Rally Eve

And here I thought my visitor season was over for the year as of this summer. Maybe October is the new July? Well, the weather is much more agreeable, I must say! And the Fall scenery here can only be beat by the Cherry Blossom scenery in April.

This is from last year. I'll take some of this year's tomorrow.

So far this month, I've gotten visits from my Uncle Gary from California, my Officer Training School roommate, Kristie visiting from Alaska, my BFF, Neelka visiting from Texas, and one of my Aunt Paulas from California.

Tonight, I close out the month with 6, count them, six, visitors coming for the Rally to Restore Sanity And/Or Fear, which is on the National Mall tomorrow. Coming are my brother, Judah, his girlfriend, Jackie, my cousin, Rose, and 3 of her friends.

And yes, there is an app for that!

Needless to say, I spent today cleaning watching my friend's 1- and 2-year-olds while she had a Dr's appointment, sleeping, cleaning, watching Hulu (Parenthood and The Office, if you must know), crocheting and cleaning some more. The floors are vacuumed (side note, if you don't like to vacuum, don't get a Lab!), Plug-Ins are in, shamefully purchased toilet paper stocked, fridge is full. Oh wait. Hmmm... I hope they like cereal and Greek yogurt.

I'm really looking forward to having some other people besides Mocha to talk to around here. (John's been in Germany for a week, 7 days to go!) I'm also excited about the rally. I'm not a big rally fan, but I do love me some satire. I also have a thing for Stephen Colbert. Well, more like I did a thing for him last year. I'm a big fan of both he and Jon Stewart, so it should be fun.

What are you up to this weekend?

Ashamed of myself

Few things annoy me more than the country band Sugarland and drivers who don't turn their headlights on in the rain (or at dusk). One of those things, though, is commercials that use animated characters to advertise anything other than animated products.

Here's the deal: I am not a cartoon (that I know of). Why do you think a product you are showing is beneficial to a cartoon would be attractive to me?

Take, for example, the Red Bull silliness or the quilting ladies over at Quilted Northern. The one I dislike the absolute most is the bears they use to advertise Charmin. Not only am I not a cartoon, but I am definitely not a cartoon bear.  Besides, I hate the idea of bears using toilet paper. Are they just leaving it in little piles behind trees, or do they also have toilets and sewers to go along with it. It just gets too complicated.

Anyway, I have always avoided buying Charmin for this very reason. Until today. I went to Costco and had a coupon for it, so after comparing with the Kirkland brand (those were the only two they had at this one), I blindfolded and gagged my conscience and heaved the cartoon bear toting package into my cart.

I'm so ashamed. I can only hope that the softness and strength of my new toilet paper is enough to wipe some of it away.

Are there commercials that annoy you so much that you can't buy the product? I have many others, but I'm interested to see what you say.

Not my own

I was hanging out with my Aunt Paula yesterday. My Aunt Paula from California. Maybe I should be more specific. My dad's sister, Aunt Paula from California, because I have two Aunt Paulas from California. Ok, now that we've cleared that up...

She asked me if I felt like my body was no longer my own, as she had heard other pregnant friends mention. Like, had the baby taken over and was I feeling like a mere vessel. I had to think about it for a few minutes.

Blueberry is definitely moving around so much these days. There is at least one water aerobics class taking place in there every day, usually around noon. I also get "Oh, boy, you woke up at 4 a.m. to use the bathroom, so let's play!" kicks and "Nooo... you can't go to sleep yet!" kicks as bookends to my day. I think Blueberry is doing some decorating in there, too, because I think I feel hammering from time to time.

But so far, it's just been fun. Nothing too painful or uncomfortable and sometimes I forget I'm carrying another person around until I try to bend over or get up too quickly. I haven't had to change my diet too much, but have enjoyed having the excuse to splurge a little now and then (or a lot and all the time. whatever.).

As I continued to think about her question, I recalled how other people are reacting to me being pregnant. I was just visiting family in Oklahoma and Texas and every female and a few of the males in my family approached me with eyes directed and hands outstretched to my belly. I was like "Eyes up here, people, I have a face!"

I don't mind at all, I think it's kind of funny. I think I've probably done that to pregnant people. And every question or conversation has something to do with the baby. It's like you lose track that this person actually existed before they got pregnant.

The more I thought about it, the more I think I can say "yes." My life is not about me anymore. I don't think it ever will be again. Once Blueberry gets here, the attention will shift from my belly to the bundle. The conversation will still center on the baby. Heck, I probably won't have much else to talk about, so that'll probably make things easier.

So, I'm pretty grateful I have these few months left to get used to being a mere baby carrier. Seeing as how I've prayed and dreamed about this for years, I really can't think of anything else I'd rather be!

For you, MomC and Kim

I'm sorry.

I didn't mean to be gone so long. I only meant to take a few days off blogging and start right back up.

I didn't realize how long it had been until I went to visit family this past weekend. My mother- and sister-in-law got right to the point on our way home from the airport.

They told me it wasn't fair for me to blog every day for a month, get readers all addicted, then force everyone to quit cold turkey. I'm going to take that as a compliment. (I have readers!! :-))

So, even though this isn't a deep or meaningful post, I just wanted to say hello and promise I'll be more consistent. I have lots of fun pictures and stories from our trip and updates on Blueberry and our first foster baby, Baby F, plus just some randomness.

Today, I also must mention it is my brother, Tim's, birthday. He is a great guy and I love him very much. I was going to write him a sappy blog, much like I did for my sister, but he always cries about stuff like that and I wouldn't want to embarrass him just in case he read it at work or something. I'm considerate like that.

I hope your October has been going well so far. What have you been up to? How are you going to finish out the month?