brow television. The OC never made it into my schedule.
19. Do you know anyone named Steven? Yes.
20. Do you make up your own words? No. I like Colbert’s made up words.
21. Are you a jealous person? Yes, but mildly so.
22. Name a friend whose name starts with the letter ‘A’. Amber.
23. Name a friend whose name starts with the letter ‘K’. Kami.
24. Who’s the first person on your received call list? A friend.
25. What does the last text message you received say? Can’t remember. I deleted it.
26. Do you chew on your straw? Yes.
27. Do you have curly hair? No, but I am developing a few random curls because of the pregnancy.
28. Where’s the next place you’re going to? Someplace for lunch.
29. Who’s the rudest person in your life? Former opposing counsel on one of the few cases I had an opposing counsel.
30. What was the last thing you ate? Left over pumpkin pie! Yum.
31. Will you get married in the future? No, unless it’s some cheesy renewing of the vows type thing, which Yang will never agree to.
32. What’s the best movie you’ve seen in the past 2 weeks? Knocked Up. It is fun watching movies about pregnancy while pregnant because I seem so calm and collected when compared to Hollywood’s version of a pregnant woman.
33. Is there anyone you like right now? Yes.
34. When was the last time you did the dishes? Yesterday. Our kitchen was still a mess from thanksgiving cooking.
35. Are you currently depressed? Currently, no, but I am 100% at the mercy of pregnancy hormones. Ask me in 10 minutes.
36. Did you cry today? No.
37. Why did you answer and post this? Because SCM tagged me, and because my blog celebrates the mundane. Oh, and I’m avoiding work.
38. Tag 5 people who would do this survey. I don’t think I have five readers, and two of them have already done it. Skier Jess? M? G?

The Kitchen

When we learned I was pregnant, Yang agreed to have the house substantially completed by the beginning of February 2008. As always, Yang is an over-achiever. The house is substantially completed now. Here are some pictures of the kitchen, start to finish.

Eleanor the Longshanks

I am having a GIRL!!! My 20 week ultrasound was the first week of October, and the technician confirmed that our baby is a girl. I was convinced we were having a boy. My intuition is crap (big surprise), and the Chinese birth calendar is wrong. I am, nevertheless, very happy to be having a girl. In all honesty, I'm a little relieved as well. Yang claims he's known it was a girl all along.

Eleanor is the at the top of our short list of names. We love Eleanor and will call her Ella for short. We may change our minds before she is born, but for now she is Ella.

At my ultrasound appointment, I was also informed that Ella had long legs. I was so excited! I started making plans for her future career as a volley-ball player, US President, model, and/or Confident Woman with Commanding Presence. My daughter, the tall one. My dreams for her ended yesterday. I had a follow up ultrasound and learned that my baby is in the 50th percentile for height and weight. She is average. She is not tall. Sigh. At least she can still be president.

Comfort Blankets

I went home for lunch today (yes, I live that close to work—it’s heavenly). On my doorstep was a big box from my mother. The box was full of about 8 baby blankets, each one with a matching onesie. The onesies have cute little animals on them, and they are so small with tiny cap sleeves. (Am I really going to have a baby that small? Will s/he break?) The blankets are soft, small, whimsical and so cute that pre-pregnancy I might have gagged a little. But, I am so very pregnant, and I love the blankets so very much. I wanted to curl up under them all and take a nap. But I was ravenously hungry and went straightaway to make my lunch.

Pregnancy is like MSG for my emotions. It brings out the flavor. I am super-scared, super-excited, super-loving, super-irrational, and/or super-bitchy. But I’m always super-something. My first trimester, I felt overwhelmingly nervous, anxious, and scared. My second trimester has been totally different. I love being pregnant. I love my belly, I love the concept, I am indulging my nesting instinct (with super-human help from Yang), and I am so excited to be a mom. I wonder what the third trimester will bring.

This is the first time in my pregnancy that I have been so emotional over an object. I love those blankets. I love those onesies. Not just because my baby will soon be wrapped up in them, but because they are a comfort in and of themselves. They represent my fairytale concept of domestic tranquility and maternal bliss. The cynical, smarter half of me knows that there will be very few tranquil and blissful moments as new mom, so that is why I am soaking it all up right now. Those blankets represent the impressionistic painting of motherhood, with soft light streaming through the windows and a beautiful baby sleeping soundly in the arms of a calm, capable, loving mother. Heh, heh, heh. I can dream, can’t I?

High School Reunion

I went to my ten year high school reunion in Salt Lake City on June 9, 2007. I never thought I would be the kind of person that goes to her ten year high school reunion. You know the kind--the person who actually liked high school while she was there and can't wait to remind everyone of how cool she used to be (even if her coolness factor has significantly decreased since then). In fact, I intended to be the person that was TOO COOL to go to the reunion. Well, um, I went. I was never cool in high school and I'm still not. At least I had a law degree to brag about and I haven't gained 50 pounds. . . yet.

My girl friends and I used it as an excuse to get together; thereby allowing Yang an "out." My best friend A is in Georgia, J is in Utah, and S is in California. I lost contact with the girls during my late college and early law school years, but we've since reconnected. I'll take any reason I can get to have a girls' weekend. I also used the reunion as an excuse to go to Moab, Utah. I really miss Moab, and I think it may be the most beautiful place on earth. We went hiking and river rafting for two days before the reunion. The hikes were awesome, especially the one to Delicate Arch. The river rafting was FREEZING, but thankfully we didn't get dumped. We ate at fun resort-town-restaurants each night and had an amazing time.

The reunion was on Saturday. I was a class officer (gag), so I had to help plan the damn thing. We did it on the cheap and still had a pretty decent turn out. There were about 10 people I was excited to see. About half of them showed up, and it was great catching up. I spent the rest of the night making small talk with people I didn't know, care about, or enjoy. It was great practice in the art of inane social small talk, but it was excruciating none the less. In retrospect, I should have skipped the reunion and met up with the girls in Vegas. Although, Moab was worth it.

GOOD NEWS

Yang and I are expecting our first child on February 17, 2008. Hooray! We are both so excited (and nervous) to be starting this crazy journey.

My pregnancy has been pretty mild so far. (I realize that the pregnancy gods will make up for it in the third trimester). I was fairly sick for about a month during my first trimester. I was also amazingly exhausted and spacey. It didn’t help that I cut out caffeine. Now I am in week 16, and things are better than before. I’m over the morning sickness, and some of my energy and focus has returned.

I posted some of my thoughts on pregnancy at Feminist Mormon Housewives. (For my non-mormon readers: fMh is a mormon-themed blog (as you can tell from the title). Therefore, keep in mind that my comments there are written for a mostly mormon audience.)

By the way, if you read this SCM, I was dying to tell you at your shower. However, I bit my tongue because I didn’t want to take any focus away from you and Ed!

Curiosity

Gollum decided to help us paint. He is such a good helper.

The Rose City

My parents came to visit us the first weekend in June. I love having company because it gives us an excuse to do all the touristy things in Portland we would otherwise never do. For example, we went to the International Rose Testing Garden on June 2. The timing was PERFECT. All the rose bushes were in bloom, and most of the flowers were at their peak. It was beautiful.

We also went to Cannon Beach and had dinner at Mo’s. We ate lunch at Hot Lips Pizza in the Pearl and went on a Portland Spirit dinner cruise. The dinner cruise was better than I expected, but I could have done without the waiting staff breaking into song every 20 minutes. Ugh. The cruise allowed me to view all the river-side property in Lake Oswego I will one day acquire. (Yang, start working harder).

We had a great time showing the best of Portland to my parents.

Top 5 Concerts

We had a construction dumpster delivered to our house today. After work, I started making trips from the back yard to the dumpster in the driveway with arms full of cabinets, scrap wood, and tree branches. I listened to my ipod the whole time, and I got super excited every time a Killers song came on. Yang, G, M and I are going the Killers concert in Portland this Saturday. I can’t wait! I have not been to a rock concert in a really long time. I started thinking of the last concert I went to and all the concerts before that. So, dear readers, please indulge me as I take a trip down rock concert memory lane.

The last concert I went to was Indigo Girls in SLC with Jenn (I've been to three other IG shows). Before that I went to see Psychedelic Furs with K and G in Baltimore. The first concert I ever went to was The Cure (Wish tour) when I was 13 (I’m not counting MC Hammer because my friend gave me those tickets and I didn’t really want to go). I also saw The Cure’s Wild Mood Swings tour. I’ve seen Depeche Mode three times (Devoted, Ultra, and a Singles tour in London in 1998). K won front row tickets and back stage passes to the Devoted tour in 1994. Being the best sister ever, she invited me to go with her.

I’ve seen Everclear, Howard Jones, Eve 6, U2 (Popmart tour—worst U2 tour ever), Toad the Wet Sprocket, B-52s, Semisonic, and Matchbox 20. I had to lie to my mom and/or sneak out in order to see the following concerts: Tool, Marilyn Manson, and 311. I should have gone to the following shows, but didn’t because of various conflicts/problems: Sarah McLoughlin, Dave Matthews Band, and The Cranberries.

My top 5:

1. Depeche Mode Devoted (ahhh, Dave Gahan)
2. The Cure Wild Mood Swings (oh so very fun)
3. Indigo Girls (each concert was like an arena campfire sing along)
4. B-52s (I had a girl crush on Kate Pierson)
5. Matchbox 20 (not a great show, but my first concert with Yang)

The youths

The Church asks me to assist with the youth. In both this ward and the last ward. I am more than happy to do so. I sometimes wonder why they pick me, I don't consider myself a role model. I am fairly adept at the camping/carving/hiking/etc. . . that is typical with the youth programs, but quite honestly, I prefer those activities alone, not with half a dozen teenagers in tow. There are a lot of others who I think would be better at it than me. Anyway, in addition to outdoor stuff and Sunday meetings, we meet once a week and do the typical church/youth program things. Sometimes its fun, sometimes its something civic or service related. To be fair, with the bunch I left in the last ward, I actually had a lot of fun. Perhaps with a little more time, this bunch will be the same way.

Earlier this evening I had a typical activity which went well enough, but when it was over, the kids run off and try to get in some typical teenage clownery before their parents come to pick them up. I try to keep a lid on this to some degree, so nothing gets burned down. Tonight I was distracted for a few minutes by one of the other adults, and the youths slipped away. During this time, one of the boys decided it would be funny to give one of the younger boys a wedgie. Well, the wedgie was delivered with enough purpose that it actually ripped the choneys right off the poor kid. He was fairly upset, understandably.

I really don't know exactly how best to discipline a kid who super-wedgies another. Perhaps there isn't a good way.

My TV Addiction

I was a teaching assistant in law school. In addition to grading writing assignments, the TAs were supposed to offer, if requested, quasi-counseling to the 1Ls that had difficulty adjusting to the demands of law school. To help us in that regard, the writing department distributed pamphlets to all TAs discussing inappropriate stress management/coping strategies. At the time, I was convinced all my coping strategies were proper, and I looked forward to helping those with improper ones. I started reading the list of items that were not my problem: excessive alcohol use, illicit drug use, overeating, gambling, sex addiction, excessive television watching...wha? Wait a minute. What do they mean by excessive? I don’t watch THAT much TV. I don’t have a problem. I can quit anytime I want to. Well if I do have a problem, it’s law school’s fault. Leave me alone.

I realized at that point that I was addicted to TV. I still am. Network shows are my drug of choice (with a little E! and Discovery on the weekends) and Tivo is my enabler.

Now that I’ve admitted my problem, I’d like to discuss the shows I watched last night. Heroes. Best. Show. On. Television. ‘Nuff said.

I also watched the first half of PBS’s documentary called The Mormons. As a mormon, I was really impressed with the show. I thought it was relatively balanced and respectful. I think it presented mormon history as complex, disturbing, heroic and extraordinary, which is how I view our history. It did a good job of providing context to events such as the Mountain Meadows Massacre and polygamy. I’m excited to watch the second installment tonight.

Flat Stanley

My niece sent me Flat Stanley in the mail. She asked me to take pictures of Stanley's adventures in Portland for a class project (she is in the second grade). Here is a picture of Stanley on a boat dock at Willamette Park. The Portland skyline is in the background.

Earth Intruders

Bjork’s appearance on SNL last Saturday refreshed my recollection of how absolutely awesome Bjork is. She performed Earth Intruders. I purchased this song from itunes tonight, and I have listened to it at least ten times so far. It is wonderfully addictive. Toe-tapping, futuristic, and tribal all at the same time. I can picture her stomping and dancing as I listen to it. She is an Icelandic oddity, as is this song. I love it; however, I have no idea what it means.

We are the earth intruders, we are the earth intruders, muddy with twigs and branches. Turmoil. Carnage. We are the earth intruders, we are the paratroopers. . . Here are the earth intruders, with our feet thumping, with our feet marching, grinding the skeptics into the soil. Shower of goodness coming to end the doubt—pouring out. . . Necessary voodoo.

Whoops

As we just recently started blogging again after a long break, we moved temporarily to a new URL. All was going well until one of our friends pointed out that there was a very similarly titled website with material on it that we may not want our blog to be too closely related to-- (think cross dressing, and other various trans-gender goodies, Portland style). We changed the url quickly, and decided to stick with the old one. Hence the back and forth for those of you who are paying attention.

I'm a Lumberjack and I'm OK

A pine tree in our yard died, so we had to chop it down. The tree was 36 years old (we counted the rings) and about 40 feet tall. The actual chopping (felling?) was quite a spectacle, and it brought out the neighbors to watch. Yang bought a brand new Husqvarna chainsaw for the occasion.

It reminded me of the Lumberjack Monty Python skit.

I'm a lumberjack and I'm OK,
I sleep all night and I work all day.

He's a lumberjack and he's OK,
He sleeps all night and works all day.

I cut down trees, I eat my lunch,
I go to the lavatory.
On Wednesdays I go shopping,
And have buttered scones for tea.

I'm a lumberjack and I'm OK,
I sleep all night and I work all day.

He's a lumberjack and he's OK,
He sleeps all night and works all day.

I cut down trees, I skip and jump,
I like to press wild flowers,
I put on women's clothing,
And hang around in bars.

I'm a lumberjack and I'm OK,
I sleep all night and I work all day.

He's a lumberjack and he's OK,
He sleeps all night and works all day.

The Cat Crapper

Yang hates cat litter. (Does anyone really like litter?) In our old house, we kept the cat litter in the upstairs guest bathroom. Despite the fact that I cleaned it out daily, we could still smell the litter. Yang vowed that in our next house, the litter would go outside. I pointed out that our cats wouldn't use a litter box that was located in a cold place and would likely find someplace inside to do their business. Thus, the cat crapper came about. Yang built a cat house in the garage for the litter, complete with carpet and drywall. To top it off, he put a heat lamp inside so it is nice and warm for the cats. They love it.

Some Introductions

This is Freya and Gollum

A League of Our Own

Yang took me bowling for one of our first dates back in March or April of 1998. I bowled somewhere around 160, which was very uncharacteristic. (I’m usually happy if I break 100). Unfortunately, Yang did not know that was uncharacteristic and felt threatened when he scored less than I did.

We have bowled many times since then, and Yang has beaten me every time. However, the first impression stuck. He thinks I am a fierce bowling competitor. Whenever we go bowling with friends, Yang talks about how I’m an expert bowler and everyone should watch out. Sadly for me, I usually place last or close to last in the group. Ah, good times.

Here is a picture of us at the bowling alley with our friends, the Melansons. Yang scored 168 and I scored 115.

The Great Home Remodel Project

Yang and I bought a new home in February. It is an old fixer-upper. Yang is a home remodel pro. He has already tackled the plumbing (replacing the galvanized pipe with copper), the main bathroom, and the guest bedroom. I try to help, but I mostly get in the way.

The house is located much closer to work and downtown. We used to have a 35-45 minute commute. Now we have a five minute commute. The shorter commute has really improved my quality of life. It is lovely.