She's here!!

Okay, so my due date was actually pretty close ... I was due on Thursday the 12th and little Katrina Pala Herbert arrived Friday morning, May 13th. :) I'm not sure how to post pictures here but I do have a link to our gallery. Not too many pictures yet - late nights and early mornings make for sleepy mommies and daddies. We'll add more soon, I promise. Until then: http://xar.us/gallery/2005-baby

Oh, yeah, the details! Her name is Katrina Pala. The middle name is a Hebrew word meaning "wonderful" - it's from Psalm 139:14 that says, "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." She arrived at 11:13 on May 13th, weighing 6 lbs, 10.5 ounces and 20.5" long. She is such a good baby! We're all doing well, except for lack of sleep, but I think that is to be expected.

Time for me to go take a shower while she's still sleeping. More later!

Due date.

Well, today is the day. My due date. Like I told our families in an e-mail today, nothing is happening (yet). I worked a full day today and I feel fine...good/great, even. Let's hope that's a good sign that the baby is coming soon. :)

Funny thing happened in the restroom today. We had this big teaming agreement meeting with tons of people, and I ran into a woman from the meeting in the restroom. She had asked earlier when I was due and was quite surprised when I responded, "Today." Anyway, as we were washing hands she asked, "You're having a boy, right?" I said no, that the ultrasounds have said the baby is a girl. She exclaimed, "No way! I thought for sure you were carrying a boy from the way you look." Uhhhh.......

Yay for daisies!

I got flowers at work today! :) That makes me happy. Today is the day our company embarks on a three-day Disney Cruise and I can't go. Not too much of a big deal, since there are many others who aren't going, but I did a lot of the planning of the trip. I don't mind, really - it has been similar to planning conferences and not taking part in them.

Anyway, the flowers are from Kurt and Hal (company presidents) and fellow cruisers. And they are daisies! My husband is good at keeping secrets/surprises. I had no idea!

Ahh, pregnancy.

I remember when 9:15 at night was early. That seems so long ago now.

Celery

I keep thinking about celery this morning. I bought some at the grocery store last night for a recipe. And I want some. Now.

I wonder if 7-11 sells celery.

Changes

These past few weeks have been full of exciting news for us. Here we go (in no specific order) :

1. Ultrasound on Wednesday revealed we are definitely having a girl! She's a beauty. We'll try to scan the pics and post them in the gallery soon.

2. I now hold a local license - one of the first steps on the path to ordination in the Church of the Nazarene! I'll be working toward ordination as a children's pastor over the next two - three years.

3. Our church held a baby shower for us on Saturday. It was so much fun! Thanks to all of you who came and/or sent gifts. We are so blessed!! (And no, we didn't get naked or wet. Two children of friends asked their parents if they had to get naked or wet when their moms told them they were going to a shower for us.)

4. We're moving! We are staying in the Frederick area (moving from zip code 21701 to 21703) but selling our townhouse and going to a single family home. I'll put the link here but with a disclaimer: that's not how much we paid (or are paying) for it! http://realtor.com/Prop/1042957210
(Sara - it's not the scary Burkitsville house - that one had a contract w/ contingency on it and the contingency was lifted.) The contract became official last night and hopefully closing will be on Friday, April 08.

Ummmm....what else? I have a new haircut and I found my first stretch mark on Saturday. We picked out some fabric for the nursery (finally) at JoAnn Fabrics yesterday. That's about all I can think of now. I'll keep you posted as new news happens!

There never seems to be enough time to do the things you want to do once you find them.

--Jim Croce, "Time in a Bottle"



Anybody else feel this way?

Rolls, Roles, and the McDonald's Drive-Thru

I've been obsessing at work lately about the fact that people don't know the difference between rolls and roles. One resume I read stated "[employee] holds many leadership rolls," while another coworker jotted me a note asking me to get two roles of stamps. I'm sure it's just absentmindedness, but I'm still obsessing. And lead and led. That's another word pair that some people just can't grasp.

Guess who I saw in the McDonalds drive-thr(o)u(gh) tonight??! My friend Heather!! She is so fun. I didn't get a chance to eat before our childbirth ed class tonight (more about that another time - it's late and I'm tired, but it was good!) so I stopped by McDs on the way home. As I pulled around to the order box thingy, I noticed the car in front of me looked like hers. The Operation Christmas Child and West Virginia University stickers in the back window confirmed my suspicions. She is such a doll. :)

Please pray for Heather's father-in-law, Joe. He is in what is most likely the final stages of cancer. Heather shared at Bible study on Tuesday that the cancer has spread throughout his body to other organs. Mr. Throckmorton does not want treatments and simply wants to go home. John (Heather's husband) is taking it well, Heather says. The elder Throckmortons live in Morgantown, WV, as do Heather's parents; Morgantown is about 3.0 hours from here (it's where Ryan was taken after his accident) and so it is do-able for trips to see them, but I'm sure that has to be a lot for Heather. She works more than full-time as the director of programs and a zillion other things at Trinity (where I taught) and so please pray for the Throckmortons, Joe's health, peace for the family, and strength for Heather.

Our Bible study is Believing God by Beth Moore and it is SO good. This past week we discussed that we are who God says we are. Joshua 1:5-9 has stuck in my mind the last few days, maybe because I'm such a chicken. Here is what Scripture says:

"No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.

"Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them. Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go."

Heather shared some verses that a friend of her mom treasured when the friend was diagnosed with cancer. I know I have read these verses before, but they struck me in a new way this week. It's 2 Corinthians 5:1-10:

Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. We live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

I especially love verse 5: "Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come." That is so awesome! I love the deposit idea - like a deposit on an apartment or something. A wonderful deposit for something even more wonderful to come. I love it. :)

Okay. Bedtime.

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!