Brown vs. black

Ryan sent me this quote today:

"I realize that there are certain hardships that only females must endure, such as childbirth, waiting in lines for public-restroom stalls, and a crippling, psychotic obsession with shoe color." -- Dave Barry

Yesterday I accidently wore brown shoes to church with grey pants and obsessed about it all through Sunday School and the worship service. I didn't want to stand up and greet anyone for fear they would notice my shoe color.

:)

I'm leavin' on a jet plane ...

... but I do know when I'll be back again. :) (I'm listening to my Peter, Paul and Mary cd as I write this!) I'm leaving today for Kansas City for the International Network of Children's Ministry's Children's Pastors' Conference, also known as INCM's CPC. Whew! Try to say that a few times fast! I'm very excited. Children's ministry at church is getting tiring and frustrating; I'm ready to connect with other ministry leaders and get new ideas.

I'm leaving the office around 11:00 a.m. today and my flight leaves BWI at 1:00-something. I'll be in good ole KC by 3:30. The conference officially begins on Sunday, but tomorrow is the pre-con seminar day, and the entire conference runs through Tuesday. I'll be back Tuesday night. Check it out here.

Say a prayer for Gina, please - she and her husband Nate lost everything in a house fire. For those of you who know her/them, I'm thinking of sending them Wal-Mart/Target/Home Depot/restaurant gift cards to help them get through this time and begin again. What do you think?

Okay, this is too funny.

So I took the book quiz first and was thoroughly perplexed by it. Then I took the state quiz. This is rather appropriate, don't you think? :)

You're Maryland!

You enjoy contemplating your navel so much that you want to build a whole
school devoted to said purpose. You like Chevy Chase a ton as well, maybe even more than
Cal Ripken since he started doing those Century 21 commercials. Mostly, though, you want
to kick back, watch the ballgame, and eat crabcakes. Brick is by far your favorite
building material. You might even call yourself a brick house.


Take the State Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Ummm...

You're The Guns of August!

by Barbara Tuchman

Though you're interested in war, what you really want to know is what
causes war. You're out to expose imperialism, militarism, and nationalism for what they
really are. Nevertheless, you're always living in the past and have a hard time dealing
with what's going on today. You're also far more focused on Europe than anywhere else in
the world. A fitting motto for you might be "Guns do kill, but so can
diplomats."


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Ew.

Just because I happen to casually mention at the grocery store that I do not really like pink lemonade does not give you permission to drink out of the bottle!!

Most depressing day of the year?

Ha! I found this link in Gina's blog. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6847012/ Rather interesting after the way I felt today. I was chalking it up to pregnancy hormones, but now I'm not sure...

I had a maternity leave chat with our HR person today. She's a great gal and I like her a lot, but I was frustrated. I sent her a spreadsheet with vacation/paid-time-off (PTO) hours I expect to earn prior to and after maternity leave (company policy says I will not earn any PTO hours while on short-term-disability). The spreadsheet also had five questions, one being [paraphrase] "Since I won't have worked for the company 12 months by the time I go on maternity leave, I understand I am ineligble for the one week PTO Sycamore gives mothers for maternity leave. Can I take that week as unpaid leave or will it count against my future accrual of PTO?" Obviously HR Beth did not read the document. She brought a folder of documents for me to fill out for the paid week off; when I told her my anniversary falls 20 days after the baby is due, she said, "Oh! Well, you're not eligible for this then. Never mind!" Bah.

(By the way, I sent the spreadsheet to her nearly two weeks ago. She's rescheduled our meeting twice. We're a company of 87 people; could she not prepare for the meeting by at least glancing over my questions or checking to see when my anniversary date is???)

So then I realized, after the meeting was over, not only am I not eligible for the one week PTO for maternity, I also do not qualify for the Family Medical Leave Act job protection clause. The FMLA says companies of more than 50 employees must guarantee employees 12 weeks of unpaid leave for certain situations (maternity leave being one; falling down a waterfall is another) AND guarantee an equivalent job and pay upon the employees return. This means a woman can't go on maternity leave and return to find she's been demoted to a janitor or something like that. I don't think that Sycamore is about to fire me, by any stretch of the imagination. Okay, so my imagination was running wild today and yes, I was thinking Sycamore wants to fire me. I've worked for the company since June and I am not listed in the employee directory, yet a woman who has been with the company since Nov. 1-ish and is through a temp agency IS listed in the directory, as well as several employees who started in the last few weeks. What the crap is that?!

I got myself so worked up today that I was near tears. Ryan was in meetings and I was about to lose it; thank the Lord for Trish. :) She coached me through it over IM - told me to eat some chocolate and yell at my boss. It's all good now. (I did neither. But I feel better. Sort of.)

What else is new? We had snow on Saturday. Not much (6"-ish) and not as bad as predicted (no high winds), but enough that church was canceled for Sunday. Ryan and I slept in, then headed to Target to work on the baby registry. Disclaimer: All Coca-Cola items and Kill Bill dvds are thanks to my husband. We're also registered for a diaper bag and some baby clothes at www.babystyle.com. It's mostly a catalog/online chain, with a few stores in CA, but I've heard they have good quality stuff. And the clothes are adorable! After lunch at TGI Fridays, I went to the Hagerstown outlets with Laura Reynolds and Ryan watched the football game with Simon. Stupid Patriots. I hate them. Not that I like the Steelers, either. I'd rather the Colts have won last week.

I'm heading to Kansas City a week from Friday for a children's pastors' conference. I'm very excited; it's at just the right time. (Translation: I'm approaching burnout.) I've been stuck in the 'woe is me/nobody loves me' valley for awhile now - at work (see above), at church (Pastor said I 'help' with the children - I freaking plan everything!!), and even at home (I cried on Saturday because Ryan didn't tell me 'good job' for finding a cheap airfare). Bah. I don't know how much is pregnancy-related and how much is what I was struggling with prior to pregnancy. My old OB/GYN is coming back to the Frederick practice where I go and my next appointment is with her ... I look forward to talking over some of this with her and getting her input. (She was WONDERFUL back in July when I finally asked for help. I hate the highs and lows of PMS but I felt almost guilty for having issues at 25. She reminded that I have been menstruating for 13+ years and it's okay to have issues. She was the one who started me on Lexapro. I stopped taking it as soon as we suspected I was pregnant, but it really did help for the time I took it. It helped lessen the extremes of the highs and lows and I eventually noticed things that would have bothered me in the past did not bother me as much.)

Okay, enough rambling. I hope all are doing well. I'm beginning to suspect that the same three people who regularly comment on my blog are the only ones who read it. If you read this, comment so I know you are alive!! :)

Anonymity

So I'm not one for the "here, do this" in blogging, but I found this in Cousin Timothy's blog and it seems fun. Leave me an anonymous comment with:

One secret.

One compliment.

One love note.

Lyrics to a song.

How old you are.

How long we've been friends.

And a hint to who you are.


Heh. I just thought of something. I hope you can post anonymously in my blog.

It's a BOY!!

As some of you know, we've been expecting at our cozy home here in Frederick. Avery joined up a little earlier than expected - he joined us yesterday - Wednesday. I was afraid to post anything until now because he wasn't doing well ... he had the shakes, and he wouldn't eat or drink or go to the bathroom. Tonight is a different story, though! After a bit of quality time in Mom and Dad's room (with the door firmly shut to keep Davis out), he relaxed and even played with a drinking straw he found under the bed. I have to confess, I dropped him in the bathroom a little while ago. But it must have jarred his little bladder because he crawled into the litter box and finally used it, then hopped out and ate some dry food. Yes, folks, Avery is a boy kitty! We finally got a kitten from one of our coworkers. He (the kitten, not the coworker) is about 10 weeks old. I'm fairly certain he has worms, unfortunately. We'll find out for sure when he goes to the vet on Tuesday. If he hadn't perked up tonight like he did, I was planning on taking him to the animal hospital in the morning. We've been worried about our little guy! But he's doing better.

Davis is another story. :) She growls at him through closed doors and she's even more irritable toward us after we've been with the kitten. We're being careful to wash our hands well and keep them apart until we can get him tested for feline leukemia.

We'll keep you posted on our growing family. :)

I do eat vegetables, darn it!

I do eat vegetables! A cow-orker was just teasing me that I like Taco Bell (true), McDonalds (not true), Roy Rogers (DEFINITELY not true), and other greasy places more than vegetables. I told her that's not true, that I really don't like greasy foods (look up the effects of greasy foods on an irritable bowel and you'll know why!) and that I do like vegetables. All she said was, "Mmm hmmm." I know she's just teasing, but I want to say "Don't mess with me, lady!"

Ask my mom. I like veggies. It's hard to keep fresh vegetables in the house because Ryan doesn't eat them and they go bad before I finish them. Besides, coworker person, I don't see you bringing vegetables for snacks everyday, so there!

(It all started with her describing collard greens and pouring the 'juice' over corn bread. I nearly gagged - pregnancy, I think - and she said the above statements about fast food. Grr!)

Random

ran·dom adj. Having no specific pattern, purpose, or objective

Do you ever feel random? As in, I feel like I have a million random things to say (not unusual for me), but I also feel rather disconnected lately ... like random things are happening outside of God's hand (an unusual feeling). Hmm.

I'm tired. And crabby.

1-2-3-4-5...6-7-8-9-10...11-12! (Sesame Street)

Marte knows the song. :)

Trish already beat me to this. Stupid jerk. I hate her.

9 things I want to do before I die
1. See my family get saved.
2. Go back to Wales.
3. Stop hating a certain personality type. (Not Trish.)
4. Be ordained as a Children's Pastor in the Church of the Nazarene.
5. Get the Lasik eye surgery.
6. Be more generous with money and time and love.
7. Have a gazillion children. :)
8. Stop gossiping. (gossipping?)
9. Die before Ryan does so I don't have to live without him

8 things I'm wearing
(...uh...right now? It's bedtime...)
1. Contacts
2. Maternity pants (remind me to tell you my theory about maternity pants)
3. Undergarments
4. Plaque on my teeth (I need to brush)
5. Deodorant
6. Some form of red nail polish on my toes - from October
7. Nothing else
8. Nothing else
(I told you it is bedtime!)

7 things on my mind
1. I'm thirsty. For Pepsi.
2. K-Mart serves Pepsi in their deli-eatery thing.
3. The Frederick K-Mart is scary.
4. I need to throw out these contacts.
5. I miss teaching preschool.
6. My mother-in-law Gail's meatball recipe is really good!
7. Stupid me wanting soda at 10:30 at night.

6 things I touch every day
1. Davis
2. Ryan
3. A telephone
4. A keyboard
5. Soap dispenser (it's important to wash your hands often)
6. My toothbrush ... I like to brush my teeth

5 things I do every day
1. Brush my teeth
2. Put in contacts/on glasses
3. Complain that our house is messy
4. Feed the cat
5. Read CNN.com

4 songs on my mind
1. Christmas Shoes - Newsong
2. Same Old Lang Syne - Dan Fogelberg
3. 'Wheel ... of ... FORTUNE!'
4. "I want Pepsi" to the tune of some t.v. commercial that's not for Pepsi

3 things I think of when I wake up
1. Ugh.
2. Stupid alarm clock.
3. Stupid cat.

My 2 favorite foods
1. Pepsi
2. Dark chocolate

1 person I love more than any other
1. John Travolta ... no, wait ... Boy George ... no, that's not it ... hmm ...the baby? or maybe it's ... this guy!

Stupid caffeine.

I had half a cup of coffee after lunch today - 1:20 p.m. ish. It's now 1:05 a.m. And I'm still awake. Wide awake. Who would think 0.5 cup coffee would keep me awake for 12 HOURS?! Bah.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We're leaving for Illinois after work this afternoon. We'll spend Thursday noon to Friday afternoon at my mom's then head up to Ryan's parents' house and leave there early Sunday a.m. to drive straight back. Have I mentioned that my sister-in-law Laura has a murder mystery dinner planned for the family on Friday night? I'm Florence somebody. Should be fun! :)

One sick me + a ton of library books = ugh.

Ryan just went to the library for me because I'm sick. Again. He's so good to me. (Actually, it was probably more because some of the books were due today and he hates it when I rack up fines. But I'll pretend it's because he loves me so much and wants me to get better.) :)

I'm fearful this cold will turn into laryngitis. I haven't had laryngitis in awhile because my doctor gave me a great medicine called Muccinex (sp?) and Robitussin with expectorant for when I feel it coming on. It's worked well every time since then - and the combination of the two meds cut down my last case of laryngitis from the typical week-plus to just two days. And I can't take the stuff now because of the baby. *sniff, sniff, cough, cough, HACK up a hairball like an old man*

Fun news: my April is coming to visit on Thursday!!! We're going to New York City on Saturday with Sycamore. (Heh. I just remembered how/why I started calling April Gipp my April. Rob's mom's name is also April, so I called Gippy 'my April' to distinguish between the two. And it's stuck, years later.)

Not-so-fun news: Ryan's jaw surgery is costing us $4000 out of pocket. The surgeon who wired his jaw is not part of the Mamsi network, but we (I) really didn't have a choice - it was an emergency. I confess, I was not thinking of insurance at the time. I was sitting in the hospital praying for God to spare my husband's life, through miraculous healing and through doctors. Whether or not a specific doctor was covered by our insurance didn't really cross my mind. Turns out none of the OMF guys were covered by Mamsi, so it really didn't make a difference what doctor did the surgery at Morgantown. When all is said and done, we are supposed to pay a $250 deductible and 20% of the remaining bill - Mamsi pays 80%. The fine print reads that Mamsi pays 80% of in-network fees (much lower than out-of-network fees). So, for a $5500 surgery, we're paying $4000.

It's not nearly as bad as it could have been. Besides copays, deductibles, some x-rays, and physical therapy visits, this is really the first thing we've had to pay for. We have been blessed so abundantly. It's hard not so say, "But why do we have to pay this? It was an emergency - we didn't have a choice!" So I need to remind myself that we haven't had to pay much else and it could be much, much worse.

Girls, if you're reading this, we need to get together. I was just rereading the latest girl letter from Debs. So much has happened over the past year!! What are y'all doing for Christmas?

Home from vacation

Vacation was good. I craved cauliflower all week. None was to be found until Saturday when Ryan got it for me from a display. He's a good hubby. I think I'll keep him. :)

After one day back at work I'm ready for another vacation. We're redoing the website (I'm not doing any of the actual HTML/J2EE stuff - just content and some design stuff) and Gordo wants to go live this weekend. Eh. Plus I'm juggling planning a company cruise for May, a holiday open house and a holiday party. Well, the party is already done - Carol the office manager did that - but I'm 'helping' with 100 holiday bags, employee holiday gifts, etc. Double eh. (Eh eh looks funny, like I'm trying to go to poop. Or decide to get my hair cut.) (You have to be Marte to get the hair cut part. "Eh. EH. I want to cut my hair!!")

Oh, yeah, since we're back from vacation, I can say it. I'm pregnant!

I'm boring.

It's true.


You are plain everyday ROOT BEER!
Your old fashioned and you believe that oldies are
the goodies. You wish to be respected for
thinking so...


WHICH JONES SODA ARE YOU?!?!
brought to you by Quizilla

*sigh*

(Thanks a lot, Trish!)

Pet peeves

My list of pet peeves is growing. Here is the Readers' Digest version:

1. Mean people and people who think they can spell but they can't
2. Smelly things (toothbrush, toast, people, refrigerators, onions)
3. Bad words (not just swear words, but Lexpletives, too - Herberts, you know what they are!)
4. Mimes
5. Driving at night in the city when it's raining (not necessarily The City, as in DC - any city)
6. A bunch of other stuff that I can't think of right now
...and...my newest one...
7. Telemarketers that ask for coworkers' e-mail addresses. Hello! Do you think I'm stupid?!
Oh, yeah, and another one -
8. Coworkers that talk to telemarketers and answer their questions and so the telemarketers call back repeatedly and the coworkers are not here!!!!

What are YOUR pet peeves?

Sickness.

Ick. I hate being sick. I have an strange ability to get a sore throat and have it turn into laryngitis. I had the beginnings of a sore throat yesterday and it was worse today, so I stayed home from work with the hopes of preventing laryngitis. We'll see how this goes.

On a completely unrelated note, I love avocados. (Avocadoes?) Nothing gourmet. Just peeled and sliced with a squeeze of lemon juice and salt. It's good. Really good. You should try it sometime.

As for the "I know something you don't know" post - I'll tell y'all when we get back from vacation. :)

Our stupid cat.

She's such an idiot.

We went to Simon and Laura's last night to play games. I admit, we left the dining room window open (only a crack, though!!). Davis pushed the screen out sometime while we were gone and got out onto the deck. I freaked out when we walked in, thinking she was long gone. Turns out she was waiting by the deck door. Her fur didn't feel too cold, so it was possible she wasn't gone too long.

Stupid cat. She did this last summer/fall, too. She pushed out the screen and disappeared while I was upstairs. I spent approximately 30 minutes looking for her, only to find that she had somehow walked clear around the row of houses (we live in the middle of a row of townhouses) and was waiting on the front steps.

We never did get that other kitten. The cow-orker basically said we couldn't have one unless we took five. Bah. Ryan said I can get a kitten (prolly from the animal shelter) when we get back from vacation.

Oh, yeah. We're going on vacation in 12 days. With Simon and Laura. I'm excited. :)