Pi Day

I've never celebrated Pi Day before, but it was blowing up on Facebook, so I decided to make a turtle pie. When Chuk got home and saw my pie he decided we needed a pizza pie too (especially since we had a 50% off coupon) so he got a take away pizza.

And that's how we celebrated what is possibly the nerdiest "holiday" ever invented. But really it was just an excuse to eat pizza and pudding pie. Yum.

I'm the Nice One

My father-in-law came up for a visit over the weekend and told us a story about how he took my niece (his granddaughter) to his doctor's appointment with him on Friday. The woman at the front desk, who had long blonde hair, blew up a helium balloon for my niece and gave it to her. Like most two year olds, she loves balloons. So she went around for the rest of the day telling everybody "Meghan gave me a balloon. This Meghan balloon." Apparently any blonde who is nice to her is me. I'll take it!

The story of the above picture: two weeks ago when this same niece was visiting for the baby shower she got stuck in our cat house when she crawled in to retrieve an acorn she had thrown in there. She was fussing and on the verge of tears, so naturally I starting laughing and grabbed my phone and took pictures of her predicament. Chuk ran across the room and rescued her. So it's a little bit miraculous that she still thinks of me as nice. (Hopefully, Chuk's willingness to forgo good photo opportunities for the wellbeing of a child means no one will have to call CPS on us when our own child arrives in a few weeks.)

Fewer Books, More Library

Do you watch that show Hoarders? Chuk and I usually watch every week. Though we both enjoy having a clean home, neither of us has that innate drive to clean that some people have. Though we aren't hoarders, Hoarders the show is motivation to declutter and clean like nothing else.

We watched last week's episode on Friday (they air on Monday though.) The program featured a couple who had more than half a million books in their home. I've always been pretty good about not keeping too many books, but this show sent me straight to my bookshelves to see if there were any more I could get rid of. I found ten I was willing to part with and Chuk decided to get rid of four of his books.

My philosophy on books had been to only keep the ones I wanted to read again. This go around I shifted my thinking little and got rid of books that I could easily get again at the library. No need for me to store them if the library is willing to store them for me, right?

The other tip that has kept my bookshelves from ever getting too overcrowded is that I don't buy books. I enjoy reading, but I find that between the library, what friends lend me and gifts, I'm never at a shortage for reading material. With this newest round of giveaways, I emailed a list of the books we are getting rid of to my reading friends and gave them right of first refusal. Paying it forward like this (and always returning their books) is what keeps people lending to me, I think. The books they don't want will be donated to the library or thrift store.

Not the Brightest Bulb

I had a prenatal appointment today and the midwife began it by asking me some questions one of which was, "Have you started having contractions yet?" I responded that I didn't think so. I never got the tightening sensation, but I had been getting crampy in the evenings and at night but that I wasn't sure if it was just part of my normal aches and pains or something more. She said it could be Braxton Hicks, but wasn't necessarily so.

Later, as she was doing my abdominal exam, she said, "You're having a contraction right now. Do you feel how hard it is there?"

I said, "I thought that was just the baby pushing against the wall of my stomach."

She said, "No, those are contractions."

I started laughing and said, "Well, in that case, yes, I have contractions all the time."

What a dummy! Who doesn't know they're having contractions? Hopefully this means an easy labor.

Pregnancy Makes Me Clingy

When I hear other pregnant women talk about what they're afraid of it always seems to be pain in labor or something being wrong with their baby or that they won't be a good mother, but I'm not really afraid of any of those things. However, in the last month or so I've become absolutely terrified that this baby is going to change my marriage for the worse.

Chuk and I are in such a good place in our relationship that whenever I someone tells me "A baby changes everything" (and people say crap like that a lot because apparently people love to try and freak you out) my heart starts to pound. I don't want anything about my marriage to change. Yet, it inevitably will change; we'll have less time for each other, less money and more stress.

I think part of this stems from my own parents, who were happily married for seven years before having three kids in four years. Their marriage started deteriorating not long after and they eventually divorced. While neither of them ever blamed (or even insinuated) kids had anything to do with their split, the chain of events seems pretty apparent to me. Additionally, the happiest couples I know are childless couples.

The manifestation of my fear is that I've gone from being a sane individual to the clingiest person that has ever walked the face of the earth. I don't want to hang out with anyone other than Chuk. If I could just stay home and cuddle with him on the couch while we watch TV all day and all night I would be a happy, happy woman. Despite how much I hate being pregnant, I find myself hoping that this baby is late because I think, "These are the last few weeks we have left as just the two of us for the next 18-25 years."

Even though we planned for this baby, and it was not a decision either of us rushed into or took lightly, I never anticipated feeling this way. Chuk and I talk openly about my fear. He tries to reassure me, but sometimes I think I'm not ready to have a baby. (Too late to decide that now!) Realistically, I know the only way to get over this feeling is to get through it, and I will, but I think it's important to put it out there because maybe someone else is going through the same thing. I don't know anyone who has this particular anxiety during pregnancy, but surely I can't be the only one. I think it's important that we're honest about our feelings (for better or worse) so that we can support one another.

My Post-Pregnancy Fantasy

While I consider myself a girly girl, I don't go in for a whole lot of pampering. Sure, I like it, but at this point in my life, it's not really worth the expense to me. I haven't had a manicure since my wedding day and I've never had my eyebrows shaped.

I like the girl on the right's hair, but I wonder if I should try to be more daring.

Generally, this low maintainance lifestyle works for me, but for most of this miserable pregnancy I've had one dream that keeps me going (you know, besides getting a cute little baby at the end) I want to go to a fancy pants salon and get my hair done. I have no idea why this is my fantasy and not something more predictable like a vacation or a massage, but it is.

Normally, I either get a $20 haircut from one of those chain places or have my husband just give me a trim. I've gotten more expensive haircuts before (never more than like $60 or $80) but I have boring hair and the cheap cuts end up looking like the expensive ones, so I just don't bother.

I have long, straight, dirty blonde hair with a cowlick in the front and I'm not willing to invest any time into it on a daily basis. I'm hoping a fancy salon will be able to take this information and give me an actual STYLE that looks good and will suit this new phase of my life. I want to look pulled together and chic, but still youthful. I'm guessing a cut and highlights are going to cost in the neighborhood of $2oo, which kind of makes me want to throw up, but the heart wants what the heart wants.

Feel free to send me pictures of cute hairstyles.

Baby Shower

While this Saturday finds Chuk and me sitting at home blowing our noses and whinging about our colds, last Saturday we were having a great time at our baby shower. We did a little craft of painting onesies and opened gifts and played just one little game guessing how many candies were in a baby bottle, but we mostly just hung out, ate snacks and laughed.

I'm always inspired by my friends' entertaining styles. None of them read lifestyle blogs so there is very little emphasis on making things Pinterest-perfect, but a lot of emphasis on making sure everyone is having fun. There was no theme, no color scheme, just a few little snack options (a cheese plate, veggies and dip, and some store-bought desserts) and they didn't even clean off their fireplace mantel, yet no one cared. I think there's a lesson in there for me.