∗ Posted by cady on 07.02.2009
∗ grrr, life
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First of all, do I look abnormally large in this picture for 17 weeks? I sure think I do. I haven’t even hit 5 months yet! Although, I am getting close since I’m two days from hitting the 18-week mark.

I’ve been feeling good now. I still have some aversions to smell, such as when Joe eats seafood, but other than that things are going well. One thing I’ve noticed is that I don’t get up as much at night to go to the bathroom, yet I feel like I’m living in there during the day. Weird. Oh, and I’m getting sores on the sides of my mouth, which I’m assuming is from the fact that I can’t breathe through my nose anymore (thank you, allergies and pregnancy hormones) and have to breathe through my mouth when I sleep. Blah.

We’re looking forward to our appointment next week. I don’t know if they’ll do the anatomy scan then, since it will be 19 weeks, or the week after our vacation, which is 21 weeks. After that scan, we’ll finally get back to going in once a month. Hooray. I’m looking forward to having a more normal pregnancy with (hopefully) no more complications.

∗ Posted by cady on 06.29.2009
∗ baby schulman
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∗ Posted by cady on 06.27.2009
∗ grrr, life
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Last night, Joe and I were so tired that we passed out as soon as we hit the bed and said our prayers. Until 12:30 a.m., that is, when the sound of glass shattering woke us. We didn’t know what was going on. All we could think of was that someone was breaking a window to get into our house. Joe tossed me my cell phone so I could call 911 if necessary, and he headed down the hall with a flashlight.

The culprit was Callie, who had knocked over a glass Joe had left on the bathroom sink, breaking it and sending glass shards all over the sink.

We were relieved, but it took us a while to be able to fall back to sleep, and Joe was sad that he lost his favorite Homer Simpson glass. We learned two lessons: we need to keep at least a baseball bat under our bed in case there ever comes a time that we would need to protect ourselves, and we really need to remember not to leave empty glasses laying around.

∗ Posted by cady on 06.25.2009
∗ cats, grrr, life
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Several years ago when I was looking for a new job, I knew a position in my field would be hard to find. I was moving to a small city outside a large metropolitan area, and there are on a certain number of media outlets where I could apply. So, I branched out. I applied for administrative and executive assistant jobs, as well as for jobs in customer service. They paid a lot more than the jobs I’d had in the media, and, since I had a college degree and many years of experience working with people and using computers, I figured it wouldn’t be hard to find a position. I was wrong. I couldn’t get hired for any of the jobs I had applied for because I didn’t have prior administrative assistance experience, even though I had all the required job skills. It was so frustrating.

Now, I have a job that I love, but I feel like it doesn’t hurt to always learn new skills and make yourself more marketable. So, when I got the opportunity to take online courses from www.learn.com, I jumped at the chance to get some background in different areas. Learn.com has a plethora of courses to choose from as well as numerous job profiles to help improve job skills. If you complete a course for a job profile you can get a skill score, which gives employers another way to look at you for a job opening. I chose the Customer Service Manager course and took the lesson on being a team player because I think that is something that can be useful no matter what sector you work in. You always have to work with others, whether it’s in getting the day-to-day work done or on actual project teams. The team player assessment showed me what kind of a team player I am and what needs improvement. I also learned the seven habits of effective team players — such as acknowledging the contributions of others, seeking understanding, pitching in to help and asking the tough questions — which I think will come in handy. I scored a clean bill of health on my team member check up, but since I didn’t get a perfect score I know there are things I can improve on, such as participating more during meetings. I’m a quiet person, so I tend to keep to myself during meetings rather than speaking up.

Learn.com courses are great for anyone, whether or not you’re currently searching for a new job. It’s always good to review various job skills and keep your training level up.

∗ Posted by cady on 06.25.2009
∗ reviews
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I am officially off bed rest! I got the OK today from the perinatologist. Everything looked great. He did see something in the amniotic sac, which he said could be a clot or baby debris (such as skin cells or vernix), but that it doesn’t pose a threat to the baby. He said it’s pretty hard to distinguish between a clot and what he calls “baby dust”, but he says it’s not a worry and it’s fine for me to go back to normal activities. So, it’s back to work for me tomorrow, but I’ll probably still take it easy. I won’t be mowing the lawn or cleaning the gutters, as Joe suggested today.

Smudgers looked great today. She weighed in at 7 ounces, which the doctor said was right on track for 17 weeks. We got a nice long look at her, and left with 3D pictures and a DVD of part of our ultrasound. It’s so cool to see what her little face looks like already, even though it looks like a little monkey face in one picture!

She’s so cute it’s not fair to other babies!

∗ Posted by cady on 06.24.2009
∗ baby schulman
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