What Do You Think?

Here's a shot of me from last night. My mother-in-law now thinks that I am having a boy based on the fact I am carrying the same way she did for her two. Everyone else thinks definitely girl, although there hasn't been much weight gain in the hips or butt (unless I keep eating like I have!!!) Hopefully we will have the verdict in just over 7 hours!!

Yup, S/he's Southern!

Pregnancy is going well - hard to believe I'm at 20.5 weeks, although sometimes it seems that I've known I've been pregnant for much longer than 3.5 months! Thursday (my birthday) is the day we are hoping to stop using s/he and switch to one of the other. Let's hope the baby isn't shy!

Last night we went to a dinner and show at our church. The local state university's blue grass band (there's actually 12, but we got one of them) played as a fundraiser for the church. When they were warming up and testing the microphones, Baby Bee woke up and started kicking pretty much in time to the music and stopped when the music stopped - Shannon's pleased that that is a good indication that we're having a Southern baby! It wasn't awake for some of the concert (heck, I wanted to nap after the fabulous dinner), but kicked away for other bits.

The weather lately (although screwy!) has been gorgeous. Week before last it was in the 70s all week. Sunday it snowed. Not enough to stay on the ground, but it came down a good chunk of the day. This week has been back in the 60s and 70s with yesterday hitting 83! I'm loving it (although low 70s is my ideal temp) - Shannon has pointed out what I didn't need to hear though. Since it is 83 on March 24th, what will it be like in July? When I'm a beached whale (my words, not his)? I'm not going to let that get me down right now though. I've taken Kodie on several walks lately and both of us have really been enjoying the sunshine. Dogs are so therapeutic. It doesn't matter how down you feel, when you see a little guy who looks like a big dog puppy instead of a small dog romping around with a look of pure bliss on his face, you can't help but smile. Puppy Joy - good for all that ails you.

Of course, having to deal with idiot owners dampens it slightly - I HATE having to dodge piles of dog crap. However, I'm not going to let that bring down the tone of this post and I will save that rant, and my rant about idiots at Walmart and the grocery story (yeah, buddy, you with no shoes on in the grocery store, I'm referring to you), for another time.

As some of you know, I am doing the MS Walk again this year. I'm so thrilled to have raised $390 so far! That's 78% of the way there. (want to donate? click Here) I'm supposed to walk on May 19th in Bristol, but now will be coming back from a business trip to San Fransisco. I'm working on transferring to another walk (April 14th in Greenville) but not sure if I can. Otherwise, Shannon will have to walk for me - I'd hate for that since part of my pitch this year is that I will be walking at 29 weeks pregnant, but .....

Last, but not least, I become an American citizen on April 17th. No, don't worry, I'm not foresaking my Canadian roots! It will just make things easier in the long run if I have my American.

Alright, time for me to head out and embrace the day!

Book Tag

I'm supposed to be working (just finished some taxes, was going to switch to work work, but hey, it's a Sunday) when I made the silly mistake of checking MB's blog. Drats! Tagged!

1. Find the nearest book: Lately it has been "What to Expect When You are Expecting", but it is upstairs. Mostly I have magazines near me on my desk, but I do have one I got from Little Baby Benny for Christmas.

2. Name the book title and author: "Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder" - written by Richard Louv

3. Turn to page 123: Hey! The start of a new chapter halfway through!

4. Go to the 5th sentence on the page and then copy the next 3 sentences on your blog.

The boundaries of children's lives are growing ever tighter. A 1991 study of three generations of nine-year-olds found that, between 1970 and 1990, the radius around the home where children were allowed to roam on their own had shrunk to a ninth of what it had been in 1970. In the winter 2003 issue of American Demographics magazine, TNS Intersearch reported that 56 percent of today's parents say that by the time they were ten yeras old they were allowed to walk or bike to school. Today, only 36 percent of those same parens say their own kids should be allowed similar freedoms. A separate study by Taylor Reseach and Consulting fuond that 41 percent of children ages eight to eleven worry about being safe in their neighborhoods.

(As an aside, this is something I had been thinking about lately - and I hadn't even gotten this far in the book! I was in grade 6 when Ben and I started biking to school. We were never allowed to go alone - although when he was in 7 and 8, he could bike the 3 miles to his best friend's house - but it was a good 45 minute bike ride. We were about the same age when we biked the 8 miles + into the local village in the summer. I can't imagine letting my kids do that now, even if I wasn't in a fairly high traffic zone with crappy sides of the road. I hope I don't become a distance nazi with my kids, but it is sad that I already know that they will be restricted from what I did as a kid.)

I have to tag 3 people, but most people who read my blog don't have blogs on their own (except on myspace, where they don't blog). I could make them do this in my comment area, but most don't comment on here either - just in person or on email. So ...... 'Stina, when you read this .... tag!