My plea to Christian Slater

Dear Christian Slater,

Your forehead scares the SHIT out of me. You're like 45, and can't move your face above your eyes. I'm truly scared for you...injecting that much Botox in to your forehead can't be good for your health or your need to appear like you're both evil and scared on "My Own Worst Enemy".

And BTW, for a show that is sold as "the male Alias", I gotta say, I am BORED. I continue to Tivo you and your wrinkle-free face, but will only watch it once I've cleared out the List on my Tivo. I once couldn't sleep and spent about 5 minutes watching your show at 2 am before choosing to READ. You read that right buddy, you drove me to a book in the week hours of the morning.

For what it's worth, you were fantastic in Heathers, and kind of good in Prince of Thieves, but I'm not seeing it anymore. Sorry bud.

xoxo,
Sarah

Week 21

21 weeks; I'm more than halfway now - who hoo!!! In the belly pix, I'm wearing MATERNITY JEANS! They're really baggy still, but when before they would just fall off, now they stay up for 5 minutes before slipping down.

I weighed myself today and I'm at 144.5 lbs which means I'm only 3.5 lbs away from my starting weight! I've begun drinking 1 Ensure a day - basically an old person drink but it tastes good (well only the milk chocolate milkshake does), has 250 calories and 24 "essential" vitamins and minerals. I'm thinking of starting to drink 2 a day, but those suckers are expensive! A person at work today (who was trying to be very sweet) told me that when actors have to gain weight for a role, they will microwave a gallon of ice cream and drink it...and drink 5 of those a day. He meant well, but I gagged thinking about it.

We have another doctor appointment tomorrow - a scheduled check up every 4 weeks. It's different than the one last week which was the 20 week ultrasound with a specialty doc to make sure Goon is growing properly, etc.

And on another note, only 6 more days until we get to go home to Washington for Thanksgiving - can't freaking wait! We haven't seen most of our family since May when we were home for cousin Kami's wedding. It's going to be a short visit, but so great: fun, family, food, family, and more food. I'm literally dreaming about my favorite pork fried rice at China West Restaurant.

The world is on fire, I look like my father & pizza face comments from strangers

Pretty much all of Los Angeles is on fire right now - there is one about 30 miles to the north of us, 70 miles to the north of us, and 45 miles to the south of us. The skies are very hazy and when you can see the sun it looks like the whole sky is also ablaze. The poor families that are losing their homes and having to deal with this!

Our apartment is old and drafty, and ash is getting in to our little house even with the doors and windows closed. I was grocery shopping and it looked like it was snowing ash! My eyes and throat are burning - I can only imagine how people who are living closer to the fires are feeling.

So it's common knowledge in my family that from birth to about the age of 5, my sister looked just like my dad. Well, thanks to pregnancy, I now look like my dad too! I was plucking my eyebrows with a magnifying mirror and turned it to catch the sun and HOLY FUCK what is that? It was a beard. I have a beard. Thanks to pregnancy hormones, I have this blond peach fuzz along my jaw line. Ok...awesome!

Yesterday I was getting a pedicure and a woman came in to the shop and was trying to sell everyone some fancy medical water. I put my book up to my face and did my best to not even look at her. She came over and asked me what kind of water I currently drink, etc. I said I drink filtered tap and wasn't interested in her product. She pointed to her face and made a circular motion around her face with her finger and said "how long have you had those issues". I was FUMING - who in the hell are you to call me out for being zitty you f'ing bitch? For what it's worth your pants were too tight and you had a camel toe skank.

I told her the was because I was pregnant and had nothing to do with my water. She then said "your baby deserves the best water possible". I said that I would drink whatever my DOCTOR told me to, and if she would like to recommend something else to me I would need to see her medical license.

If my toenails hadn't been wet at that moment, I would have stuck my foot so far up her ass that she would need her own special water to recover.

Week 20

Here's the belly photo! The pants are unbuttoned to show off the belly - not cause I walk around with my pants unzipped.

I've gained .5 lbs since Monday so now I'm only 4.5 away from my starting weight. Sweet!

Well, not only is "it" a he, but he's a perv!

Today at our ultrasound, we received confirmation that Goonie is for sure a boy, and not a lady Goonie. The u/s tech put the wand on my belly and within about 3 secs Goonie was showing us his goods. I guess most babies are pretty squirmy, but he was quite the show off.

She took lots of measurements and everything is right on track! Despite still being 5 lbs under my starting weight, the kiddo is progressing well, and is even measuring about a week ahead. What a smart little overachiever he is!!!

The tech switched the machine to "4D" and said "oh look, there is his penis". Being the true child of Troy and myself, Goonie chose that moment to look at the camera, spread his legs, and give us the thumbs up:

Ah, momma's little perv.

Troy and I are still batting around a few names, but we think we're 99% set on one. Troy is working to make sure he's that extra 1% certain and we'll reveal it then!

We're registering tomorrow at my lunch break. I'm purposefully keeping the trip short so that we don't get overwhelmed and scan 6,000 items. I've been doing research for months (shocker right, I HATE being prepared...) and have set up a wish list that we'll convert to a registry tomorrow. I just didn't want to read about stuff and forget about it so the wish list has been my "shopping list" for months.

My awesome baby momma Anne found the most adorable sheets for us yesterday. We're not really doing a "theme" in the nursery, but are using the adorable yarn animals that my friend Jennifer made us a while ago as inspiration. I purchased the sheet and crib skirt yesterday (because they were on a wicked (40-60% off) sale!!!! but am not getting the bumper as freaking cute as it is. There is research showing that infants should sleep with NOTHING in the crib including a bumper to prevent SIDS.

Well BALLS

After 2 weeks of feeling fantastic, I threw up again at work today. Boo, hiss!

I'm going to attribute it to lack of sleep last night, and am treating this as a one time thing ONLY. I think Goonie just wanted to give me a little reminder that we've reached the halfway point today. He/she is so giving!

Pantry Challenge update & $160 for CRAP?

Pantry challenge update: Yesterday Troy made a tasty (albeit protein free) dinner from the pantry and freezer. We had rice, corn, and delicious onion potatoes that he made using week old baby red potatoes with some Lipton onion soup mix that neither of us knew we had. For a special treat, we had Trader Joe's "no pudge brownies" using a box of brownie mix that mysteriously appeared and some Fage yogurt in the fridge that was set to expire soon. He also fished out a can of pineapple juice from the freezer that had been hiding for a bit and mixed it with sparkly water for a delicious mocktail! I give him an A+ for effort and tastiness.

Tonight we're having chili with a random box of cornbread mix we found yesterday while hunting for powdered sugar. I'll probably cut up some carrot sticks for veggies.

I found a chicken breast in the freezer, and will be making some chicken noodle soup this week with a half empty bag of egg noodles, some miscellaneous chicken broth, and lots of veggies we need to use up in the fridge.

In eating news: this just in...food rocks! I had a giant breakfast on Saturday (the amount of food I would eat in a whole day during weeks 8-18), and then a big lunch. Food = awesome.

In other news, Troy had a garage sale this weekend to get rid of some crap (literally, just random junk that we didn't think anyone would possibly want) and made $160!!!! Just to prove that this stuff was actual crap, he sold a giant box of VHS tapes to a family for $30. Another guy bought a box of old batteries for $1. WTF!?

We have our big 20 week gender decider (coughit'saboycough) ultrasound on Wednesday morning! I'll post an update that evening along with a belly photo. I'm interested to see what the ultrasound shows because I got stung by a bee this weekend. Now my friend Anne (Baby Momma) is convinced that the Goonie will have super "Yellow Jacket" powers. If we see a pupa sac on Wednesday, there might be some cause for concern...=D

Join us in the "2008 Pantry Challenge"

Troy and I are starting the "2008 Fall Pantry Challenge" this week. We have way too much food in our pantry that will just go to waste soon since we've forgotten about it.

The Pantry Challenge, challenges us to create 2 meals a week between now and Dec 15th based almost solely on the contents of our pantry. You can of course supplement with fresh ingredients like eggs, dairy, meat, veggies, etc, but we have to clean out this pantry!

We start this week, and I encourage any of you with overflowing cupboards to join us and post comments about your "delicious and creative meals"!

The Goonie moved!

The Goonie moved today! Well to be clear, he(she) moves a lot (per our ultrasound viewing), but today is the first time I felt it.

I'm watching a friend's dog this weekend and felt the Goonie rollin' around when I was letting the pup out to pee. I thought it was the Goonie but wasn't sure. Later at the movies, there was a 10 minute action sequence and the kid tried to reenact the whole thing in my uterus. His(her) acting isn't the best, but the rolling and karate chops were right on.

Now, both the Goonie and I are looking forward to Quantum of Solace - the new James Bond movie on November 14th!

6:30 pm UPDATE: A Quantum of Solace of preview came on, and the kid started freaking out! I freaking love this kid because he's/she's cool and likes James Bond.

Toilet Bowl Anonymous

Hi my name is Sarah. I've now been clean for over 10 days, and I'm proud of my sobriety.

It started innocently enough - I'd throw up when I was nauseous, but then soon I couldn't get enough of it and was "sniffing the toilet water" 2, 3, maybe even 4 times a day. It got to the point where it didn't matter where I was: Target, work, home, I would have to sniff the toilet water when the craving hit. This went on for 14, 15 weeks and no one batted an eye.

Except for a stomach flu last week, I've been clean for 10 days and couldn't feel better. My appetite is coming back, and hopefully the weight will soon. My family is starting to talk to me again, and I can focus on work. I'm like a new woman.

"Thank you Toilet Bowl Anonymous for helping me kick this".