The Blueberry's close up

This is our little blueberry's first photo. The future hockey player is an impressive 3/4ths of an inch--or roughly the size of the gummy bear he/she resembles. Not even Buckeye sized yet! The black part is the amniotic fluid and the blueberry is the gingerbread man inside. We heard the heart beat too--the heart is the bright white button on the gingerbread man. We won't know whether it's Alexander Viacheslav McGowanstrom or Stevie Yzerman McGowanov for another twelve weeks.
This was a super exciting appointment, even if I again lost my breakfast at the office. We can't wait to meet him/her.

Our Crib

Living in a one bedroom apartment, I didn't think we'd actually bother getting a crib. It's just another piece of big furniture we'll only end up moving once, possibly twice before the blueberry actually gets here. (We've taken to calling the future baby a blueberry, since that's about how big it is now). We lucked out on a floor model that has never been used. No scratches and all parts are included. It's cherry and pretty simple, but it seems sturdy.

The crib makes me really happy and makes it even more real that this is happening. Its not that I wasn't excited before. I've just been a little disappointed with the reality that we may not be home by the time it arrives. I wanted to create a cozy little nursery, but that's silly when you live in an apartment. So even if we don't have the Martha Stewart nursery, at least the blueberry will have some space to his or herself.

Everyone says it's a girl, including an ancient chinese astrological chart--but the magic 8 ball and Rich disagreee, so we'll just have to wait to see.

What a difference a day makes

Last Sunday was an incredible day. Of course, it didn't start out that way. We are in a slight pickle with our housing situation. Our lease is up at the end of the month and we'd love to move home. Unfortunately, without jobs, it's not an option. We can't affordably get an extension on our current lease, but are hesitant to sign a new one, since we don't know where we'll be and for how long.
Long story short we spent most of the day tracking all over Savannah looking for adequate housing. Our best options were a house that's about an hour one way from work (not so great when you work the night shift). Or, we could move into the upstairs of a moderate sized house, with an "efficiency" kitchen. The stove, sink and fridge took up less space than my dorm fridge.
Needless to say, we weren't feeling the greatest driving back to our apartment. Half jokingly, we toyed with the idea of moving home and taking a pair of minimum wage jobs, which, if full time, we could probably get by on. Then the phone rang.
I spoke with a library board president from a small town relatively close to home. The director job was mine for the asking.
The catch was a less than thorough answer on the question of insurance benefits. Rich and I decided we needed to find out exactly how important benefits were. We found out that evening that we are expecting a future hockey player and insurance is indeed important. This was probably one of the best days ever--we were both so excited for our family and to be moving home. We celebrated with a trip to walmart--where shopping the baby section was more than just something to kill time.

(ps--unfortunately, benefits became too important and I can't pass up the good deal I've already got here--so for now we're in Savannah, but we're still really happy just the same)

Holly Jolly Crafty Goodness

Since our tree is in Toledo, but our ornaments are in Savannah, I've been attempting to fill a very large tree rather creatively. These are my latest crafty efforts--premade plaster ornaments from JoAnns that I painted

Adventures in Dog-Sitting

We're puppy-sitting for Rich's co worker. She's 8 months--which means she's big enough not to look like a puppy, but still young enough to act like one. I had forgotten how much work having a puppy can be. This is particularly true when you live in an appartment. The apartment was spotlessly clean prior to the puppy's arrival and currently looks like I hadn't tried to clean in weeks. This would be a considerably easier task if we had a fenced in yard.
The puppy has so much energy, she makes Roslyn look calm--which is really saying something. She's also a barker--another trait I've never really had to deal with in any of my pets. She arrived with a basket of cute toys; Roz has managed to ruin just about all of them. On the plus side--the puppy is cute with lots of personality. Also, she's all Rich's after tonight.