OMG!

As a gift to myself, I bought Jenny McCarthy's Belly Laughs and oh my goodness, I have never laughed more! I am almost in tears reading some of the things because it's exactly how I feel. I have been telling everyone about the book, even if you aren't preggo, you should read it! It's a good (and blunt) way to see just what pregnant women are going through, but it's funny! It really makes it all seem ok, like you're not as crazy as you feel inside! I read a part to Jason, saying to him "this is totally something that you said!" See below:

As anyone who has ever endured it knows, the term 'morning sickness' is bullshit. Morning has very little to do with it. For me, it started in the morning and went straight through the night. The label 'morning' must have been thought up by a man who thought it was all in our heads and hoped that limiting the definition would make us all shut up by noon. Well, I don't think so, buddy! I say, come on over to my house around 5 p.m. so I can heave on you.

This is how my sickness went, I didn't have the constant throwing up, but I had the constant feeling like I needed to. I would like to think that that is even worse! I wish I could have thrown up, I wish that it would have been that easy but it wasn't!!! Ahhhh, well it made me laugh, I don't think Jason thought it was funny but I know there were some days when he would say "oh honey it's just in your head" and I so badly wanted to say to him "oh come walk an hour in these shoes buddy and tell me it's all in your head!"

The book is literally only about 150 pages so I should be done, but I am savoring each and every laugh! It truly is an entire book of laughs! Check out some of the other chapters in the book and you can imagine how hilarious the book is!!! The titles are her own, but the parenthesis is what the chapter is about.

Psycho Chick (Hormonal Rage)
Passing Stonehenge (Constipation)
Freddie Krueger Ain't Got Nothing on Me! (Dreams)
Well, It's Not 1972 Anymore! (Baby Boomers Explaining How It Was in Their Day)
Did a Sewer Tank Explode, or Did You Just Fart? (Gas)
The Crying Game (Hormonal Blues)
So, Anyway, Like I Was Saying. . .  Wait, What Was I Saying? (Wandering Mind)
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Who's the Prettiest Pregnant Lady of Them All? Clearly Not You, Lady! (Face Acne and Rashes)
Poopin' on the Table (The Dark Side of Delivery)
I Just Need to Lie Down For, like, Five Minutes. . .  Okay, Maybe Three Months (Sleepiness)
Let Me Repeat (Husband No-No's)

I am not done, but with the amount of laughter that it's producing, it's worth the wait!

Christmas at the Casa de James

Well, nothing too terribly exciting for the James household this Christmas, we were in bed early last night, someone had to work Christmas this year. We went to church last night, I have always loved the way the church looks at Christmastime, so peacefully illuminated by candlelight. Alarm went off at an early 4:00am this morning, I was up and out the door to rush to my parents to cook breakfast for Jason's team. Thank goodness my mother offered her help, otherwise I don't know how I would have gotten it all done; and we had a special guest, my brother getting off from work, he stopped by for breakfast with us all.

So I rush to PD, yea, that was the quickest drive I ever made to PD to get the guys their piping hot breakfast, of course it was because of all the green lights and no traffic that I got there so quickly ;) I came home and attempted to get some rest but it just wasn't happening, so I curled up on the couch and proceeded to watch some movies that a friend gave me...I couldn't get off the couch they were so good! (vampire stuff, I knew the hubby wouldn't care to watch with me) Around lunch I loaded Dixie up in the car and we went to PD, her Christmas present was getting to spend the day at work with daddy. Jason said she sniffed everything and had a good time at PD, just like old times.

Since Jason was working during the day alone, and Bubba was working Christmas night, we did a Christmas dinner at my parents this year. It was kinda nice, we got to end the day on a great note with our gifts. I got lots of new clothes...yea maternity ones. Jason got a whole slew of new shirts, so he can't complain anymore about not having anything to wear. His big gift was a work bench for the garage so he can put all his tools away, I got a new badge charm, his Sgt. badge.

This was a nice, quiet Christmas. We were off to bed early again for Jason to get up and go to work tomorrow. At least we have Monday off together to go and hang out, and then there's always New Years, of course I highly doubt we do anything this year!

Merry Christmas everyone,
Love The James Gang!

'Tis the Season

For some reason, I'm just not in the "holiday" spirit this year, and with hormones and mood swings, it only makes it worse! I have an inner rage like no other! I snap at anyone and everyone, especially those close to me. It's finally starting to get cold but seriously, this week it has been 90 degrees outside so that's been another downer. At least it was a short week, and we get to wear jeans to work - although I only have 1 pair that I can really wear right now so I had to go home and wash them every night! Jason is working this weekend, so I don't know what I am going to do sitting at home alone all weekend?!?! Oh that's right...shopping! Jason's favorite thing for me to do! :)

It was quite an exciting week at work, we think we have finally eliminated the mice problem with some plug-in devices that are suppose to emit sound waves that keep them away. They seem to be working, we only had one on Monday morning but we think it might have been a lil' straggler. However, they have begun some horrendous pounding upstairs! We came in and had some dust all over our desks, throughout the day I had what looked like snow in my hair from it falling down all day! The banging got worse throughout the week, scaring us all day just about every day. They are breakout out the jail cells on the fourth floor, so concrete cells, metal bars, the works and the workers up there honestly don't understand how bad it sounds to us down here...we think that any minute our ceiling is going to come crashing down! We have had water leaks, dirty water in the bathrooms, some welding embers come through our ceiling, but mainly just the noise...it shakes our entire desks!

I went with my parents to our old neighbors this week, for their annual Christmas dinner together. I got to see my best friend growing up and his wife, let them in on the news (and growing waistline!) and just catch up since I think it's been since our wedding that I saw them. It was a lovely evening, hubby had a meeting so he missed out :(

My Bubba made me some tamales...oh I can't wait to eat them!!! I LOVE bean and cheese tamales, he remembered and made me some, then he invited Jason and I to dinner. He's so sweet!

My mom and I went shopping all day today, needed some last minute gifts for some people, but boy am I tired! I need to get some rest since I have to wake up and make breakfast tomorrow for Jason's team. Thankfully my mommy has offered her assistance!

Jason and I are off to church this evening, I always tell Jason that we should have done a Christmas wedding, the church looks so pretty at Christmastime with all the decorations. I say "in our next life, we get married during Christmastime!"

Happy Holidays everyone!

Christmas in Bridge City

Christmas was nice in Bridge City with Jason's family. I got a body pillow, which I am so thankful for! Jason is planning on getting a work bench for his tools so he got a gift card towards that at LOWES. 

Jason was her jungle gym for the weekend

Us and Granny

 

The entire family

Jason was everyone's jungle gym this weekend

Here we go again

Another lovely week gone by. We went to the doctor this week, the baby is actually measuring smaller than they say it should be but nothing to be concerned with. She just said that my due date must be wrong. I've tried to explain to them that I know my body and my body has always been weird but nooooooooo why listen to me? Trust that handy-dandy cardboard wheel you have there, that's surely more reliable than my word Ok, done with my rant :)

Mood swings are still in full swing. The biggest thing is emotions. They are up and down and I just don't ever know when they will swing. Any little thing will hurt my feelings now, and I have a really hard time of biting my tongue too if you do make me mad.

We had a Secret Santa gift exchange this week at the office, mine was AWESOME! I got all sorts of really neat gifts throughout the week and an iTunes gift card at the end of the week! We had a White Elephant gift exchange as well at the office Christmas party and it was some fun!

We still have a mice problem, I now am up to 5 in one week! I came in on Thursday morning and had 2 on one trap, I said it was a 2 for 1 deal day! That day though we caught/had 7 mice in our office. It was bad, they are getting brave, running under our feet and in and around us while we are working. We have been told that there is nothing that anyone can do other than set out traps and hopefully catch them one at a time. Comforting huh? So of course that plays into the whole emotions thing.

Jason and I are heading to Bridge City this weekend to have Christmas with his family, unfortunately Jason will be working on Christmas day so we don't get to have much of a Christmas this year.

Happy Friday everyone, it's a payday for us - we always love those!!!

Baby James December 2010

We went to the doctor on December 13th for our monthly check-up. Everything was fine, I am somewhere between 12 and 13 weeks, baby has been off by a few days so we aren't for certain where I am at. Baby is growing and doing well though, mommy has certainly gotten her appetite back but still no weight gain yet. Woo-hoo, let's see how long we can hold this up! I still have Christmas and New Years to think about!

Baby James has his/her arms up by the head, which is the left end of the photo, belly in the middle and you can see the legs sticking up on the right; it was actually quite difficult to get a photo because he/she kept moving a lot

Here is a little bit better photo, the line was for measuring the baby, which is sitting at about 6.11cm which is about 2.5 inches

I did have one more photo of the baby but it's sitting in my office, it's a really good photo though, up close and you can almost see the definitions of the baby's face, thanks to Aunt Jaclyn for pointing those out to us! Doctor says that baby will begin to grow more rapidly as 2nd trimester is very important in the growth of the baby, next appointment is set for January 13th.

Christmas Party

Every December, my Bubba always has a Christmas Party, for the past couple of years we have been fortunate enough to be able to attend. Unfortunately, I was the DD for the evening, and the "clean-up" crew as well! I haven't stayed up that many hours straight in a loooooooooong time!

Me and my Bubba, almost didn't get this shot!!!

The traditional with my Danny-boy :)

An "office" photo

Me and Carrie, it's like we're holding on to each other for dear life!

Oh my sweet hubby...yes this is indeed how he chose to take the photo, standing over me with the camera upside down, I love his picture taking capabilities!

Oh what a week it has been!

I am still trying to get a hold on these "mood swings" and all the emotions but this week was one for the record books! Monday I went to see a friend for his birthday and to share the news, got into my office a little late that morning. Upon arrival, I noticed some little black specks on my desk. Now I guess I need to backtrack here just a little bit. See, they are doing construction in our building, a building that is very old and infested with all sorts of critters. A couple of weeks ago, I noticed that some of my snacks had been nibbled on, asked for traps but still waiting. Well, Monday morning with the droppings and emotions, let's just say that s*** hit the fan! So I asked again for the traps, shut my door and proceed to cry. Then I begin cleaning out my office, getting any and every sign of food out of here. I also decided it was a good time to clean out some personal things that had been here for a while. Well, I moved one bag and, well, see for yourself...

 I picked up a bag and this was under it...yes those black specks are droppings...

Then I moved my bookshelf out and this was behind it...again, more droppings...

In case it's hard to see...those are candy wrappers, and the black specks are rat droppings...here all along I've been blaming our cleaning crew for eating my candy and who would have ever thought it was these little critters. So as you can imagine, I'm worried, do I need to be in this type of environment while pregnant and so on and so forth.  I had Jason come get me and take me to lunch I was so upset, I come back and am just wallowing in my own misery when my co-worker walks in and asks me whats up. I'm telling her all about it, showing it all to her when all of a sudden she interrupts me with "Mandie there's a mouse in your office, it just poked it's head out to see me from behind your desk." With that, it was all she wrote and I was all upset again. She ended up sending me home after we called asking for some mouse traps and were told that they got my request 2 weeks ago but they are just out and the guys haven't gone to get more...lovely...

So I come back the next day and go and take mouse traps from other parts of our office...places where people aren't working anymore. I set those out in my office then finally I get brought about 2 boxes of traps. I leave them out over night surely expecting something to be on them when I came in the next day but nothing. Someone had told me to put some peanut butter on them, so I did and went to lunch. Came back about an hour later and here is what was waiting for me when I got back:

The maintenance people didn't like that I put peanut butter on them...apparently that makes them not sticky...well obviously it worked for this poor sucker. Now, they are right, I came in this morning and my traps were all over my office, the oil from the peanut butter made it possible for them to get away and they did...messed up 2 of the traps, so I had to set new ones all out, about 6 traps for now, possibly more by the end of the day and plan to leave them out over the weekend. Someone actually suggested to me that I start getting them stuffed and have them as trophies in my office. You know, some hunt deer...I hunt mice. :) Hey...at least I can joke about it now, at the beginning of the week it wasn't funny, and still bothers me the fact that I have mice running around while I work. And the more people pick, the worse off it is.

Happy Friday everyone!

Why Women Cry - Watch Her Eyes

With my lovely crying spells these days, I came across this a few weeks back and thought it was really cute and quite fitting under the circumstances. Makes me feel a little better about crying now, maybe not such a big sign of weakness after all.

A little boy asked his mother, "Why are you crying?" "Because I'm a woman," she told him.

"I don't understand," he said. His Mom just hugged him and said, "And you never will."

Later the little boy asked his father, "Why does mother seem to cry for no reason?"

"All women cry for no reason," was all his dad could say.

The little boy grew up and became a man, still wondering why women cry. Finally he put in a call to God. When God got on the phone, he asked, "God, why do women cry so easily?"

God said: "When I made the woman she had to be special.

I made her shoulders strong enough to carry the weight of the world, yet gentle enough to give comfort.

I gave her an inner strength to endure childbirth and the rejection that many times comes from her children.

I gave her a hardness that allows her to keep going when everyone else gives up, and take care of her family through sickness and fatigue without complaining.

I gave her the sensitivity to love her children under any and all circumstances, even when her child has hurt her very badly.

I gave her strength to carry her husband through his faults and fashioned her from his rib to protect his heart.

I gave her wisdom to know that a good husband never hurts his wife, but sometimes tests her strengths and her resolve to stand beside him unfaltering.

And finally, I gave her a tear to shed. This is hers exclusively to use whenever it is needed."

"You see my son," said God, "the beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure that she carries, or the way she combs her hair.

The beauty of a woman must be seen in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart - the place where love resides."

Mood swings and other fun stuff

So now that everyone knows, I have hit the lovely stage of crying spells and mood swings like no other! I have a short fuse as it is, a low tolerance for ignorance I like to say, and on most occasions I am a 'tell-it-like-it-is' type of a person. So take that and amplify it all and you have me on a daily basis! The crying is the weirdest thing, I don't like to cry...sign of weakness...never cared to do it, especially not in public! My gosh, these days, I get a paper-cut and the waterworks are in full swing! I'm making do though, thankfully I have great friends that are there to tell me that as crazy as I may seem, I am acting completely normal...normal...yea right! I think the hardest thing for me right now is all the 'help' and 'advice' that is coming. I don't like to depend on others to do for me, I can take care of myself on my own, independent woman I am! So it's hard for me to hear "don't do this" and "don't do that" or "are you sure that you need to be doing that?" I know everyone means well, but half the time I want to scream "I am pregnant, not incapacitated!!!" Ok...I'll step off my soap-box again.

Pregnancy is the most amazing thing though, I have come to realize that. Your body is going through so much, you have no control over it at all so you think you are a crazy person, but in the end you will have the most amazing reward. I have now entered my second trimester! First trimester was a little rough, I consider myself lucky as far as the sickness went though, it was just constant nausea, but it still wasn't fun. I think one of the hardest things for me is the lack of energy. It amazes me how at about 2 or 3 every afternoon I literally feel as if I have taken a Benadryl and could just go right to sleep. Poor Jason, when I get off work, the last thing I even want to think about is food so cooking has become obsolete now-a-days. I mean, you have the drive and the 'want' to do things but you just don't have the fuel and energy to get anything done. I have had a few nights here lately of some horrible sickness again (thought I was past this!), so I haven't had much sleep lately. Not that any sleep these days is 'good' by any means. I don't really have that much of an appetite either right now. I am hungry I guess, and know I need to eat, it's just that nothing appeals to me right now. For the past 3 weeks or so I had a MAJOR sweet tooth! Sour Patch Kids, Bright Crawlers...anything like that, sweet and sour, I couldn't get enough of. I was loving some spicy food! I think Jason is sick of Mexican food though for a while :( I do have the random cravings on different days, some days I want nothing but pickles, some it's nothing but ice-cream, others it's nothing but pepper so it's just a day-to-day thing of what will I be craving that day.

I had to finally go and buy some maternity clothes, the belly just doesn't suck in anymore :) It's funny, I try to suck in when I'm getting ready in the morning, and it just sticks out...actually hurts to try and suck in!! Guess that's a sign that I should quit trying huh? :) However, I do see what all the fuss is about, I don't know that I will EVER go back to regular clothes again after wearing maternity pants!!! The most amazing thing ever, everything fits...no matter what...it all stretches and fits!!!

This was the day I told the office...as you can see, it's hard to hide the 'pooch.' I sat at my desk for most of the morning, until a friend called and said she just had to tell someone so I let her and in a matter of about 15 minutes, the entire office knew the news.

I go back to the doctor next week, getting excited now as the baby is growing more and more and what we have to look forward to with each and every doctor visit,it's too bad right now we have to wait an entire month between visits huh?!?

Oh...and just for those who are wondering and want it on your calendar:
Official due date of Baby James - June 23, 2011
Date to find out pink or blue - January 24, 2011