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Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Pregnancy in week 39

Me Tuesday, October, 20 2009 with Amanda my
midwife who just did a sonogram for my mom

So I am 38 plus 4. Its early here but it still counts as a new day to me since I have already gone to bed and woke up. I am sure I will crash hard tonight. Maybe even sleep ALL night long!? Ok so I have a secret. If you go by the days I have been counting down to its actually Halloween. It makes me feel better just to add that extra day on. According to my chart at the hospital its 38 plus 3 today (October 21). Why would I do this? Because at our first appointment when Roman was only 9 weeks old she said it looked like he was one day ahead of schedule. Then at our next sonogram appointment around 17 weeks she said he looked maybe a week ahead, but they dont change the date unless its 2 weeks ahead. Which I still dont understand.. because the say they get your date is to get the date of your last period and add 2 weeks to that. Soooooo if you minus two weeks from that first estimated due date... it just doesn't make sense to me. OK so I wanted to update the internet on pregnancy since my last post. Just fill in on the random things I have experienced since being pregnant.

So stretch marks suck. They make me feel gross and fat. Blah. OK So I put on lotion but I wasnt daily about it. I have decided to make myself feel better that some people get them and some people dont and that I COULD NOT have prevented them. So there. Thats how I am going to deal with it. Maybe they will fade. I only have a few so I will live and I hear you can laser them away.

My ankles are no longer. I have cankles. Not only are they ugly and gross. They hurt! I feel very vain when I say that if I always had them I might have to look into surgery to fix them. Hate me now. Its ok. I would most likely never want to spend money on something so stupid. My feet do go down at night but they swell up at the end of the day and walking on them they feel just giant. I can still wear my croc boots, but I did just get a pair of slip on house shoes with rubber bottoms that I did wear out yesterday. They are cute.. Maybe I will post a pic of them. They dont look like "house shoes" they look like felt slip on shoes. So its ok. I promise. I do have my slip on crocs, but every time I want to wear them all I can think is "why in the world did I let the shoe guys talk me into turquoise crocs, I should have got tan or black?!?!" Because when I look down that's all i see is TURQUOISE!

My belly button is still not sticking out. Its flat and that is almost just as creepy, but its just not a huge flag to the world like the sticking out belly button is.

Sleeping has its good days and bad. Last night I woke up a few times so I would say it was a bad night, more so because its almost 5:45am and I have been up for over an hour now. When you do wake up you either are in pain because you have to change positions or you have to pee. Then if you have to pee you notice, oh I hurt. It hurts to try to sit up and get out of bed. It takes much effort to get our of bed. More so because I have a pillow between my legs that I have to remove and make sure I place it where I can find it in the dark when I return. I have also started to sleep with two little pillows under my feet to help with swelling. I think its helped a lot. So I sleep on my side with a pillow between my legs and under my feet and one for my head. That's just 4 pillows the most pillows I have ever slept with in my life. I am usually a one pillow person. All these pillows are just crazy.

I don't think I experienced any crazy food cravings. The only thing I thought of was a beer float, but I didn't get to try that. The other thing that I didn't create myself was this dip I found at the bazaar on Ramstein last month. OK get ready for this. I didn't even want to try it either but I love samples.. so I had to. It was a garlic and honey dip! I KNOW! Sounds gross.. BUT they sell it so it means that other people buy it and I highly doubt that all those other people are pregnant. It was 49% honey and 51% garlic. Or the other way around.. one had that little bit more. I just sampled it on a piece of bread and it was so good. I should have bought it.. but I also have this tendency to think "I can make that" when I see something like that. Food and craft things apply to this.

I have received so many clothes/gifts for Roman. Thank you if you sent some! Tony had a co worker who had twin boys who are 3 months old I think.. and she gave me a ton of new born things! I think he has more newborn clothes then he does 0 - 3 month clothes. I have washed and put away all the newborn to 3 month clothes. I figure I can start washing the other months maybe next month or January. Its more by weight then the months (as you might know already) so I will just have to see how fast he grows and how big he is when he is born.

I have to also mention that my wonderful Cousin Buffy (AKA Jennifer to the rest of the world) sent out invites to our side of the family and had a over the mail shower for me as a surprise. It was so sweet and she even sent me the cute invite to save. She made me a cute onsie with the state of Texas on it and a coordinating burb cloth that she embellished too. Her mom made him two nice sized blankets. Her sisters (my cousins) got me some things from my registry. Another Aunt who has 3 daughters and 2 daughters in law all sent me a bunch of things in a box too ranging from bath duck toy that tells you if the water is too hot to books and cloths. My mom sent him a bunch of things too. A few cute outfits and some socks and other goodies.

My mother in law had a skype shower a few Sundays ago too! She had the Corona Dallas family members over to hold up gifts to show to Tony and I. They also gave Tony his own diaper bag with some funny things for him. Like ponchos and rubber gloves and nose plugs.. a Bio Hazard bag. Silly things like that. My mom brought over all the loot on Monday and we have unpacked it already and its put away in its place. They went all out on the gifts too. So many cute things. I have pics posted on facebook from the two "showers".

I also have to thank my friends who have sent things just because. Thanks so much. It means so much that you would go above and beyond to help us welcome our first baby into the world. Its very different being so far away so it really does mean the world to me. :) I love you all.

OOH he is always in my side. We joke that he is trying to get out. Its like he gets a running start and sticks in my side. Only its his feet.. since he is upside down. Which creeps me out btw. Why is it ok for the baby to be UPSIDE DOWN for so long?! Feel free to tell me.

I think I covered the things I wanted to talk about. Have a super week!

Monday, October 12, 2009

Peace Man

There are so many opinions about the recent announcement of President Barack Obama as the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. I decided to look into who received it in the past and why. Because the only people I can think of are Al Gore and Mother Teresa.

In case you didn't know the committee who votes is composed of 5 individuals who try to make a unanimous vote for the person/organization, although this is not always possible. There are also a few people who never were given the prestigious prize that might be just as controversial as some who have. Search here. One such as Mahatma Gandhi who was nominated 12 times between 1937 and 1948. There is a very long article as to possibly why he was never a Laureate. Six have declined the a Nobel Prize- some were forced to reject it and others choose to. Only one to reject the Peace Prize. Hitler was nominated for a Peace Prize but his nom was taken back on the deadline of the same year.

There is a press release on the site stating why he was the recipient. Here is a link to the entire release. This is the beginning of the release about the Obama and the reason the committee is awarding him"..for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons....For 108 years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has sought to stimulate precisely that international policy and those attitudes for which Obama is now the world's leading spokesman."

I tried to find exactly what reasons a person should be nominated for the prize and this is what I found in Nobel's will he stated the Nobel Peace Prize should be awarded "to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses". I also found the following quote on Wikipedia. "Unlike the other Nobel Prizes, which recognize completed scientific or literary accomplishment, the Nobel Peace Prize may be awarded to persons or organizations that are in the process of resolving a conflict or creating peace." The council has released a statement about why they believe he should be the recipient so young in his presidency saying "the Committee wanted to demonstrate its support for the approaches he is taking towards global problems".

I visited the Nobelprize.org website and it's great. Listed is each recipient since 1901 (for all the prizes) and a search engine for the people who were nominated too! Can you guess who was nominated but didn't win? Go check it out here! The list is only released 50 years after the year in question. Alfred Nobel is the namesake of the prize and this is what the site has to say about him. "Since 1901, the Nobel Prize has been honoring men and women from all corners of the globe for outstanding achievements in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and for work in peace. The foundations for the prize were laid in 1895 when Alfred Nobel wrote his last will, leaving much of his wealth to the establishment of the Nobel Prize.... Meet Alfred Nobel - scientist, inventor, entrepreneur, author and pacifist. " Doesn't he sound great?

There is a process for awarding the Prize of course. Here is the long version on the website. To sum up - the person must be nominated by Feb from an eligible nominator. Thousands of eligible nominators are sent a letter in September and their letters of nominees must be post marked no later then Feb 1st. This date is only 11 days after Obama took office. I wonder how many people nominated him. This past year of 2009, 205 nominations were made for individuals/organizations for the Peace Prize. This is the most ever! The last record was in 1995 and was 199 people/organizations. As I stated earlier those names will not be released for another 50 years. Of course they receive many many letters, but many of those are duplicates, I also wonder who else was nominated this year. I will be in my 70's when the list is released.

OK now all those were just facts.. I wasn't putting anything I thought into it.. now in my personal opinion I think its a great thing that the world is looking at America in a positive way. We were not too long ago viewed very negatively in the eyes of the world. In Obama's very short time as the President of the United States he has brought the American people back into the light. I think he did that even before he took the oath. THAT is a big deal. Even if you don't think he should have been awarded its not a reason to direct negative energy towards him. He did not nominate himself, that's not how it works. I am sure he would much rather not be mentally defending himself because he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and he hasn't "done" anything. He should be able to be happy about this award. I think its very sad that the American people can't even let their President be happy for receiving such an honor. I do think its a good thing that he was so humble about being this years Laureate, but I cant really see him being any other way. Why all the fuss? Not everyone is Mother Teresa.

Take a look at the 90 recipients.. you might not even know who a most are. In 1973 during the Vietnam conflict Henry Kissinger, a German born who was serving as the US secretary of State and Le Duc Tho, the two chief negotiators who succeeded in arranging the ceasefire after negotiating for nearly four years. Le Duc Tho declined to accept the award, stating that there was still no peace in his country. Kissinger is criticized and even accused of war crimes for the policies he promoted during the Vietnam war and for his role in the establishment of dictatorial regimes in Latin America. The award to the Dalai Lama in 1989 was not considered as a friendly act by the Chinese government. There is an entire article dedicated to the controversy that the prize has caused.

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Things I will miss

My time abroad is only getting shorter as the days go by. I am of course looking more and more forward to being back in the states. That much closer to friends and family. There are many things I will miss about being here in Germany. I thought I would try to make a list because some of these things I might forget about later.

The Drives - The autobahn has some beautiful paths. There are no large billboards to block your view or distract you from the road. Its just the passing villages and trees and hills. So beautiful.

The SUMMER daylight- The summers are great because its light out till around 10pm at the latest! However you might have guessed, the winters here are very dark and depressing.

Christmas markets - The Christmas markets here are soo great!!!! I missed them all last year because I was in Asia working and didn't get back till right before Christmas. They serve a hot spiced red and sometimes white wine that they also put more alcohol in. It is best with amaretto I think.

Fests - The fests here more like a fair then i ever realized before I got here. I thought it was just drinking. Turns out its more like a family affair then I ever knew. There are rides and tons of food along with all the beer! PLUS the beer tents.. they are not really tents. They are real buildings! They go up and come down just for the events!

Indoor pools - They have tons of pools around here! I know in Texas there are pools too, but the giant pools here have tons of slides and they also have the outdoor part too for the nice summers. So in the winter when its cold, you can still go swimming!

Low flow water toilets - Ok I know this might be silly to some of you, but when I went back to the states and used a toilet for the first time I didnt want to flush all that water!!!! OH gosh.. the water that is wasted, it hurts.

Recycling options - Of course I will miss this! I can recycle anything! My trash never fills up.. I think I could go months without taking the trash out because nothing gets put in there! Just used Kleenex and gum.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

B-I-N-G-O

I also played Bingo last week! I know.. crazy. You have to buy two cards to play and the prizes when I went were coach bags and wallets. I won twice!! BUT the second time my win wasn't counted because the lady calling numbers didn't really call out all the numbers and I missed one but when someone else called I only was missing one so I looked at the board and turned out I had it! By the time I got up there she had already dropped the balls and couldn't count mine. The first prize I won was this wallet. I think it was the least cool thing that we played for. I still think its cool I won, but I feel bad because I am sure someone else would have LOVED THIS!.. here is a link to the print.. Mine is a wallet. I do like the inside. Its pretty. :)

Besides feeling guilty for not loving my prize, I think it was pretty fun! I didn't know that the same numbers were in the letter columns. Also that the pattern you have to get changes! Its not just a line. We played where you had to black our your card, get a "kite", four corners, clumps of 6 and 9, and a few more patterns I had no idea BINGO had. It was fun too. They change the bags they use I think, but it was still fun. When i won for the second time walking up these guys behind me said "Whats with all the pregnant women winning?" As if that has something to do with it!