journal: hello june and the season of sweat

outside my window: there are the loveliest evergreen bushes just outside my office window where a whole flock of some small chirpy critter always seems to hang out. it's a nice happy little sound as i stare at my dual monitors and spreadsheets and emails all day. i imagine it's getting pretty toasty outside today too and it has been plenty humid lately. i'm trying not to think about how miserable i will be in july and august when the crevice sweat reaches epic proportions. thankfully, my desk is right under the AC vent and the office always seems to be like an arctic tundra in the summer, so as long as i don't leave, i should be good. clothes: my parents were up this weekend and, as usual, mom could not resist the opportunity to drag me through the mall. i consented to the purchase of a most excellent black tank top maternity dress thing on sale for $20 and a clearance tshirt for $8 at old navy. i am such a royal cheap skate, and even these items took some convincing. but they are super cute and i am feeling quite hip and trendy. i have the black dress on with a jean jacket and a black and white herringbone scarf on that mom sewed together from a scrap of fabric. i also am wearing a slip. is anyone else rigid in slip-wear? i refuse to wear any kind of unlined skirt without a slip. perhaps that's old fashioned, but i guess i'm just not willing to take the chance that someone will know what my underwear pattern is. toddler: oh how fun life is with a 2 yr old. "my 2 yr old's emotional outbursts are so much fun!" - no mom, ever. holy eff. it doesn't help that i'm working four 10 hr days through mid-july so i have to wake him up 30 minutes earlier and then we don't get home till after 6 each night. it wouldn't be so bad if i weren't huge and pregnant and having to take it easy while wrestling a flailing octopus of emotion multiple times per day. my poor mom, this weekend she was trying to change a poopy diaper when he had an "issue". consequently, there are poop stains all over his bedroom carpet now until i get time to run the cleaner. awesome. but other than that stuff, he's doing well. his vocabulary is exploding and he is a lot of fun when he wants to be. curious george is a new favorite. he will soon be transitioning from the partially guarded toddler bed to the toddler bed with the fun noodle under the sheet with a hopefully quick transition then into a twin bed within the next couple of months. i have been looking online for curious george bedding without much luck, i plan to make a trip to the fabric store at some point and will likely just go with a solid color comforter and sew up some CG curtains and find some wall decals or something. in the kitchen: i've been having a heck of a time coming up with meals with this pregnancy, nothing sounds good (except ice cream. all. the. time.). so i have lately resorted to parusal of the ol' betty crocker cookbook. having never been much of a pork loin fan, i came across a fantastic recipe for peach and dijon mustard glazed pork loin which we had last night with my lovely roasted brussel's sprouts. oh my goodness was it delicious! i have packed leftovers for lunch today and i'm excited. i grilled steaks saturday and tonight will be some leftover-purging. tomorrow i will bake some chicken breast from another betty recipe, "2 mustard chicken bla bla bla" whatever it was. horay for mustard i guess... crafting: yea.. no. i bought some fabric a couple of months ago (at least!) to sew gifts for a great friend of mine whose daughter was born 2 weeks ago. stiiiiilll folded up in the closet. reading: i read the church bulliten yesterday, does that count? bringing me joy: charles and i celebrated our 8th anniversary thursday. although it was not under the best circumstances (traveling for a funeral), we did get to spend the whole day together as a family. he also bought me a new chain so that i can once again wear the beautiful cross he gave me for christmas a few years ago. i bought him a countertop for his man cave bar. :) that's life! another great source of joy: he and my dad worked saturday and sunday in the basement and accomplished great things towards the completion of the man cave. charles has purchased the supplies for concrete staining and at some point this month he will finish that. it's all coming togther and we are very excited!! this weekend we also got to spend some time with uncle cameron. it seems that he is much more relaxed and talkative when his wife does not come with him, so that was nice. he and charles did a bit of "bonding", so that was good. neither are overly fond of the other for very different reasons, so it made me happy to see some communication there. and especially so when my little cameron would interact with big cameron. he still maintains that he got the better of the deal by only having to "raise kids" for a few years before they moved out. but then, he's never been really into touchy-feely stuff so i'd definitely say that it all worked out well for him. but an infinite source of merriment to me is that his wife's oldest daughter is pregnant. yep, that's right. my 34 yr old brother is going to be a grandpa. BAAAAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! sadly, the daughter lives in san antonio and he lives in vegas, so he will have minimal interaction. but it's still pretty darn funny. stuff i'm thinking about: pregnancy worries. since this was a "naturally occuring" pregnancy, i am much more paranoid than i was with cameron. or at least, my worries are not as easily quelled. i also have partial placenta previa and have been placed on restrictions and told to take it easy. see "toddler" section above for more information on how well that's going. ... so i spend a lot of time trying to take it easy, then not, then having cramps and contractions. just cleaning the house is enough to do me in. it's not cool. but i have another sonogram appointment friday and hopefully things will have shifted around and baby luke is still looking healthy and safe. i will be happy when this is over, it has been such an emotional and turbulent pregnancy in a lot of ways and i worry about how my mental/phsyical state will effect the baby, and then i worry some more because i know it won't be any easier to keep that from happening when he's out. so yea, pregancy worries gallore. pictures to share: sure! i haven't taken many lately and i've posted even fewer. in theory, this will be a friday project at some point.