Boooo!

You guys pretty much confirmed what I had already decided about Munchkin hanging out with the older girls tonight. I suppose if she really put up a stink, I would probably figure something out, but she doesn't seem all that broken up by the whole thing. She says that she wanted to go, but if she really, really did, I would probably hear more about it than I did. She also has some stuff to do with her own friends.

She did, however, play her first game with the varsity team yesterday, and even played a little bit at the end of the game. She was very excited about that, and her big sister was even awake enough for chicken fingers:-). I sure hope that babies like chicken fingers...

The Boy's mom got in a car accident:-(. She got hit by someone who went through a red light and got the passenger side of her car pretty good. Her car is wrecked, but she only had a little cut on her hand, and is pretty much unhurt (I am sure she will be really sore today, though). So that was a little bit scary, but everything seems to be OK now.

Should I have a Halloween costume by now? I am supposed to go to a party on Saturday night at the house of one of my classmates, which means that I need to come up with something by then. I suppose that I could go as a pregnant woman, which will be news to almost all of them;-). I am going to have to tell them all pretty soon anyway, so maybe that is as good a reason as any...:-D.

Not much else up for the weekend...hopefully I will get plenty of sleep again:-). Soccer game tomorrow morning, but nothing really on the agenda for the afternoon or Sunday. I was actually thinking about cooking a big meal on Sunday since I will have the whole day to do so. Any suggestions?

Happy Halloween, everyone!

To TP or Not

Took a sweet nap after dinner...now I am awake, which I will pay for in the morning, but am gonna take advantage of now. It is time for one of my favorite activities: Parenting by the Consensus of Strangers! And what stranger? Why...you guys, of course:-)

As mentioned, Munchkin has been called up to the varsity soccer team, which I am extremely proud of her for, and which she is super excited about. Traditionally, on or near Halloween, the varsity girls soccer team drives around and throw toilet paper on the houses of the boys on the varsity boys soccer team. All in good fun, and pretty harmless.

Now that she is a member of the team, Munchkin has been invited to go with the girls this weekend to commit said acts of vandalism;-) I have a couple of concerns...

First, it is a lot of driving around...as the kids she goes to school with are scattered around in a bunch of different towns. This would mean riding around in cars with 17 and 18 year old girls all night. I certainly trust the girls, but...well, you know...kids are kids.

Second, I am concerned that there is no firm "plan". I have a feeling that they will end up at someone's house, but I don't know who's, and I don't know where. It could easily be a person that I don't know, and possibly someone she doesn't know. I am a little worried that they could end up at a friend of a friend's house, and she may know nobody but the couple of girls she is with. And, since they are all 17 or 18, they could easily get distracted.

So...my instinct is probably to not let her go. I doubt she will be totally heartbroken, but she certainly would like to go if she could.

Thoughts...?

Wardrobe

We got a package in the mail from The Boy's older sister (not to be confused with Twin Sister) yesterday. She sent us the following gifts...

And for him:

How cute are we?

I did find it a little interesting that mine is cut like a regular T-shirt, not a maternity T-shirt...which is an issue with my slightly-protruding belly;-) But no reason I can't wear it again after they are born:-)

Rested and Relaxed

I had an awesome weekend and...for the first time in seemingly forever...I don't feel completely exhausted today. It could be that I got a lot of rest over the last few days, but I am also hoping that maybe I am over the horrible initial exhaustion. The sickness seems to be better, too (although I threw up a bunch on Saturday morning).

So, let's see...one of Smoking Hot Roommate's friends from high school, who now lives in Denver, was in town all weekend, so I went out for a little bit on Friday to see her. But I was home pretty early, and slept really well (save for the half hour of throwing up at 6:00am). I went to Munchkin's soccer game on Saturday morning, which I probably shouldn't have because it rained a lot...but fortunately it was really warm, so I didn't end up catching anything. If it has been colder, I would have avoided the flu risk. Of course, then I would have missed the two goals that she scored...bragging:-)

Speaking of which, she has been called up to practice with the varsity team at school for the rest of the season, and maybe to even play a little bit. It is such a small school that it is not unusual for freshman to play on the varsity teams, and not totally unheard-of for eighth graders to be on the teams as well. Especially if it is late in the season and the coach thinks that they will be on the varsity team next year...she likes to get them involved in practices and whatnot.

Obviously, Munchkin is super-excited, and thrilled about the prospect of being on the varsity team as a freshman next year. However, it may have an impact on her summer plans next year if she wants to be able to practice with the other girls on the team (they aren't allowed to have actual practices with the coaches, but the captains can get everyone together for informal practices)...oh, decisions, decisions!

I took a nap on Saturday afternoon, which was just absolutely heaven. Of course, I woke up to find that The Boy and Munchkin had taken the rainy afternoon as a reason to go and see a matinee of Where The Wild Things Are. I found that to be both completely adorable...and kinda rude!!! Seriously, they couldn't wake me up for that? Mostly, I just think it is super cool that they can do those things together.

Went out a bit on Saturday night, too, this time with The Boy's friends. It is much more fun to be out when you can tell people that you are pregnant, rather than make vague excuses about being tired and not feeling well...lol. Again, home and in bed pretty early (by 11:00) and slept great. Sunday was absolutely gorgeous, and included a walk, a nap, and some mischief. Munchkin and SHR ran a road race in the morning and hung out all afternoon, so I had The Boy to myself again...hee hee.

And then to bed early again last night. So, very low key, lottsa rest and feeling pretty good today. No Chicago this weekend, either, but next weekend is firm for that...

Ode

My little sister could be the most remarkable person I have ever met. Nothing specific happened recently to remind of this, and anybody who reads here regularly is well aware of her many outstanding traits...but I found myself lost in thought this morning (sitting in traffic...ugh) lamenting that I don't see her as much as I did before school started, and being thankful for how easy she makes my life.

That may sound odd, considering that I pretty completely re-organized my life to move her out here with me. I guess, in the absolute sense, life would be easier if she didn't live with me...but that was never an option I would have been able to live with. So, the moving in part was pretty much out of our control, but I can tell you absolutely that the ease with which it has worked is entirely due to her.

There are a million things about normal teenagers that could cause me all kinds of trouble, and she foists none of them on me. She could be sneaky. She could argue with me. She could not tell me what she is thinking. She could skip school work. She could test limits. She could ignore me, or openly defy me. She could resent that The Boy gets my attention. Or the babies. Basically, she could be a 14 year old girl...

But she does none of that. She has an enormous amount of freedom...an amount that would be totally unmanageable for almost anyone else I have ever met at her age. I give her that much independence because a) she has proven capable of handling it, and b) it is just plain easier. Checking to make sure she did her homework every night, or enforcing a strict curfew, or lecturing her on what she can and can't do, or explaining why it is important that I spend a certain amount of time at school...all of that stuff takes work, and the fortunate truth of my parenting is that I don't have to do any of it.

What makes her so remarkable is that she just gets it. I've never had to tell her why it is important that she do well in school, or why she needs to listen to me or to someone else...she just understands it all on her own. She knew that I had a responsibility to get up every day and go to work, and just inherently understood that she had the same responsibility to take school just as seriously. She has just never had the same self-absorption that most kids have (and that I certainly had at her age) and has never really had to be taught about responsibilities and priorities and the like.

I think that is a lot of why people who meet her are so genuinely taken with her. Not only is she incredibly sharp and self-confident and self-assured...she just naturally thinks of others and their feelings in every interaction she has, and that, to me, is a lot of what comes across as her maturity level. Most people develop that sort of external awareness at a much later age...but she just sort of has it.

It would just be so easy for her to have all kinds of issues, and they would all be so explicable that they would almost be forgiven. Marginal family life when she was little...lost both parents...older sister moved her to a new city, and was totally ill-equipped to deal with an emotionally wounded 10 year old...dropped right into a social circle unlike anything she ever knew before...hard-to-define system of supervision...not much in the way of authority figures. It is a psychiatrist's dream. And yet, the one psychiatrist she even saw (at the insistence of the court;-)) basically said "There is no reason for her to keep coming, she is impossibly well-adjusted".

Anyway, I am rambling now, and kind of gushing. And I am not real sure what the point of this post is, other than me feeling like writing it. But I was thinking this morning about how incredibly lucky I am to have her live with me, to have her as a sister, and just basically to know her at all. She is an amazing kid, and I have to remember to tell her that:-)

I am mostly done venting

Sorry if my post yesterday was kind of a downer...I was just in kind of a pissy mood and sort of vented it here. I didn't intend to sound that negative, but it sort of came out that way.

One thing I didn't mention...plans to go to Chicago this weekend. Good reason that I didn't, because I cancelled them;-). I want to tell my family in person, so I was hoping to get there this weekend, but Munchkin wasn't gonna be able to come with me, and that, combined with my general need for sleep and rest made me re-think. So, I decided to put it off until next week...although now that may not work, either. I will keep you posted.

Even though I just apologized for venting, I would like to highlight a few more things that piss me off today:

It snowed on Sunday...total bullshit. Like, really snowed, not just some flakes here and there. The Patriots game showed it pretty well.

I was awake at 6:20 this morning, and it was pitch black out, still. That will only get better when daylight savings time comes, at which point it will get dark at about 5:00 pm.

Teenage boys. Aaron, I am beginning to think that guns do have a place in the home.

My lack of ability to eat sushi. Kind of the only thing I am really dying for right now.

Some of my classmates. My wisdom for the day: There is little that is more dangerous than a smart person who is not quite as smart as he thinks he is.

I should also point out that I adore some of my classmates, as well. We have these semester-long group projects, and I am really lucky to have four excellent partners in my group. They are all super nice, work really hard, make great teammates and are genuinely high-productivity, low-maintenance people. There are some other members of the class that would cause me to seriously consider slashing my wrists if I had to spend that much time with them.

OK...this was kinda random and I am not sure I accomplished a whole lot...but that is all I have for you today;-)

Three Years

[Yikes...I initially titled this post just "Three", and then realized that could have a whole other meaning!!!]

Today is my three year blog-iversary...and as much as I would like to talk about how much things have changed over those three years, they are gonna change by a whole lot more next year!

I find less and less time to blog recently, as school is really kicking my ass these days and I am still sick kind of all the time. Most days, I wake up feeling pretty squeamish (although I don't really throw up very often) and it takes me a while to get ready because I can't be rushing around without getting sicker. I try to take as little Zofran as possible, but I would say that about one out of three days I have to because I am just too sick.

Eating is a pain in the ass, too, and I can't wait until food tastes good again. I have to eat kind of all the time, because I get really sick if I don't, but nothing actually tastes good, and I find myself eating whatever doesn't repulse me. Except animal crackers...I totally heart those. And I eat a whole lot of them...

So, I get to school at 8:00, have class all morning and early afternoon, then start in on the mountains of homework and group work and whatever else is on the docket that day. I get as much of it done as I can, but by about 6:00, I just plain have to go home. I usually feel worst in the evening, but The Boy and Munchkin are very good about taking care of me:-). Once I have had dinner and get into my jammies, I try and finish whatever work I have left, and I am usually in bed by 9:00 or so.

The fatigue hasn't been as bad lately...I have a little bit more energy...and it should get better for a while before it gets a whole lot worse after the New Year. But for now I am dealing. Unfortunately, it leaves very little time to do much else...I haven't seen many friends lately, and haven't been blogging (in case you didn't notice).

So...what am I getting at? Well, I guess I am apologizing ahead of time for a continued slow down in blogging. For the first six months or so of my blogging, I posted every day...and since then, I have been a pretty consistent five-day per week blogger. That has slowed down, and I don't anticipate that it will pick up any time soon. But, there is no need to worry about me...I am fine, just super busy and sleeping whenever I have some free time:-)

I need to make an effort to blog more, which I very much want to do. As I have mentioned, the part of this that I like most is the daily diary aspect...which is obviously reliant on actually doing it;-). I could blog during class, but that kind of defeats the purpose (not that I am unwilling...), so mostly I am just hoping that I will get over the fatigue for a while and have some more time to get everything done that we need to.

I guess, in summary, I have to recognize that the last three years are likely to be the high-point of my blogging. I still read everyone that is in my Reader (even if I don't comment as much) and will be a regular blogger...just maybe not as much as I once was. Which sort of makes me sad...but that's the way the cookie crumbles, for now.

"Cousins"

A few of you managed to guess my secret, or at least some version if it.

Today's big news is that I am not the only person in AM world that is pregnant;-). The divine, spectacular, and all-around awesome Big Sis is joining me in the great pregnancy adventure. She is about a week behind me, schedule-wise, and actually found out a couple days before I did.

Without a doubt, I am way happier for her than I am for me:-). There was a time (not that long ago) when she was pretty firmly against the idea of children. Then, maybe a year and a half ago, she changed her mind a bit, and she and The Brain Surgeon decided to try and have a baby. She had a devil of a time getting pregnant, though, and was beginning to get terribly frustrated.

They did not get to the point that they went through fertility treatments, but they were thinking about it (don't you just love blogs? I get very sharey:-D. Don't worry, she told me it was OK to blab!). In the meantime, she had gone from "Yes, I think I want a baby" to "I really, really want a baby, and am becoming terribly worried that it hasn't happened". Which also explains why she was much more diligent about taking a pregnancy test when she was late than I was...lol.

Because she had had trouble getting herself knocked up, she asked that her pregnancy be kept an ultra-super secret, even from the blog world. In fact, she would not have told me right away had I not had my own issues;-). But, following her doctor's appointment today, I am free to tell all of my wonderful readers!

So, while I am partially terrified at the idea of being pregnant, and totally terrified at the idea of twins...I am very much comforted by the idea that I get to go through this with one of my most very favorite people in the world. I will most likely deliver quite a while before her now, but that is OK...I am gonna love being knocked up with her!

So, please send a hearty congratulations and wishes for a healthy, safe pregnancy to Big Sis. She reads this, so she will get all of your comments if you leave them:-)

And one note, before you ask...in response to the obvious question "Does this mean that you will try and have a baby, too, now?" Smoking Hot Roommate (who virtually never swears) would like the record to reflect "Not on your fucking life!" She will have to settle for being an Auntie three times over...

Secrets:-)

You might be thinking..."Hey, AM, in the last two months, you have bought a condo, been to France, started graduated school, got married, got knocked up and found out you are having twins...surely, there is no other major news that you could be withholding from us, right?"

Wrong!!! I have been keeping The. Best. Secret. Ever. So secret that I was not even allowed to blog it to anonymous interweb-friends (although I told some of you via email, whatever).

But...I think I am allowed to tell you all tomorrow:-) So you have that to look forward to!!!

Whatever happened to my dream condo?

It was actually sort of refreshing to hear everyone pretty much confirm what I am already thinking...that I am just going to have to play it by ear, see how I feel in December and make a judgement then. Best case, it will be really hard, and it may not be doable. I will just have to wait and see.

Lori S-C pointed out something yesterday that I should have noticed on my own. Call it "personal evolution", but she correctly noted that I am better at accepting help than maybe I was four years ago:-). Part of that is true, and part of it is just the overwhelming idea of two babies at once...

And Smoking Hot Roommate was upset that I left out a key logistical part of that plan...we have three bedrooms: one for us, one for Munchkin and one for the babies. Obviously, if The Boy's Mom moves in with us for that month (which, by the way, would be a complete Godsend), we have no place for everyone to sleep. Solution? Easy...Munchkin takes a month-long field trip around the corner to stay at SHR's place:-) They are both very happy at that prospect...like summer camp!

Next issue, though, which some of you have already gotten at...living arrangements. We bought our condo in August, and I have written at length about how much I love where we live and intend to live here for as long as I can see. Now, however, I am not entirely sure that it will be enough space. We are going to have to think about this one.

We have three bedrooms, and the whole place is about 1,600 square feet. Which...if it is two boys or two girls, would probably be plenty. It is not exactly palatial, but given where we live, it is likely to be adequate. What gets tricky is if there is a boy and a girl. How long can they share a room? They will be four and a half when Munchkin goes to college...can they share a room until then? Munchkin says that she will happily share a room with her little sister if she has to...but is that really fair to her [late edit...um...did I really just refer to it as Munchkin's little sister? Not quite!]? I know I am getting way ahead of myself here...but if Munchkin is 20-21 and living at home for summer or more, is it really OK for her to share a room with a 6-7 year old girl?

And beyond that, this would mean that we have no extra space for anyone else. Will that get old? one thing that is absolutely not an option: moving to the suburbs...ick!

So, this is not at all a pressing issue...it is a minimum couple of years away, and may not be an issue at all. But, at some point, we are gonna have to think about this...

To stay or to go

Dreadfully boring Organization Behavior class (which everyone refers to as "OB"...which I refuse to do for what should be obvious reasons...) and rather than pay attention, I am going to blog:-). God bless classroom Internet!!! How did people go to school before 2000? They probably learned a whole lot more.

First things first...weekend was really nice:-). I went out for a little bit on Friday night (tonic water and lime looks just like a vodka tonic...you just have to be careful not to let anyone order you a drink!!!) but was home and in bed by 10:30. Munchkin had a soccer game on Saturday morning that I went to, and then we had lunch and I took a nap...lol. That is how I roll these days:-). Woke up from the nap feeling kinda shitty, and ending up bagging out of dinner with some friends...too many smells in restaurants if you stomach is a little edgy...

Woke up yesterday feeling fantastic...and also feeling incredibly horny...hee hee. Munchkin was out all afternoon with Smoking Hot Roommate and some friends of ours, and things got plenty debaucherous while she was gone:-). Don't blame me...pregnancy is weird. Um...hormones...

So, a couple of you have asked some practical questions in regards to the two monsters inside of me, and I haven't been avoiding them, I just don't really have firm answers to them just yet. The first is...how will this effect school? I am not entirely sure. If you recall, my original plan was that I could maybe have a baby right at the end of the school year, and be home all summer with it and then there would be some day care options come fall when I had to go back to school.

Then I ended up getting knocked up a little earlier than planned, and my due date of May 4th cut the end of the school year closer than expected. I figured I could manage that, though. Maybe I would have to take some finals a little early (or a little late)...but maybe not. I figured I could work all of that out with my professors, and hopefully could reach some working agreement with whatever groups I was working with on group projects, too.

Well, now that has gotten stickier. First of all, while my due date is still May 4th, there is no actual chance of me going that long...most likely it will be at least a full month before that, and probably closer to six weeks (Late March). What that means is that I don't have to worry about scheduling end-of-year stuff, but I will have to worry about how much time I will miss in the middle of the semester. And what if I am on bed rest at some point? I could find myself not able to practically do the work required to be in school.

And then what about next year? Will I be able to be a full time student with twin infants at home? They would be about 5 months old when I go back in the fall, most likely.

As far as I can see, there are a couple of options. First, I could take a leave after this semester and come back second semester next year (Spring 2011) or even the year after. I couldn't come back in the Fall, because the curriculum is all mapped out, so I would have to join in with the first-years next school year. This obviously has the advantage of avoiding the scheduling problems involved with delivering twins mid-semester. On the downside, it would mean delaying school by at least one full year, and I would have to recognize the possibility that, once I stop, I will never start again. I would intend to, but you never know how these things work out.

Second, I could just go ahead and enroll second semester and hope for the best. In a perfect world, I would miss a complete week or so of class, but would be able to be back in school pretty much right afterwards (actually, in a really perfect world, they could be born over spring break:-D). The advantage of that is obviously that it wouldn't cost me any time, and that The Boy would be home full-time for at least the first couple of weeks back while I was working out the schedule. Things would be ridiculously hectic for a month or so...but I would be able to stay on track to finish in May of 2011 just by suffering that one crazy month or so.

The downside is that it may still not be manageable. Even if it goes according to plan, I may find that I just can't keep up and have to take the year off anyway. Or...maybe it won't go according to plan, and I find that I have to be in bed for a few weeks ahead of the birth and miss too much time entirely. In that case, I will have spent all of that effort from January through March, and still have to come back and start over again next January anyway.

One huge thing working to our advantage...The Boy's Mom, recognizing that this could be an issue, has offered to basically move in with us for that month or so (the time between when The Boy has to go back to work and when I will be done with school) to be a full-time Nanny and let me finish the year of school. I am not sure that I can really express how generous that would be of her, or how much of a massive help it would be...what it would mean is that I could reasonably be able to find enough time to study through the end of the semester. So, there is that, too.

I am not real sure where I am leaning at this point, and I don't have to make a decision until December at least. By then, hopefully the doctor will have a better idea of whether I will have any health issues that could confine me to bed, or if I should be pretty mobile right up until D-Day.

Thoughts?

And there you have it...

Here you go...the radiologist says that she is pretty sure that they are fraternal. Both are a good size and active and have healthy heartbeats...

This is totally The Boy's fault!!!

And just so we all remember...my pre-pregnancy size and weight was 5'0", 98 pounds. And somehow, two babies are gonna live inside of me?

Oy!

If I told you, you wouldn't believe me...

Had my second doctor's appointment yesterday (my first one with the actual doctor). The purpose of this one (which is about 10 weeks) was to go over medical history and the initial blood and urine tests that they did a few weeks ago, and to do the first ultrasound...which is done with a weird probe and is not as clear or informative as the one that they will do on Friday.

First things first, blood tests are all normal, and we have no major medical issues that we need to worry about right off the bat. So, that was good...

Next, they lubed up this weird hoo-hah camera probe (that is my best description...lol) and took a little look around in there. I could tell you what we saw, but I somewhat doubt that you would believe me;-) As such, I will hold off on the official confirmation until my ultrasound with the radiologist on Friday morning, at which time I will absolutely, positively post photographic evidence of the mess I seem to have gotten myself into...lol.

Yea...subtlety not intended...just can't even bring myself to write the word! But, safe to say, The Boy is clearly genetically responsible for this...

Leaf peeping

The Boy? His awesomeness simply can not be overstated:-) He has a really remarkable ability to know exactly what I need most at any given time...and to make that happen!

And I should give a special shout out to his older brother, too, since he is the one who so generously donated this weekend to us:-). He actually won it in a raffle at a golf tournament this summer, and figured that he and his wife were unlikely to get away for a weekend in the fall, so he offered it to his brother...who took him up on it and then kept it a surprise to his adorable wife:-). (Still not used to being a "wife", but I am getting more used to it.)

I didn't know where we were going until we got there...and really not until Saturday morning when I woke up...lol. I was so freaking tired on Friday after school that I put on sweatpants and a giant sweatshirt and folded myself up in the passenger seat and fell asleep. Like...I am not sure that I was still awake when we pulled out of the garage, and I was definitely out cold before we got to the highway (which is...um...four minutes away?).

Next thing I knew, The Boy was rousing me because we were at the hotel and he had already checked us in and gotten the keys and I needed to wake up to walk inside. I suppose I could have made him carry me:-). First impression was that the place seemed really cute, the bed was super comfortable and the salad that he bought me on the way was yummy:-). And then, as I sort of woke up a bit...it dawned on me to ask exactly where we were...lol.

So...we went to a resort in Lenox, MA, which is way out in the Berkshire Mountains near New York. It is about a two hour drive (which I found out on the way home...when I was awake:-)) and it is a really pretty area. It will be breathtakingly stunning in about a week when the leaves are in full color-change, but they had changed enough this weekend to really make the countryside beautiful. If you have never seen real, live, fall foliage in New England, then you are missing out...the pictures just can't capture the beauty.

The weather turned out to be better than expected...not too chilly, no rain, and even a little bit of sun here and there. We were up early on Saturday (c'mon...I was asleep at 6:30...what do you expect?) and went for a quick, very refreshing (read: chilly!) walk before breakfast. I saw more turkeys, squirrels, rabbits and deer in 15 minutes than I have seen in a very long time...lol.

A big bowl of fresh fruit and a muffin made for a delightful breakfast (I would have loved to tear through a giant bacon and sausage omelet, but the idea made me a little queasy) before the morning massages that I had been so looking forward to all week! One hour of absolute heaven that was totally worth the anticipation. [Side note...we went into the room and there were two masseuses, both women...one was about my age and quite attractive, and the other was in her 40's and a little on the heavy side. I am not a terribly jealous girl, but there was no way that I was letting the hot chick rub oil on my naked Boy...hee hee]

The weekend package included a golf, but I didn't really feel like playing a whole round. So, I played the first nine, which was really fun, and then went back to the room, changed into my sweats and sat outside on a swinging bench and read while The Boy finished. We had a really fantastic dinner, and then mosied back to the room and hung out for the rest of the night. My hot tub ban was a bummer, but the divine Mrs. Rocket Scientist was good enough to include some of more mischievous things from my closet when she packed my bag:-) We got to practice some of the massage techniques we learned earlier...hee hee:-D.

I squeezed in a facial on Sunday morning, which was maybe a little bit of pampering overkill...but I was feeling entitled:-) Then we packed up and checked out...stopped for lunch on the way home, and got back in plenty of time for afternoon football!

Pretty darn good weekend, huh?

An observation, and some hyperthermia avoidance

My sleeping pattern is pretty f'ed up, which is the reason for the late blogging. I was up too late last night, so I was exhausted all day today (nothing new there...I am always tired!), which led to a lengthy nap when I got home from school kind of early. Like a three hour nap, which is more of a "sleep" than a nap, I suppose. Now, I am not nearly tired enough to go to bed, and we can repeat the whole cycle tomorrow. At least I will have the weekend to get myself back on a schedule:-)

So, I have noticed something about school...it seems like people are intent on proving their intelligence by being skeptical about everything, and being super critical of discussion points. Anytime we go over a case study, there seems to be a race to ask the most insightful question that exposes whatever flaw there is in the business idea. Which is fine...the ability to ask good questions is a key part of what they are trying to teach us.

But to be honest, it is not that hard...you can always think of reasons that something won't work. What is really hard is deciding that the reasons something will work outweigh those, and being willing to put yourself on the line in backing an idea, or a company, or a plan, or whatever. Put any business plan in front of me, and I will tell you a dozen things that are wrong with it...but anyone who has spent a little bit of time thinking about things at a strategic level can do that. What is really hard is identifying the one out of ten business plans that really will work.

Anyway, I am still kind of thinking that a lot of my classmates are in the "trying to make a good impression" stage, but I am wondering when that will change. I kind of assume everyone here is at least pretty smart, I don't need them to constantly demonstrate it to me...

Enough of that...totally different subject...

It's a good thing that I have blog readers, because the whole "pregnant women should avoid hot tubs" thing was completely news to me. But yes, hot tubs are kind of a no-no...you are either supposed to turn down the temperature (most hot tubs work at like 105 degrees, which is too hot, but if you can turn it down to 98-100, it is OK) or limit exposure to like 10 minutes at a time. The concern is that a body temperature that rises to 102+ is dangerous during the first trimester, and sitting in water warmer than that for 10-20 minutes is enough to do that.

So there, we all learned something today:-)

Massages? Totally cool! Laying around in bed all day? Also totally cool. Ergo, I am planning on the bed occupying a lot of my time.While I have definitely started to put some weight on (scale says 103, which is an all-time high for me), I still look super cute in my underwear;-). Gotta do what I can while that is still true.