Last week of freedom!

My summer internship ended last week and I headed to my parents' for a much need break from the city and some pampering, cause no one takes care of you like mom! It was great to do some outlet shopping, meet up with my college roommate and her baby and even pick up some shoes that are super wide (and velcro!) to accommodate my wider, swollen feet. With this new addition to my wardrobe I've been able to go walking for about 1 hr everyday in the morning. Its GREAT! and hopefully will slow down my big weight gain from last month... but thats another story I dont want to get into right now. The only downside to being home was being away from Mr. F for a few days. It was really tough, but made it that much sweeter to come home again.

One of the most exciting things was going to babies r' us and picking up the stroller and baby carrier. We're really in great shape for his arrival, which is awesome with school starting and I'm officially in my 3rd trimester! How did that happen?!

This is my last week of freedom before school starts so I've been busy doing laundry, grocery shopping and getting things in order, including working on my thesis proposal, which is due on the first day of class next Wednesday.

In Aiden news, I've stopped feeling lots of kicking and much more rolling. We're talking belly shape-shifting movement. Its so exciting!!

reasons why i looove friday

Not only is today Friday, one of the best days of the week, its also my LAST day at my internship. I cant believe I made it allll summer at this place, but lets be honest, its not the first boring job I've had, that quite frankly, a trained monkey could do. However, it paid the summer bills, groceries, and has helped Mr. F and I become completely free of credit card debt. Wahoo!!

And to celebrate my last day, the office is taking me out to Capigero, quite possibly the BEST gelato this side of the Mediterranean. I can't say I'm sorry to be leaving this job, but it has brought me one step closer to finishing my degree so I'll eat my gelato with a smile and enjoy the last week off before classes start.

This weekend Mr. F and I are going on yet another road trip, this time back home to see his mom graduate with her Doctorate in Pharmacy. We are all so proud of her, especially going back to school while working full time. What a wonderful example to us and our children that learning is never over and its never too late to pursue your goals.

Of course another road trip means getting out of work and hitting the road. It also means that the desperate laundry situation had to be handled pronto. I did 4 loads of laundry yesterday, made stuffed peppers and chili for Mr. F while I stay with my parents next week for a little R&R annnnd got salmon on the table for dinner last night. And just to add to the productivity, I got us all set up with Renter's insurance today... after going through everything with Mr. F's fire, lets just say its worth it! Michael Phelps may be unstoppable, but so am I! :)

3 months to go!!

Ok, first things first:

1. Cashew chicken, edible, but not so good. But Mr. F was a champ and ate it with a smile. I love that man! :)

2. 3 months from today is Aiden's due date! Oh baby!!

3. 2nd day in a row I actually got sneakers on! I loooove cooler weather and less swollen feet!

4. I actually felt a little foot (or hand) yesterday! I've been feeling where Aiden's laying because one side of my belly is definitely harder than the other and its either a head or rump, but I actually felt the definite outline of a foot or hand as it pummeled me from the inside!

5. We saw two mice in our kitchen, which is immaculate with no food sitting out. But hey, this is city living... After setting some traps for them, we realized they may be smarter than the average mouse... alllll the peanut butter was gone and the trap sitting empty. Any suggestions?

By popular demand...

A few wedding pics and maybe a belly shot or two. My mom is in the green and my mother-in-law is in the pink. Belly:26 weeks...and I maintain that the camera DOES add 10lbs, cause I'm def not that big!

Alex and Zoe

One of my favorite books as a child, a true staple in our after dinner reading was a book called Join in with us! Letters by Karen O'Callaghan. It was originally published in 1982 in England and is no longer in print. However, I put my internet searching skills to work and actually found not one, not two...but about 12 copies of the book floating around out there! I have so many memories of being a little child snuggled up on the couch with my mom and/or dad learning my ABC's. I can still recall some of the images...keep in mind I was about 3 or 4 at the time! This book was hugely helpful in teaching both my brother and I to read. Well, I called my mom with the exciting news that I found said book and she told me to order 2 of them, one for me and one for when my brother has children. Holy cow, I'm so excited!!

In other exciting news I am trying a new crock-pot recipe tonight... cashew chicken over egg noodles. Keep your fingers crossed! If it turns out well, I'll post it up here.

Annnd as the weather has been absolutely STUNNING this week, my feet have finally deflated enough to actually put sneakers on!

mmmm... diaper cake!

This weekend was so much fun! Mr. F and I didnt get to the reunion until 3am on Saturday morning, but the drive coulnt have been easier.. NO traffic!

On Saturday was my mini baby shower and I couldnt have asked for more. It was just 2 of my cousins, my grandma, 2 aunts and my mom. We sat around having mini sandwiches and I got alllll kinds of advice on everything from labor and delivery to baby gear. It was really interesting because (pardon my nerdyness...) I just read an article about fear and myths around labor and delivery in western culture because our current social structure does not facilitate many family members living in super close proximity. So in the past women would pass down stories and memories to the younger women, often removing much of the unknown aspect of major life events. Well, the gloves were off and I heard it alll! My cousin was even video taping the shower and every few minutes someone would tell her to turn off the camera and come out with some of the funniest, most blunt things. The anthropologist in me really got a kick out of it and the soon to be new mom learned ALOT!

My cousin E is also super creative and talented. She sent the cutest invitations and actually decorated the cake to match them! Then she made this adorable diaper cake. Not to mention that my uncle and cousin are both Navy SEALS, so wouldnt you know, I got a baby Navy SEAL hat! It was a blast and I feel like we might be almost ready with the essentials for Aiden to get here... He even has a bassinet ready to go!

Pillow Fight!!

It has officially happened... I had to prop my belly up on a pillow last night after waking up at 12:30 in excruciating pain. I also spent the night on the couch cause I just couldnt get comfortable in bed. Of course this lead me to call my parents bright and early requesting they bring my body pillow to the reunion....

Speaking of the reunion, I am so excited. I love family reunions, the crazy amounts of food, and just how opinionated and outspoken every member of the family is. However, I am not excited for our late night drive tonight. BUT, I did get that load of laundry done before dinner last night and I should have the "other boleyn girl" from Netflix at home, perfect to kill some time while I wait for Mr. F to get home from the hospital. Not to mention I'm getting off from work at 3pm. I love summer Fridays.

And if all of that wasnt enough...if I could bottle this weather up for a rainy day I would. It is a perfect spring day, sunny with a slight breeze and warm without being hot. Where is that hammock and good book?

awkward...

In case you need a laugh, and I mean the laugh out loud by yourself in your cubicle awkward kind of laugh check out Failblog. Happy Friday!

I believe you have my stapler...

Fun fact: did you know Swingline didn't make the cherry red stapler until after the movie Office Space came out? I couldnt help but think about that this morning as I spent 1.75 hrs unclogging the office paper shredder...with a mail opener and tweezers.

Anyway... so my obsession with bargain shopping etc is clearly genetic because my mom called today to tell me she has earned $28 at the local consignment shop! Neither one of us knew the other one was selling things, I just happen to do it online and she does it in person (one of us is a little more technically savvy than the other:) But we both got a good laugh at our coinciding efforts to make a few bucks and clean out our closets.

Mom also told me a joke...keep in mind, she's not the best joke teller in the family, but seemed pretty proud of herself to have pulled this off: "Why couldnt the underage kids see the pirate movie?".... "Because it was rate ARRRRRGH"

Tonight my cousins-in-law are in town with their kids and we're all going out to dinner at a great Greek place in Philly, which just so happens to be the same place Mr. F and myself went to on our first official date in Philly! (we went on a few in our hometown first) The food is delicious and the weather is beautiful. August is starting out quite nicely weather-wise and I'm hoping it continues!

This weekend is also the infamous annual family reunion and the best part is Mr. F was able to get out of being on-call!!! I'm so excited!!... now if only he can get out of work before 9:30 pm we can leave at a decent time. Being the serious type-A person I am, I've already started packing and have the to do list in full force, including trying to do laundry between work and dinner tonight. I want to be able to get in the car and go when Mr. F gets out tomorrow night so maybe, just maybe we can get there before 3am. Wish me luck!!

A little more serious note

In the last week or so several small events have coincided in my life that have pushed me to post about something with more substance than my previous entries. I recently found out that a 19 year old family friend was unexpectedly pregnant (a surprise I can easily relate to!). However, the father is not really in the picture in any substantive way. I am not going to pick sides on the abortion debate here, but I want to take a moment to express my profound admiration for M as she has chosen to give her baby up for adoption. M is a junior in college and has decided she can not give her baby everything she deserves. She has chosen an incredibly difficult path, but one that I believe shows maturity beyond her years as well as a supreme example of a mother's love. It is in light of this positive story, a young mother's love for her child and the blessing of a family unable to conceive a biological child that put perspective on a few other recent news stories.

Philly is currently rolling in the wake of the story of Danieal Kelly, a 14 yr old handicapped girl whose mother actively neglected and abused her. As I read the story in the paper I was brought to tears and vomiting wondering how a mother, or a human being for that matter, could behave in such a despicable way.

Then on Ashley's Closet I read a more positive story about a feral child and the couple who adopted Dani. The story, also heartbreaking, is an example of what can happen when good people take a stand.

Finally, as I have been exploring other blogs like the Beehive Five, I've come across several that are celebrations of families with adopted children.

Growing up my family participated in Foster Care, taking care of children ranging from infants to 14 yr olds with physical and mental disabilities. My brother and I were actively included in the decision to care for others and my family became a strong team led by my parents. This is one of the reasons (among many) I admire my parents not just for the love and support they have always shown us, but because they answered the call to lead by example. As a high schooler I shared my room for 2 years with a toddler who couldn't speak at first and was flirting with Reactive Attachment Disorder due to neglect. Just as my family decided to make her a permanent legal (she'll always be a permanent emotional) part of our family, we got word another family wanted to adopt her and they had young children her age...she'd fit right in! Letting her go was the hardest thing I have EVER had to do, but the reward of seeing her flourish in her new family and the gift of her adoptive family including my family in their lives over the years has been one of the most tremendous experiences anyone could hope for.

I fully understand not everyone feels the call to adopt or participate in foster care, or maybe, like Mr. F and myself, aren't in a position at this moment to do so, but I beg each person to consider volunteering for an organization like CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) that trains volunteers to act as children's advocates in courts where the parent's rights are typically put above the children's, or to consider if at some point foster care, even emergency care, might be a way to reach out to the most helpless of all.

I won an award!!

Yesterday was a sloooow day, until I checked Ab's blog and found out that I won an award!!! This is my very first blog award, so naturally I'm super excited! To keep the excitement going, I'm passing on this award to a few other blogs:

Eva: I just love catching up with college friends, one of my favorite reasons to blog!

Catherine: Reading about her baby and beautiful family are both educational as we're getting ready for our own baby, as well as her advice on all things baby has been wonderful!


Yesterday was also super exciting because I sold my comforter on Ebay, although not for as much as I bought it. However, I'm ok with that because the return period ended and we now have one less thing in our house..and a few extra bucks doesnt hurt! So today I started listing other things that we no longer need, including the jean skirt I won last week (It arrived and was perfect, except its too big!) I suddenly dont feel so guilty about splurging (all $10 of my splurge) on yesterday's stationary :) Have I mentioned I love ebay?!

As much as I love ebay, I HATE having blood work done. This morning I went for my gestational diabetes screening and to check for anemia because I'm still feeling pretty weak if I havent eaten red meat within the last 48 hrs. I was bracing for the testing because I've heard horror stories of the glucola they make you drink before the diabetes test. Its an oily orange liquid and you have to fast before hand. Then you wait an hour and they take blood. Honestly, it wasnt half as bad as I worked it up to be and the tech taking my blood didnt even give me a hard time when I requested a butterfly needle instead of the big kid version. However, the hands down best part of the whole thing (and yes, there was a best part!) was seeing 3 newborns, like just down from the nursery on their way home, newborns. They were the most beautiful little things and I cried like, well... a baby! I know its hormones, but feeling Aiden kick the whole time I'm looking at these babies just made me want to meet him right now and think about all of the wonderful things to come.

I'm also thinking about not being pregnant as my body has started to get big enough to not be so comfortable anymore. I've gotten big enough to not be able to lay on my back without my blood pressure being affected. The other night I had a tough time breathing, got very dizzy and sick to my stomach, not to mention the headache. Apparently this is very common as the baby gets heavier and Mr. F almost carried me off to the hospital, but I convinced him to wait a few minutes and sure enough, everything returned to normal after I shifted to my side. Basically I had the same thing as when you stand up too fast and get dizzy, its just a little more exaggerated when you're pregnant.

So now I'm in the office trying to keep my feet elevated and doing my best to convince myself to work on that thesis....

coupons...

Clearly today is a slow work day because this is my second post in one day, and its not even NOON!

But, I had to share...yesterday at the grocery store, we saved $27.09 with a bonus card! HOLY COW!

And, because I know many of you like to have pretty stationary with monograms, coupons.com has a deal with Vista Print right now. I just bought stationary with my new married monogram and return address labels and saved $20 on my entire order! Definitely worth checking out!

Annnnd, because I am bored, I already made birth announcements for Aiden... I'm just holding off ordering them so I can enter his birth date and weight.

I think I def need school to start soon!

Now that's what you call a great weekend!

This weekend was just what the Dr. ordered! After getting out of work early on Friday and getting 2 loads of laundry done before Mr. F and I headed out to meet friends, I knew this weekend was getting off to a fantastic start! Friday was Mr. F's last day of his first rotation so his team decided to meet up at one of our favorite bars in Old City, Philadelphia called Drinkers. Philly is smoke free and with shirley temples on tap, why not go out?! It was so much fun and I got to meet his team and all of their spouses, plus so many of our other friends were out...and we got a slice of pizza for dinner! I have to say it was pretty interesting though getting some nasty looks from other bar patrons. I am def visibly pregnant, so I guess I should just stay home until after the baby is born? What decade are we in anyway?

Saturday morning we got up bright and early to head to Harrisburg to the house of one of my classmates. Her parents' have an awesome backyard, complete with a hammock and pool! The weather was great and this was the first time I've been swimming since getting pretty big... I felt like I wasnt preggers!! Holy cow it was awesome! C's family is so nice and her parents even grilled out for us. It was so great to see Mr. F relax in a hammock for awhile, he really deserved some down time.

Sunday the stellar weekend continued as we slept in for the first time in about a month and then one of Mr. F's childhood friends was in town for the day before flying out in the evening. The weather was stunning so we took him on a walking tour of Philly. We walked around City Hall, had lunch at Reading Terminal Market, saw the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, the Betsy Ross House (you know, the lady who made the first flag), walked down Elfreth's Alley (the oldest surviving residential street in the country), and even saw Ben Franklin's grave!

I love having visitors because its such a great excuse to play tourist in your own home town!

Then, as if the weekend couldn't get any better, we got a parking spot with NO problems (a truly rare occurrence), picked up some groceries, and eased back into the week with some dinner on the couch and old episodes of The Office.

The BEST part of the weekend was being able to spend so much time together and really relax. This month is about to get crazy and things will not stop until Christmas between family reunions, school and a baby. I'm really learning to treasure the small moments instead of focusing on planning everything. Life is much more fun.

TGIF, ice cream sandwiches and Christmas songs

Maybe its because I'm pregnant and the higher the heat index, the more swollen my feet get, or maybe its because I LOVE Christmas time, or maybe its because this year, we'll have our own little Christmas miracle to celebrate...whatever the reason, I'm seriously looking forward to Christmas. It is my FAVORITE holiday because with a huge Egyptian/Italian family, we all get together, we have delicious food and we go to midnight mass. Sure the presents are nice, but being together is the real highlight of the season, that and the decorating and getting ready for all the festivities!

So why a post on Christmas in August? Its a bit roundabout, but this morning I saw People.com posted a link to David Archuleta's new single (you know, the kid from American Idol?) so I YouTubed some of his songs and a recording of him singing "O Holy Night" popped up. Now I'm not a huge American Idol fan, but this kid can sing and the simple piano accompaniment was beautiful. It reminded me that those feelings of peace and love at Christmas can and should be felt all year long, if you take a moment to focus on them and all the blessings even the worst days bring.

And speaking of holidays, today is my little brother's 22nd birthday! To celebrate I enjoyed an old fashioned ice cream sandwich on my lunch break while talking with him on the phone:) Happy Birthday, Fritzie!!