Dreaming.In.Reality

Hrm.. what was my last post about-checks- OK second and maybe third to last post anyways…

Right.

Catching up on the life known as blogging as most of my last few blogs have been quick whatevers mostly to indicate that I’m still alive. SO, I suppose we could start with the first major announcement for those who may have missed it.

IT’S A BOY!!!

Moving on…

Time is speeding by quickly in the last few weeks of my pregnancy. I’m a day shy now of 34 weeks. 3 more weeks and I’m classed “full term” and showtime could be anytime after that. It makes me very nervous. By nervous, I’m not speaking of being afraid of birth and afraid of labour… but more of OMG nothing is ready, nothing is going to get done. I know I’ve mentioned it before, but I tend to overplan, over organize and when things are not done at least a month ahead of time for major events I get a bit squirrely. Well I got 43 days, it’s like a noose tightening around my neck, feeling rushed to make sure we have at least the essentials to survive. As liquidsmoke just told me, if the 16 year olds can do it.. so can I? -lol- The dog is still alive, so it’s a good start.

In reality, we’re not as bad off as I make it out to be. We have pretty much everything we need for the solid basics. Furniture for the nursery, clothing, stroller, breastpump; we still need the carseat, the co-sleeper and diapers. Those are the big things I think we need to make it at least the first 3 months *L* I’ve had to rearrange baby wishlists to reflect the gifts recieved from family and friends over the weekend. Baby is well clothed for the first 3 months of his life, after that, well he’ll get to run naked till he fits into the 9 month clothing. I also want to get a sling. There are 2 different kinds I have looked at - a pouch sling and a wrap; ideally I’d like one of each. Different occasions call for different needs. I also just found this nifty jacket for wintertime while baby wearing! We’re not using an infant carrier/car base system so this will be perfect. It’s pricey and I’m on the hunt for a pattern to maybe make it myself.

Things that desperately need to get done in the house? Laundry, dishes and organizing my living room. Right now it looks like babies r us vomited all over it. I need to find a home for the box of shoes in the nursery closet, so that i can start putting away things in an orderly fashion. The closet itself needs a new “hanger bar” or whatever the hell they’re called. Right now it has the individual “hanger” spots and I hate those things. I need to be able to slide my hangers! I am also thinking I may want one of those Rubbermaid storage drawers to put in the bottom of the closet. I may come in handy for things to be folded/put away that do not fit in the dresser or hang.

I’m feeling pretty good overall. Exhaustion has been coming and going, nothing too bad but enough to make me cranky for at least an hour or two. I’ve also been getting quite a bit of Braxton Hicks contractions since Friday. I got them mostly in the car on the trip to Windsor and back again. Here at home I get them maybe 5x a day for a few minutes. Uterus is warming up I suppose. Every event has to have some sort of practice *L*

As I had mentioned a few times, the baby shower went really well all things told. My family behaved, and of course there were people missing that said they’d be there. There were still some people that just didn’t bother to call or anything to let me know otherwise. While it’s irritating for the most part and easily forgettable, there were a few that with their actions, have proved quite hurtful that they couldn’t be bothered to say yes/no no matter what the situations they were in. Avoiding contact is much worse than just saying, I really wish I could be there, but I’m sorry I can’t make it. Takes 2 minutes of your time and goes a long way in making sure that no one’s feelings are hurt. Baby made out like a bandit and we got a lot of nice things. We still have one more shower to get through at the end of August. The planning for that started yesterday. I need to round up the girls for an invite writing party. They can write, I can make sure they have drinks -lol- Dunno about games, I had 7 set out for the party Saturday and pretty much everyone was a spoilsport about playing them. Yet, I know if I didn’t have them, they’d have bitched. Can’t win for trying I guess. I’ll have them and we’ll do a couple, we’ll see how the day goes.

This is COMPLETELY unbaby related but it’s not in me to make a seperate post about it. Photo stuff has been cool, I’ve been asked to supply some stock photos by the stock photo company themself for a few clients. I’ll have to go out and take some “tourist” photos of Ottawa for it in RAW but no big deal. It’s an afternoon of my time and quite possibley a nice chunk of change if it works. They seem to be less horrific than iStockphoto as far as what they pay the photographers. I have had a few nice trips out with the camera in the past 2 weeks. I shot a few acts at the Bluesfest, including Etta James(still need to wrap up those photos). I got some fantastic shots from the Capital Classic Big Ben Memorial Challenge as well. There is one more nature club outing I believe for the summer, and a few urban outings. I have a photograph being shown in the RA Centre’s photography gallery. I’m getting ready to set up miaouphoto in some sort of fashion that it should be. Temporary, but more and better than currently is there on the main site. I figure if my email is gonna be hanging up in a gallery with my photo, the least I could do is get the site looking 90% decent.

I’ve also been watching my Cafepress & Zazzle earnings as well as my Google Adsense. They’re doing ok, but it’s all about the marketing, and I need to find better ways of doing it. As of right now the ads and shops are my source of income, and makes me wish I was as well known a blogger as Dooce to be able to supplement myself enough off the ads to not worry about my bills. I still have an outstanding check owed to me by my ex-employer that daily looks more and more like a pipedream. Whatever her reasonings for “restructuring” her company were for, I just wish it had happened, say back in January or February when I had a snowball’s chance in hell of getting a job, that may have even covered my maternity leave as well at the end of it. Hopefully I’ll be able to pull through some cash with miaouphoto once it’s set up as well. We shall see.