Story Time

My neighbor, Sara has been my running buddy for the last 2 months or so. It is so nice to have someone to run with (hopefully I can talk her in to training for a half marathon after I have the baby). Besides having someone to motivate me and talk to along the run, I have another reason for really liking having Sara run with me – to help me in case a dog gets out and charges us. There is a mean, HUGE German Sheppard that roams our neighborhood from time to time, tormenting the poor dogs behind fences along the green belt, including Sara’s dogs. Before our run last night, Sara mentioned that he was out. So I altered our regular course to avoid the areas where he is most often seen. Yes, I have Lola on every run, but I often doubt that she would do much more than try to lick the other dog to death and play.

Why do I have anxiety about being attacked by a dog while running? Let me tell you a little story.

Flash back approximately 6 and a half years. I was in college, living with some sorority sisters – Kristi and Sarah. My pants were beginning to fit a little snug, so I had started running, a quick fix to unwanted weight gain, I had learned. I ran through safe neighborhoods in the safe college town of Stephenville, Texas. It wasn’t dark out when I ran, so I never spotted any UFOs (let me know if you don’t get that joke and I will explain).

One particular night…
I’m running… I’m taking in the scenery…I’m running…I spot a man working on his truck in his driveway…I see his dog…I think to myself, “Gee, I hope that dog stays put. It doesn’t look like it is on a leash”…I’m running…I see the dog come running from the yard TOWARDS ME!...Commence freaking out…What do I do??...Dog is right in front of me…What do I DO?!...Dog is making noises. Growling maybe?...Why isn’t that man calling his dog back? WHAT DO I DO?!...I see the dog open his mouth and lunge for me…I turn around – as in a 180…The dog has bitten me. ON THE BUTT! And then he(I’m SURE it’s a boy dog) just merrily runs back to his yeard.. I see the man look up from his truck. No apology. No “Are you okay?”…Do I go yell at the man? HECK NO! I am going no where near that dog again…I keep running…I stick my hand just below the waste band of my shorts, on my outside right hip (aka my butt)…I pull my hand out and examine the fingers for blood. I am not bleeding. How am I not bleeding?...I run home. Sarah is at her boyfriend’s house and Kristi is at class. I need someone to look at my butt to see if the skin has been broken. What if I need a Tetanus Shot?...Oh, look. Kristi’s boyfriend Ryan is here. Ryan will look for me…”Ryan, I was bit by a dog on my run. Can you look to see if it broke skin? It bit my butt.”…Reluctantly Ryan looks, more than slightly embarrassed, but all he sees is a little pink mark. “It doesn’t look as bad as you say it was, Cheryl”. Whatever…By the time Kristi gets home it is black and blue – and you can clearly see that it is a dog bite in the bruise…No, it was not a tiny Chihuahua as someone once suggested. It was a huge, ginormous, ugly, mean, take-no-prisoners-kind-of dog. Or a Boston Terrier. I’m not really sure, actually.

This week my baby is roughly the length of...

An ear of corn (about a foot).

She weighs just over a pound.

She has been moving around like crazy and I have been able to feel it for the last couple of weeks (a little late in the game, but what can you do?). I used to feel her moving around up high in my stomach, but lately she has been low. She moves a lot when I am reading, so she either likes the Twilight series as much as I do, or she doesn't like the fact that sometimes when I read I rest the book on my stomach.

In two weeks I have to drink that nasty orange drink to see if I have gestational diabetes. If there is any way that you can give yourself gestational diabetes by eating too much sugar, I probably have it! I know, I know. you can't give yourself gestational diabetes. Only a joke!

Work weekend on the nursery is December 6th, so I should have some pictures to post after that. In the meantime, think purple and green - sophisticated nursery with a collection on yellow lab stuffed puppies.

Why?

Why, all of sudden, can I not get breaks between paragraphs on my blog?!

Ever had an "I can't believe I thought that" moment?

As you know, my friend Shelby had brain surgery in August. Now she has metal plates (and maybe screws, too?) in her head. Well, her and I went to a Ranger's game a few months back and as we were walking in the security guards gave us the once over with one of those metal detector wands. A common procedure, it had nothing to do with how we looked. Anyway...we were a few steps past them when she decides to turn around ask them to wand her head to see if it would go off. The security men looked confused, but when she told them why they happily obliged. And it actually "whined" a little as it passed over her head! Very cool!

So that got me telling the story of how my grandfather has a metal plate in his knee and when we were younger, he would stick magnets to it to amuse us. Then, as I was telling her the story, it hit me! He LICKED the magnets and THEN put them on his knee. His metal-plated knee was not magnetic after all. What a sad discovery to make at the age of TWENTY EIGHT! I was pregnant at the time, but this one I cannot attribute to Baby Brain so I called it an "I can't believe I thought that" moment.

I had another "I'm so stupid" moment last week during the Redskins game. They flashed to a picture of the Lincoln Memorial and I thought "Washington D.C.? I thought the Redskins played in Washington State." Yeah. I actually thought that until LAST WEEK! I guess it wouldn't make much sense for a team from Washington State to be playing in the NFC East (not that the Cowboys playing in the NFC East makes much geographical sense either). I can't believe I thought that!

Baby Brain #3

Tonight Freddy's boss is taking the salesmen, shop foreman, office manager, etc. and their spouses to dinner at a VERY nice restaurant. Being pregnant, everything that I would have worn to this dinner doesn't fit anymore. So I decided last night that I needed to know exactly what I was going to wear so that I wouldn't make us late tonight, trying on everything in my closet.

This morning, I went to grab my black bra from the drawer and it wasn't there. Where could it have gone? I had it on just last night when I was trying on all of those outfits. Did I accidentally put it in the hamper? No. Did I carelessly leave it in the bathroom? No. WHERE WAS IT?! Oh, well. I'll wear the cream one.

La De Da...Getting ready for work...putting on clothes...need some jewelry...There's that pesky bra! I had put in the jewelry drawer. But I wasn't as far off base as you would assume - the jewelry drawer is right beside the bra drawer. Baby Brian.

Addictions

Over the past week, I have acquired two new addictions - both soon to pass as soon as I finish them.

The first started last Wednesday when I began reading Twilight. As of right now, I have finished the first two books and I am over half way the third book, Eclipse.

While I can't say that they have changed my life or that I will never read another book again because nothing could compare (actual responses I have heard), I will say that I have not been able to put them down. I even read at stop lights and on my lunch break at work. And (if you know me, this will SHOCK you), I opted to read on Monday night rather than watch the Jon & Kate Plus 8 Special Event. That will likely give Shelby another brain aneurysm when she reads that.

I want see the movie this weekend, though I plan to go to a matinee showing because I am assuming that the crowds will be smaller.

I recommend this series to EVERYONE! Okay, mostly women. Men probably won't dig it because it's very romantical (that's a Cheryl world).

The second addiction is to the Boy Scouts Carmel Light popcorn that I bought from a co-worker's son for a fundraiser. I got the tin on Monday and worked from home on Tuesday (leaving the tin at my desk) and I am already over half way through it. BUT...I have been sharing it with friends and I don't feel TOO guilty because it IS light. Still I thought it was best to lock it up in the compartment over my desk until Friday. We'll see how long it takes before I break in.

This week my baby girl weighs as much as...

A mango - just over one pound.

She is approximately 11 inches long.

Only 17 more weeks to go!

Kids Eat Free

A friend of mine emailed me this link to a website that helps you find all of the "Kids Eat Free" nights in your area. Although I joke about Freddy being a kid, he does not qualify for any of these meals...but some of you have real kids that do!

Check it out: http://mykidseatfree.com/

Twilight

Yesterday morning I turned on the news just as I do every morning while I am getting ready and I see that there is a teenage girl frenzy in Dallas. Someone famous was making an appearance in Dallas that night and hundreds of teenage girls (accompanied by their parents who looked completely beat down) were lining up at 4 am to get tickets to…was it an autograph signing? I think, but I’m not completely sure. I had missed the intro so I didn’t know yet who they were talking about. Then they mentioned his name – Robert Pattinson. No clue.

Later that morning at work and I hear some co-workers talking about it. I leap from seat, round the corner of my cubicle and ask, “Who the heck is this guy?” I thought that Diana was going to have a heart attack. Apparently he was in Harry Potter (never saw any of them) and now he is the star of the new Twilight movie.

Everyone is talking about the Twilight series. By everyone I mean all of my female friends (of all ages) and they LOVE it! Kristi brought me the first two books in the series on Halloween and, after talking to Diana about them yesterday, I am determined to start reading them tonight. Looks like Girlfriends Guide to Pregnancy is gong to have to take the back burner for a while. Great book, by the way, but that is a topic for another post.

And here is a funny conversation about the Twilight series that took place between my friend Shelby and her boyfriend Matt, paraphrased of course.

Matt: What are you reading?
Shelby: Twilight.
Matt: What’s it about?
Shelby: Vampires. In high school.

A few days later Matt sees Shelby reading Twilight.
Matt: I see you’re reading Sweet Valley High again.

Matt’s a funny guy.

This week my baby is roughly the length of...

A spaghetti squash.

She weighs almost 1 pound.

Thirty by Thirty update

On Tuesday, November 4th I completed one more task on my Thirty by Thirty list. It was to work the polls on election day. My precinct chair never called me back, so I headed to Crowley to work with my former boss (we still work together, just in different departments).

It was a very cool experience! There were only about 300 voters all day, but those were record numbers for the precincts assigned to our polling place. It was really cool watching the first-time voters (young and old) and I was excited when we got a disgruntled voter just minutes before closing.

I wish I would have taken a picture of me doing my civic duty, but pictures were not allowed.

And because another task on my list is to live a greener life, I share this information with you: Payless Shoes has a new "green" line. Check out this link for more information:

Payless Goes Green

Halloween and the Baby Bump

On Halloween, the cutest little candy corn I have ever seen came trick or treating at our house. This is Kristi and Ryan's little "sweetie", Landri.

And then, of course, was the annual handing out of candy with the neighbors in the driveway. Lucky kids get three houses in one stop! Can you tell whose first year for trick-or-treaters it was? Check out the dogs in this picture - Lola was content just hanging out and it looks like Max was dying for a piece of candy! This is probably the only picture you will ever see of Lola in "clothes". Freddy hates it, so she only has this shirt (it says Local Celebrity in orange rhinestones) and two bandannas - Cowboys and Colts, of course! She needs a Tarleton one...

And lastly...the baby bump. I swore I would never post baby bump pictures on the internet, but here I am. This is for all of the long-distance family and friends. NEVER expect a bare belly shot because that is for sure never happening! This picture is me at 21 weeks (and a lunch). You're welcome, Cathy.

Baby Brain #2

I will be out of the office on Tuesday, November 4th. I will return all messages on Wednesday, November 3rd.

Have a great day!

Cheryl Clark
Director of Agency Engagement