Helpful Sites

Do you ever come across a site and wonder if it's safe to download material or even surf on it?  I did today.  I was looking for a way to download a Youtube video that a coworker wanted to use in a presentation tonight.  I came across this site: www.saveyoutube.com.  You don't download anything except your video, or so it claims.  It sounded fishy to me so I googled around a little to see if I could find any reviews from the helpful Internet world.  I found several reviews that claimed it was safe, but also discovered http://safeweb.norton.com/, a site that allows you to check sites that might be suspicious.  So, just in case you're ever in that boat, there you go!

#ThingsInMyDreamNursery: Dresser-Turned-Diaper Station

Changing tables.  Need it, not need it, register for it, find it used, blah blah blah blah blah.  I haven't been able to make up my mind.

Side note:  most always like to shop for things used before buying it new, but most folks have told me that there are some baby items you just need to get new.  That is why I have opted to register for many things new.

I am lucky enough to have plenty of resale furniture shops at my fingertips (living just half an hour away from Gladewater, the antique furniture capital of ... something, so I am looking forward to ex-ing the flimsy changing table on my registry and setting out to find the perfect dresser for a changing table.  Besides, if it's going to take up space, it's going to have to provide good storage.

Pretty sure this one is meant to be a changing table (and I can't do anything that obvious!), but want to steal the paint job off of this one.  I love the rustic gray with the natural wood showing.

Video: Terrified Baby

I don't have my headphones so I haven't watched this with sound yet, but this kid is cracking me up.

The Humor In The Pain (c;

I ran into our warehouse manager at the coffee pot this morning.  Definitely one of my favorite people from day one here, he's always a lot of fun.  He said he heard I wouldn't be returning after baby, but I told him that it was the right decision for me.  His response was encouraging, he said that his wife stayed home with their kids, and even though they had to give up some new cars and other things because of finances, it was worth it to them.  It was so refreshing to hear that I wrote him a quick email shortly thereafter...


Me:  Thanks for your supportive words at the coffee pot this morning!  I will miss everyone at the office but I know I am really lucky to have the opportunity to work from home.  You can still let me know if you need a birthday banner (c:


- kendra


Eric:  I realize I can read between the lines better than most people and I get that you were trying to say you will miss me more than anyone else.  I appreciate that very much.  I realize the bond that is between us and I will not bruise Dereck's (my boss) ego by letting him know that.  He is soft.  I really do think you're the bomb.  You really will be missed.  Good luck, KK.  If you need some guidance on how to live on one salary let me know.  I have perfected it!!! lol :)


Hope you caught his sarcasm.  Some people will be missed more than others!

Staying At Home

So, you have a career and a job that you love.  Not many people can say that, so you should enjoy it.  But now you're pregnant and it's just a matter of time before your life is going to change big time.

I have always known that I will stay home once that first baby comes.  Luckily, Ryan decided in high school that he wanted a wife that would do that.  It worked out for us.  We didn't plan it, but we'll be bringing home a baby in 3 months.  This is happening sooner in my life than I ever expected.  As happy as we have become, we know that my "career" will soon be changing, too.

I do have a job that I love.  There are parts that I am not good at and there are parts that I don't like, but mostly it is an enjoyable challenge for me.  The people I work with are great and after being here for 2 1/2 years I feel like the level of enjoyment I get in working with them has only increased as I have gotten to know them and the job better. 

I hear people talk about how difficult a decision it can be for a woman: career vs. children.  I will miss being in the office and having that interaction, but I am confident and excited about being at home.  With James just 3 months away from arrival, I've had several conversations, both at work and otherwise, about my plans.  Mostly, the feedback is positive and I am always blessed to hear supportive words.  It makes me feel like they understand what is important to me.

I was surprised at first, but I have also had some negative feedback.  Some people tell me that I will get bored and beg to come back to work.  Two people reacted with the attitude of pity, like I was enslaving myself or something?  I really feel like they assume too much.  Really, I'm reaching a level of self-actualization.  I rarely find a greater sense of accomplishment than I get from doing household chores!  I'm a total homebody - I would rather stay in than go out just about any evening.  My social needs are really very low.  A perfect day for me would be spent with the windows open to the breeze, a load of laundry going, kid(s) playing in the yard with a puppy, and working on a creative project I have had on the back burner for a while.

I don't really like filling the stigma of a plain mid-century housewife.  No, it's really not very cool, and I know it makes me an easy target for joking and even some criticism.  Maybe I was born in the wrong decade, but here I am.

Are you ready for a really cheesy mission statement?  (c;

What I long to do is be devoted to maintaining the hearts and bodies of my family.  You may plan on keeping your career post-kids, and I really won't argue against anyone who decides to do that, I can only assume they are doing what they feel cut out to do, just like I am.  It is a good feeling to love what you do!

Now on to something even more exciting for me.  I am incredibly blessed that the company I work for has offered to set me up working part-time from home, even with the likelihood that Ryan and I will be relocating to a different city.  I get to take the parts of my job with me that I love.  I always saw myself dropping work "at long last" once I have kids, but in all truth, I'm so happy I get to keep part of the working world.  I get the best of both.  Again, God, thanks for knowing my heart better than I do and - GOSH - thanks for giving it to me!

Marketing Rant

As much as I probably get annoyed with situations, want to complain and rant about things, even people sometimes, etc., if I think about it it's usually not a very justifiable cause. Last week I experienced plain old, straight up rudeness though. Since it has decided to spill over into this week I have decided to let out some of my frustration here. Of course, names will be changed to protect the perps (ugh)!

It all started about two weeks ago when the president of the company I work for brought me a flier and told me that AP would be bringing me a $500 check to sponsor an event in a nearby town happening in about a week and a half. He asked me to make sure the people got the check. It is not too often that the head honcho brings me a task like this, so I didn't question his judgment although I wondered what kind of advertising was in it for us. The flier indicated that we would be getting about 10 free tickets to the event to use however we wanted. I immediately thought that they would be perfect for our next Facebook contest and happily awaited the arrival of the tickets while I wrote up a quick plan for the contest to submit to my boss.

The check came to me the next day and I labeled it clearly and gave it to the receptionist with instructions on who it should go to when the lady came to pick it up. A weekend passed, and on Tuesday of the following week, our receptionist brought to me materials related to the event. A stack of small colored fliers printed on heavy card stock (obviously professionally printed), then by contrast a pile of disheveled, black and white photocopied signs, wrinkled, crinkled, and coffee-stained. Looked like they had been rolling around in somebody's trunk. In addition to this confusing mess (I had no idea what we were expected to do with these... stand on the corner and pass them out?) there was a stack of about 200 tickets to the event. I was obviously missing some piece of the agreement. Were all of these tickets ours? Was there some mistake? I thought we were only supposed to get 10? Our receptionist didn't know and she said when she tried to get information from the woman who dropped them off, the woman did not seem to know either. Company president was also out of town on a week long international cruise, so calling him up to ask was not an option, either.

The only phone number I had for contact information was on the pitiful fliers. I called it and left a message explaining who I was and that we had received all of these tickets and weren't sure what the details of the agreement were. I received a call back the following Tuesday (yes, a whole week later). The woman was from a local law office. Apparently this law office was helping with the organization of the event, I'm not really sure how they were involved. She asked me if we had distributed the tickets and been selling them, to which I answered her (starting to feel a little unnerved) that we hadn't. I had been waiting on someone to call me back and let me know what we were supposed to do with them. She was obviously annoyed and I could imagine a well-dressed professional woman with her eyes bugging out a little and frayed hairs popping out of her tight ponytail. I played a little dumb, sure, but I felt like she deserved it after I learned that she was the one who had dropped off the mess of fliers and tickets and failed to communicate with us for over a week despite our efforts to find out what was going on. And playing dumb was the only way I could keep from spouting off these facts to her blatantly. Plus I had the company I work for to think about. I would rather that we come off a little misinformed and naive than rude (like the impression she has made on me of her law office).

I told her that I would send out the tickets that day, even though she wanted them back by Thursday, so they would only be in the stores to sell for one day. It would be futile but she seemed to want to squeeze every bit of effort out of me and that was the best I could do for her.

I operated under the assumption that our company president had struck some kind of deal with her in which we gave them $500 and sold their tickets in our stores and advertised their event to our customers and they did something in return for us. Usually they will hang up a banner at the event with our logo on it and/or the announcer will drop our company name a few times during the show. That was the bare minimum they could do for us for what we were doing. We have done events before where this kind of effort bought us weeks of advertising on the radio as a ticket outlet and our logo on all of the fliers in addition to the aforementioned favors. I wanted to make sure that we were holding up our end of the bargain even though I felt like they were making it extremely difficult and could tell they were not well organized.

After I got off the phone with her, I took the materials and the tickets to my boss just to let him know the ridiculous that was about to ensue and ask him if I could run the Facebook contest with those 10 tickets. He was shocked to see the tickets still in my hand just 5 days before the event. He had been informed about the event by our president and had agreed to be a ticket outlet to sell the tickets. This is usually a pretty sweet deal for us because it gets people to come to the stores and typically the event coordinators will advertise all of their ticket outlets on the radio or TV or otherwise. So he had said we could be a ticket outlet but never heard anything else about it after that and hadn't thought about it. He apologized and said he would take care of it. We have done this kind of thing before and had a procedure. He put the tickets in our inventory and sent them out the stores, that way we could sell them like any other product and then just cut the event coordinators a check when it was over with. So he took all but the 10 tickets for the contest (which he gave me the go ahead on) and it was in his hands. What a relief!

I called her back and told her that it was taken care of, and I had peace until Friday when she called me around noon. She wanted to know how many tickets had sold. I looked them up - just five out of those 200. She didn't hide her agitation. She wanted the extra tickets back. Now. What? What on earth do you want the extra tickets for? The event was the next day and why wouldn't she want them to be in the stores to sell as long as possible? Apparently, in all of their event coordinating savvy, they did not print enough tickets to sell at the gate of the event so they needed the extra ones back. "I'm sorry but that's not our procedure." Our stores were not accustomed to returning tickets before the event was over. Not only that, but our last trucks for the weekend run on Friday morning, so that opportunity was already passed. I told her I'd see what I could do and I hung up. I called my boss and told him the situation, asking him what, if anything could be done. His attitude was better than mine. He realized it was poorly organized but they had really gotten themselves into a jam and he wanted to help them out if we could. So he asked me to call all of the stores that received tickets except for the ones in Tyler (since they were too far away) and ask them to pretty please find a way to send them back to us on a Friday evening. I did just that. Graciously, each manager found a way to get them back to our office that evening, even if it meant making a special trip, maybe an hour out of their way, to do it. I called her and told her that she could pick them up first thing in the morning and letting her know that some of the managers were taking personal time on a Friday evening to do it, hoping she would appreciate the great effort we had made to fix this one problem of hers that I'm sure was just one of many she was dealing with. I did also inform her that we didn't even try to get the ones in Tyler back since it was too far to ask them to come. Her response? "Well, I did call you at noon." That was supposed to mean that she had given me plenty of time to take care of the problem. I told her again it didn't make a difference since the last truck ran BEFORE noon. My patience was pretty thin now.

I went home and the weekend passed. I was going to go to the event myself but we decided not to. This morning I came back into work. When I saw the name of her office on my caller ID, I debated picking it up. I felt some indignation. Turns out, we did not receive any advertising for the event. We were roped into this without getting anything in return. So really we didn't owe them anything. I got curious about what she could possibly want now, so I got the courage to pick up the phone. She said she had received 5 stacks of tickets and they were missing about 67 tickets still. What on earth does it matter now, after the event? I did not think to ask her that, her next problem came out, "And you didn't leave me the check..." I told her honestly that I doubted the AP department had had a chance to process it yet, but that I would check on it. I hung up with her and I am now in the process of tracking down these worthless tickets that she says she is missing and making sure the check gets expedited so we can be through with this mess.

I have never met someone in the business world that was so powerfully demanding, unorganized, and ungrateful as this woman. Anyway, I am looking forward to calling her and letting her know that she was wrong about the missing tickets and that her check is ready. Now be offa my back!

#ThingsInMyDreamNursery: Grey Wally Wall Organizer

Much like the person who posted this over at Apartment Therapy, I love two things about this: it's grey and it's a clever organizer for kids.  I actually love one more thing - I can see James using it to learn a little about letters as he gets older. 

This one runs over $200, but I don't really see it being that hard to replicate.

Sonogram images at 6, 17, and 23 weeks

We had a sonogram yesterday afternoon at 23 weeks.  If you read my previous blog, you know that I was looking forward to getting a better look at him.  All day yesterday and the whole drive to the doctor's office, he was his normal self, happily [I assume] boxing away at my insides and being an all around wiggle worm.  Once the camera was on him though, I guess he decided it was nap time.  He used the placenta for a pillow, burying  his face into it and refusing to budge.  The technician tried having me lay on either side, even tried grabbing my belly and jiggling it to wake him.  Don't get me wrong, I hope he is a sound sleeper, but I wanted to see his face so badly!


After many attempts, we got a good shot of his profile and a portion of his face.  It's not a lot, but I can tell he has started to fill out.  His cute little lips and cheeks seem fuller than they did before.  We didn't get a picture of it, but it was amazing to see his long limbs - definitely takes after Ryan there - all folded up.  He was folded in half so his ankles were up by his head.  It was very cool to see, although the pictures don't do it justice at all, but I will share them anyway!

6 weeks - my mother in law donned him with the nickname "Peanut" before we knew whether he was a boy or a girl.  He does kind of resemble a peanut here, doesn't he??

17 weeks.  Yes, he resembles an alien here.  You can see how bony he is still this early on.

17 weeks - the moment of truth ya'll.  In order to understand what you're looking at, imagine you are looking up at him sitting on a glass table.  His leg is folded under him (you can see the bone in his shin) and if you look close enough you can make out the tiny bones in his foot (right under his bum).  The hand pointer is indicating the most significant part of this shot...

17 weeks - still painfully bony to behold (the technician assured us it was completely normal).  You can see his torso and rib cage, his little bum, and his legs folded across each other.

17 weeks - his face.  He was posing wonderfully that day.

23 weeks - his profile.  You can see he had his face up against the placenta.  He was moving a lot in this shot, throwing his head back and stretching out as much as he could, but still didn't quite move enough to get a shot of his face.

23 weeks - the best shot we were able to get of his face.  I wasn't sure what I was looking at until the tech explained it to me.  See how his face has filled out more.  His lips are so cute! 

We may actually be getting one more sonogram, but I don't think it will be the 4D one.  A school in Temple does free sonograms and we might go get one more there.


I also did a glucose test yesterday morning to check for gestational diabetes.  Got the results back today - all is well and normal - yay!

Week 23: It's Getting Harder and Harder To Breathe

I haven't forgotten about this blog - believe me!  I think about it often, wondering when I am going to get time to update again and what would make a worthy entry.  Work has me swamped lately and I can't really spare a moment even to write at present, but one of the things I wanted to do with my blog was record my pregnancy symptoms and I have some significant ones that I've been experiencing for the past few weeks.

I both live and work up a flight of stairs.  In the office, my office is on the second floor, and we live in a townhouse style apartment where our bedroom and bath are upstairs.  I've always been glad that there is at least this activity that I have to do numerous times daily because most of the time I don't do any other form of exercise.  Normally, I can zip up them with no problem, but the past few weeks I have found that my chest tightens and I can't catch my breath by the time I get to the top.  It also causes my heart to race and takes several moments to calm it back down.  The heart racing is due to increase amount of blood (by the third trimester, my blood will have increased in volume by 150%), so I like to think that my heart is getting quite a good workout during this pregnancy (c:  I just read a short article to confirm what I already thought about shortness of breath, and it says, "while the number of breaths you take per minute actually changes very little during pregnancy, the amount of air you take in with each breath increases significantly."  Source.  It might also have something to do with my uterus being the size of a soccer ball... things are getting crowded!!!

Also, suddenly my belly button is of concern.  It is stretching, to be sure, and sometimes a little tender - I'm worried that it might start to really hurt!

Another complaint -- are you ready?  Two or three ribs on my right side hurt like crap.  It worsens the longer I am on my feet and later in the day.  A full dose of Extra Strength Tylenol brings little to no relief.  The rib pain comes from the hormone relaxin, which is helping my rib cage to loosen and spread... (eek).  Thankfully, this is to help make more room for my lungs to expand as James continues to hog the space I usually use for oxygen... (c;  

Despite all that, very thankful that we still have no signs of stretch marks (c:  And I'm still enjoying his kicks.  Sometimes his kicks/punches seem to come in a series of rhythmical spasms.  I read that this is probably hiccups.  He must hiccup a lot, I would estimate over 75% of his movements are these regularly spaced jolts.  That lead Ryan and I to ponder if hiccups are part of development because when we look back, we think that we both hiccup less as we have gotten older.

Mom mentioned that by this time next year, he'll be pulling himself up on furniture and cruising along, falling down, babbling, etc. getting his legs ready for walking.  I spent a lot of time yesterday daydreaming about what his face might look like.  Just happy thoughts.

On Wednesday, we will get another glimpse at that face.  Many of you have not seen the ultrasound pics from the gender appointment.  Once we found out that we'd get another appointment, I decided to wait to post those until I get more updated ones.  In the 17 week sonogram pictures, he was still so young that he hadn't started putting on fat yet, so to be honest, he just wasn't very cute, lol.  And I don't want anyone calling my kid an alien without knowing the facts (c;  I'm looking forward to seeing his face and features more filled out.  I'll post them all to compare the progression after Wednesday.

Still polishing up the registry.  I'm now seriously considering going with those new smaller cribs instead of a full size one.  Space is going to be really at a premium for us and I haven't heard anything bad on those yet.  Break ovar, back to work!

James' Stuff

Been working a lot on figuring out what stuff we will need to get/register for for this kiddo.

I have a list of things I think we'll need that I've compiled from a few different sources.  A lot of you probably have different opinions on what is REALLY needed, so please make suggestions if you see I'm missing something or if you think I have listed an item I won't really use.

And now, in no particular order:

• Bath stuff

·        Shampoo, soap

I love the colors of this bath set - it's a hooded towel and some washcloths with old cars on them.

·        

Grooming kit.

·        

Bath thermometer.

·        

·        

Bathtub.

·       

Another towel.

• Travel



I'm not a germ-a-phobe and I think kids are better off not being protected from every little thing, but Walmart grocery carts are one thing I don't want him chewing on.



This stroller was one of the higher-rated ones for safety, features, ease of use, etc. on Consumer Reports that was reasonably priced.  Plus I think it's cool looking (c:



Large diaper bag.



Smaller diaper backpack.



Carseat canopy.



Super awesome playpen.

• Carseat (getting 2 from cousin Katie)

• Clothes (trying really hard not to get too much in case we are gifted with a lot!)



Registered for these in 12 moth size.  Love to think about him toddling around in little overalls.


• Mittens (to avoid scratching face… does anyone know how necessary these are?)
• Socks (lots of them)

• Comfort



Sling from Seven



Boppy pillow.  Supposed to be mainly for nursing, but my friend, Grace, recommended the other pillow I have listed later.  I still think this will be a good one for him to play on though.

• Nursery
• Bassinet (my amazing Grandad is making an heirloom bassinet.  My cousin Megan will use it first for her March baby and then I’ll get to use it in June)
• Blankets (between my mom and Ryan’s mom, we have tons of blankets)
• Bedding (My aunt Susan is making a quilt and bumpers for him… custom!) This is my inspiration for his bedding.

• Sheets (I’ll get them to match after the other bedding is done)
• Lighting

• Crib, mattress, mattress protector, and mattress pillow top.

Thanks again to Consumer Reports, we found this crib that was very highly ranked.  It is made by Ikea, which means it's also one of the least expensive cribs we've looked at.  It's not the prettiest, but I don't feel too picky about that.  The only down side is that the mattress is not a standard crib size so we will have to alter crib sheets for it.  All of the reviews have said it's worth it though.  Oh yeah, it also transforms into a toddler bed.

• Feeding – I plan on breastfeeding
• Feeding pillow

A strap-on nursing pillow called (hehe) My Breast Friend.

• Rocking chair
• Burp rags
• High chair

• Bumbo

Ellie Mae has one of these with a little tray and it's great for a portable high chair.

Tray that goes with Bumbo.

• Bibs

·        Diaper Duty - Another thing I spent a lot of time researching yesterday was cloth diapers.  I had thought I would go with the Flip system (I talked about it in a previous post), but now I am leaning towards bumGenius.  It is the best-selling cloth diaper, competitively priced with Flip, it is a pocket-style  (which means a trimmer fit which is more important for boys since they wear pants instead of dresses), and they have better color options.  Whit is looking at cloth diapers too so I look forward to swapping notes with her when we get time.

o       6 One-Size fits all covers (the bumGenius website says you need to start with 12 but I plan on splitting between the One-Sizers and the smalls – anyone have pointers on this?)

o       6 Small covers – I figure that he will need the smaller diapers when he is little and the one-size ones will fit better when he is bigger…?  Help!)

o       36 diaper inserts

o       36 cloth wipes

o       Changing pad

o       Changing table

o       Covered Laundry can

o       Deodorizing disks

o       Diaper sprayer… do I need this?

o       Diaper area wash… do I need this?

o       Diaper detergent… do I need this?

o       Rash ointment

o       Pee Pee Tee Pees! hehehehe

I'm looking to avoid being peed on.

• Health
•  Ear thermometer

o       Healthcare kit

o       Baby Orajel

o       Baby gate

• Toys
• Johnny Jump Up!

So that is basically my list, minus a few little things.  Please let me know if I’m missing something important or that will just make our lives easier (c: