Since I'm doing such a good job not working today...did I show y'all my big old belly? I feel like it's inflating at a very rapid rate lately.

http://photos-d.ak.facebook.com/phot...88843_7299.jpg

Aw, Jessie, you look just great!!!! So pretty and happy. You are beautiful.
I had my first at 25 and my 3rd, (aka the big surprise) at 32. I miss my babies, but I like the people they turned in to.

Zeff, I'm about 40 minutes from BR, so if you move there, we can hit Whole Foods together, ok? Oh, and Target and the gap and the mall of Louisiana, and the cute boutiques and Bone Fish Grill, and Mansurs on the Boulevard and...oh, my gawd, I'm tired now. I'm old and must nap :)

Jessie- you're so cute! You have a definite preg glow.

I wish I was getting bigger...for some reason, I think I'm getting smaller... but the baby is fine and big for its age...who knows.

Zeff I really didn't show one bit until about 19 weeks. I guess that is fairly normal with your first though, plus I have the extra "stuffing" for her to show through. I am sure you will be big before too long!!

And Cat, thank you!! This week has probably been the hardest in my pregnancy. Yesterday i asked someone at work if they'd just cut me open and get the baby out. I am hoping for better weeks ahead!!

I know the area. I'm in Owings Mills now. Husband is from Catonsville. I graduated Randallstown OMG 30 years ago....

I dated a guy from Parkvill in the early 90s....

I showed late with DS1, and this time I started showing around 10 weeks....but I feel like I've gotten smaller....I just have a baby bump, but you really can't see it with clothes on.

Oh well.

Cat- Oh man, Bonefish. That is our favorite restaurant here. I'm definitely down for some shopping though....I'll let you know if we move there :) Even if we don't....it's only about an hour from here. We could meet for some Whole Foods...I always need an excuse to go.

ok....why does the phone have to ring every single time I try to go pee?

AWWWW Jessie your too cute

hmac thanks for the continued prayers

Cat your daughter is very pretty - good genes

Jesse - You look beautiful!

I was 34 when I had Brian. That seemed so old but I actually know several other women my age who had their one and only son at that age. I'm only 45 now but I wonder what my hormones are doing. I've been getting night sweats for years and when I'm off the pill (like now), I'm two weeks late so far. But then that's not unusual for me to be so irregular. My sister had her first when she was 17 so there is a lot of age difference between her boys and Brian.

You guys need to send some of the rain you are getting to Dallas. I was going to say "to Texas" but South Texas is quite wet with the hurricane aftermath. We're supposed to have 7 straight days of 100+ temps and I think we've only had one day with rain this month. It's very dry. Although nothing like what Indiagal is dealing with.

Nothing big for me today. I'm just getting ready for the Junior Staff pool party tomorrow at my house. Luckily I have most of the food left from the adult staff party.

I feel your pain Barb :) Since losing weight I'm getting my TOM every three weeks, have night sweats, occasional dizziness and other fun filled extras. I am 47 so it's not exactly a big surprise but still :(

JessieW, you look great ! And I love that shirt, where did you get it? Such a pretty color.

Everybody else, hope you are doing well.

I am like, annoyed. Okay, so that sounds whiny and teenagerish, but oh well, heh. I am on Day 11 of Phase 1 but I still fully intending on reading the book until I am an expert... well I was supposed to meet a lady from our local Freecycle, at Burger King, to get the book. But BF never shows, he was supposed to get off work early and didn't EVEN CALL TO TELL ME HE WASN'T ABLE TO GET OFF WORK. GRRR! :mad:

I could have at least emailed the lady before 2 (time I was supposed to meet her) to let her know I wasn't able to make it! I emailed an apology anyway, hopefully we can try it again. I imagine she must be pretty p*ssed off, she doesn't actually even live in this county, but was coming through it, and had to make a stop for a person who didn't even show. God, I feel embarrassed and bad about it.

Going to kill BF; maybe he couldn't help that he couldn't get off work like he said he was gonna do, but he could have at least called.

We had a huge fight last night, the meds haven't kicked in yet, plus he suddenly had a crazy mood swing that goes along with bipolarism and refused to take them. Just simply refused to take his nighttime anti-psychotic. He was like, ranting and raving. I made the mistake of telling him that he needed his pills to be normal... oops. Big mistake. All **** broke loose, I mean really. He is very ultra sensitive about having to take meds for a mental illness and percieved it as an attack, like I'm saying he's insane and is only normal on those pills (which is partly true sometimes, lol.) But I really meant that he is his true, normal personality when he is on the meds. When he's off of them, he can devolve suddenly into a beast, who is not him. And it's pretty scary.

I am stubborn too, and I also have a bad temper as well. I do not take well to being verbally attacked or anything of the kind. Not at all. And I have a big mouth. But I tried to keep it in check, understanding that the pills haven't yet kicked in and I tried to be understanding, tried to explain what I really meant. But he wasn't having none of it. He would rage one minute, throw cat food around, threw stuff off of the table, then the next minute burst into tears (yes! A grown man of 27! Seriously!) because he feels like a big loser for having to take these pills. And I know, I admit, I wasn't helping any by my comments and my matter-of-fact, tell-it-like-it-is, sort of 'tude. Like, "Well DAMMIT man, you ARE crazy, YOU DO NEED TO BE ON THESE PILLS!" Uh yeah. Not helping. God, I can be such a b*tch.

Then the next minute he started claiming I'm always accusing him of something and 90% of the fights is me, and I make him act this way... then the next minute acknowledging it's his mental illnesses... but I'm like, (omg, I haven't accused him of anything, the paranoia crap is kicking in...) Then I just got so fed up and told him that the next day I would be calling my grandparents and moving in with them.

He was all like, "why not leave now! There's the door!" And I'm like, "excuse me HONEY, but my name's on the lease too. How 'bout YOU get the ---- out?" I mean, it went on like this, and just a bunch of talk about a bunch of BS about a bunch of NOTHING...

He finally did calm down... but a simple comment (don't even remember what it was) drove him off the edge again. Finally calmed down for good, took his pill, we went to bed, by then it was like, 4 in the morning, and he started crying again. These moodswings are really getting to me, very hard to deal with. He was crying about how he really DOES like cats (he hates 'em), but he is scared to get attached to another one because when he was 17, his father took 2 kittens that he loved, put them in a bag, and threw them over the peoria river (he is NC born and bred, but his dad is from Illinois, and he lived with them on and off.) I was disturbed to say the least... but had no clue what was the relevance.... which was also disturbing... then he was crying because he feels like he is picked on by people (okay, now this is utter BS, because BF is one of the most popular people that I know. It's the paranoia that makes him think this way. On his pills, he does not think in that paranoid way at all.) And then something about how in middle school, he got picked on (I doubt this.. but it is his perception, or his skewed memories, his paranoid mind skewing the memories)... and then went on to stop crying, talked about the day he won his daughter from his mother, and how he would never have anything to do with "that b*tch" ever again. How she is the cause of most of his issues ( now, THAT, I agree with.) But during our fight, I said to him, if you can't comply with your medical treatment, do you really think your daughter needs to BE here? Do you really think it's best for her to be here with you off of your meds and a loose cannon??" I am like, dead serious with him. Take the pills the doctor prescribed (the man didn't go to school for like a bazillion years for nothin) and go to your therapy. Or I can't possibly in good conscience go with him to court at this time. I am supportive of him and believe he deserves his daughter, and know he is not a threat to his children, he never has been. But the emotional impact of seeing their father flip out like that is surely not a good one...

I talked about maybe we really needed a relationship break... he became teary once more, overly needy, and was literally clinging to me like a little kid.

......................................I think the doctor needs to up his dosage.

Well nah, honestly? When he's on his pills and taking them REGULARLY, he is perfectly fine. I know pills aren't a quick fix and don't work for everyone, but they seriously work on him.

Well sorry for the rambling on, I just really, really needed to vent. Called my bff's house, her mom picked up, and she had a fight with her moms so she went to go stay with her grandpa's, and I deleted his # from the caller ID... oops. So I wasn't able to vent, and I really needed to.

Important relationship tip - if you write this on the internet then it's premeditated. Bad idea ;)

I now have a flat of blueberries and a half basket of fresh peaches :dance:

So far it's been a productive day. I have 9 trays of shredded squash drying (down to about a cup!), shopped, and survived yoga after being lazy for 2 weeks! Now to bike or walk then off to the Farmer's Market. Then grilling, making blueberry leather, packaging the squash, falling down :)

Ruth and other gardening types - you'll love this one. I planted 2 squash plants in my small space. 1 was a zucchini and 1 was a UFO squash (don't know the real name but if you've seen them you know the ones I mean!). Well both plants have squash on them, but they're UFO shaped and the are more green and striped then yellow. I kept waiting for them to turn yellow and then realized what had happened. Oops. Maybe I'll save some seeds for next year - just for fun :)

Cat - your daughter is the same age as mine :)

:wave: everyone. gotta get my butt moving (I keep wanting to refer to it as my big butt but it really isn't anymore. go figure!)

Melanie - You are in a tough situation. Honestly, the whole time I was reading your post, I just kept thinking what a bad situation this would be for a child to be living with. I really think he needs to get stable on his meds before he has his daughter living with him. And I think you need to think about whether you and your child should be there. One of the reasons I finally filed for divorce was because I felt that it was better for Brian to be living with one happy parent than listening to arguments all the time. As Ann Landers used to say "ask yourself if you are better off with him or without him".

Cyndi - I'm jealous of the fresh produce. We have one store here that specializes in fresh fruits and veggies (and lots of organic stuff too) and I just might have to stop on the way home. Yum!

Cyndi, those UFO squash are pure gold. I love them...pattypan squash.

Last week they were 6.99 a lb. I checked them again today when I was at the store and they were 7.99 a lb. Obviously they all stayed at the store.