MY PHONE IS WORKING!
YOU CAN NOW GET A HOLD OF ME! =)

The number is 602-488-2695.

HEALTH:  So I was sick on Sunday with what I thought was a head cold. I called into work on Monday and Tuesday, because my head was all congested and I was nausous. Made it to work Wednesday. Went to the doctor on Thursday. I have a sinus infection and a ear infection. Dr. Dykema prescribed me Azithromycin, an antibiotic, and an albuterol inhaler because I was all wheezy. I bought a humidifier and some Vicks and was feeling a little better. I have a follow-up appointment on Monday. I went to my ObGyn on Friday and we are 2 centimeters bigger than we should be so we are having an ultra sound on Monday as well. Saturday night Erica and I went out and I started feeling really ichy. I thought it was just the clothing I was wearing but by the time we parted ways I was covered head to two in hives. I think it may be an allergic reaction to the antibiotics. I took some Benedryll and they went a way for a while but it is now Sunday and I am once again covered in hives. I have the worst f-ing luck.

PHONE: I am hoping by Monday it will be functional, because this really sucks.

SCHOOL: Bought my books. Need Moms help pay for classes.

WORK: Arg. I felt a little bad for calling in.

FAMILY: Mom turned 42, but she didn’t get her birthday sex. We are looking for apartment and/or cheap houses.

SOCIAL OUTTING: Erica and I went out to Castles N’ Coaster and kicked it archade style. We followed with Applebees half priced appitizers and then bounced back to my place for Joust on Sega Gensis. It was a good spontaneous night.

MY SON: We are at 30 weeks and growing

My Baby this week

This week, my baby has come to his senses — literally! Now he can taste, touch, hear, see, and smell everything that’s going on around him and his senses are fully developed. If I tap on my belly, for instance, he may kick or poke back at the same spot I touched. It is so neat — I can play with my baby before he’s evem born! When he kicks, if I rub my tummy and talking softly or sing, it calms him down. He’s having a ball in there!

He continues to practice breathing by moving his diaphragm in a rhythmic pattern and inhaling and exhaling. Of course, it’s amniotic fluid (not air) that’s flowing in and out of his lungs, but it’s good practice for the real thing. This means he gets the hiccups more frequently now — sending my uterus funny, twitchy spasms! (This is a great time to have people “feel” the baby, because those rhythmic hiccups mean we can anticipate his next movement.)

He is about 17 inches long and about 3 lbs. He will be gaining about a half-pound every week for the next seven weeks to bulk up as layers of protective fat.  He is about as big as a thick woolen sweater that is folded up. (above)

My Life this week

People ask the strangest things when your pregnant. People who would never otherwise talk to me will ask how the baby’s doing. Occasionally I want to say something snippy like “We started him on hard alcohol this morning.” Mostly people have been saying weird things about my size. One person will tell me “You’re getting so big.” Then I will turn around and someone else will say, “you’re small for 7 months.” 

Most people, at this point, are asking me when I will “pop” and how I feel about it. My reaction is usually ”Women have been having babies for millions of years; I am not worried about it.” I am not really afraid of going into labor though I do wonder how much it is really going to hurt and I worry about how messy it will be. The labor horror stories don’t bother me, because I know that the best indicator of how my labor will go is the stories of the women in my family and mom’s and the aunt didn’t really have horrific stories.

All the fun 3rd trimester symptoms are starting. Heartburn, backaches, leg cramps. No swollen ankles let so I will consider myself lucky. PS. I love my mom and sister.

I just wanna read comics…

Luann:

Zits:

Rose is Rose:

HEALTH: I was sick today with some type of evil head cold thing. My nose was Niagra and my head was lead. Getting sick when pregnant is super disablitiating. Not recommended.
PHONE: is still MIA and it such a pain in my ass.

SCHOOL: Nothing new to report. I am glad I got my placement. I need to purchase my book and pay for classes.   
WORK: The tax filing mystery shop was very enlightening. I was given $300 to do 3 shops. My first on cost me $313 and my second one cost $375. My manager who had the same profie as me, was only charge $275. My suggestions to you all… Go with H&R Block over Liberty Tax.

FAMILY: Mom and I are likely to kill each other, but we love each other very much.
SOCIAL OUTTING: Got to see Lindsey and Amanda this week.
MEDICAL RELATED: I got my AHCCCS card. Very excite.

MY SON: We are at 30 weeks and growing:

He is about 15.7 inches long now and weighs almost 3 pounds (like the head of cabbage at right). A pint and a half of amniotic fluid surrounds him, but that volume will decrease as he gets bigger and takes up more room in my uterus. His eyesight continues to develop, though it’s not very keen; even after he’s born, he’ll keep her eyes closed for a good part of the day. When he does open them, he’ll respond to changes in light but will have 20/400 vision — which means he can only make out objects a few inches from her face.

How my life’s changing:

I am feeling a little more tired these days, as I have been having trouble sleep. Fun pregnancy leg cramps and getting up frequently to hit the restroom is a pain. I am also feeling heavier, and the concentration of weight in mypregnant belly causes a shift in my center of gravity. Appearently I can look forward to more mood swings as a combination of uncomfortable symptoms and hormonal changes can result emotional ups and downs. I cried until every orfice of my face was leaking when Rachael when to see Juno without me and lately Mom has been more irritating than usually. Stupid hormones.

COMICS:

LUANN:

ZITS:

ROSE IS ROSE:

SHORT UPDATE ON LIFE:

School: I got place for my field experience YAY! I will be working in a 7th grade class room at Landmark Middle School in the Glendale Elementary District. =)

Family: I did really well yesterday! I woke up at 7:42 and was like “AHH!” I threw on clothes and still made it to school before my 8 AM class started. I even had time for yummy starbucks (decafe of course). After class I went home and cleaned out the refigorator and did a load stinky laundry. I also cooked lunch for me, Tom, Rachael and Mom. I even had Mom’s coffee ready for her when she walked through the door. She was very suspicious. =) When I got home from work I swept and mop the kitchen floor and I got new container for the dog’s food and water. Good housekeeping makes me happy!

PHONE BUSINESS AND CONTACTING ME:
As most of you should know by now, my cell phone went MIA and I have yet to locate it. I purchased new phone on Ebay, but when I went to activate it it was still active on that seller’s account, so I have been in contact with her and she is going to cancel it, but as of now I am still without a phone and contacting me is a bitch, so if you need to reach me messege me here or on myspace or email me (Iamafish101@aol.com). I will put up a post when I get my phone back. Life without cellular sucks.

School: My schedule which I originally freaked out about is turning out to be perfect. I have most mornings off except for Thursdays, which means as soon as I get my placement (and a running vechile) I will have the morning to do my student teaching assignment as well as doctors appointments and so forth. Additionally once my beautiful son is born, morning would have been the hard times to find a baby sitter, but I will be home, so that is a load off.   

Math for Elementary Teachers is going to be my favorite class this semester. It has the most chill people and the best teacher. Plus it is my math class, so there is bound to be love.

Classroom Assessment is my Wednesday night class and so far it is boring the fuck out of me. The teacher though super nice runs the class with very little structure. He seems interesting but the presentation of the material is scatter brained. Let’s hope for a better class next week.

Educational Technology - I was super worried about this class because I sign up for the secondary education only version of it, and I was afraid I wasn’t going to be allow to take it, but I worked it out with the teacher and that class seems like it is going to be really interesting. 

Field Experience – I still haven’t recieved placement in a school for my student teaching and we were supposed to have started this week. It is really lame.

Work: Work has been in and of itself going alright, but only because I am being pretty apathetic towards it. A lot of our policies and procedures are falling apart and everything has turned into a gray area. It seems all the progress we made during the time we didn’t have a manager is reversing. Lame. On a positive note I get to do a mystery shop for it. I will be visiting 3 different tax place and filling out my tax return with fake W2s. (Don’t worry, it’s legal.) I am excited because once I figure out who is the cheapest that is were I am going to take my real W2s.

Family: Rachael and Tom are back together which makes me happy. Mom has been super cool about letting me borrow her truck for work and school purposes. Dad appearently “fixed” the big truck, but I have not yet been allowed access to it. Rachael Dynasty is over at John Sure’s House. John is dad’s friend and our frequent mechanic. I hope he can bring her car back to life soon. I introduced Mom to some classic musical this week. She watched most of the Music Man and My Fair Lady. Esta muy Bueno!

Hilarious conversation with my brother:
(Set up) Randi is sitting at the computer in the kitchen at 2 AM in a t-shirt and boy shorts. Enter half-asleep brother.
Ben:  Where did your pants go?
Randi:  Well. there was this pants fairy and then poof no more pants. Has that ever happened to you?
Ben:  Yes she was like bibbity bobbity levi.

Birthday: For my birthday, Ben got me a Brad Paisley CD and Aunt Kathy got me baby clothes. Joe at work got me a kickass birthday cake, but big fattie my dad ate literally half of it. Lindsey and Amanda took me to Olive Garden and we absolutely stuffed ourselves. We order desert to share, because we were so full, but after eating it we decided it was so good we wanted another one. It was quiet gluttonous. Afterward they took me to see Juno and Erica and Ricky joined us. We laughed, we cried, we enjoyed the 90s pop culture references. It was good times.

Other Social Business: I went to Orfa’s b-day party. Lindsey and I got majorly lost on the way there. During the party we visited Le Girls. That was fun. Lindsey is going to throw me a baby shower. It is in planning mode right now. Chris U offered to give me a car! I was shocked, more details on that when I have them.

Cool Article I found:

Medical Related: I was approved for AHCCCS, now I just have to get the card and learn how to take advantage of those medical benefits. I still have to go to my appointment with WIC. My mission for my next doctors appointment is to find out about pain medicication for deliver besides an epidural. I still need to call and find out about birht education classes and I have to start looking for a pediatrician, but I am hoping some of my girlfriends can give me a referal for a good one. I am hoping to go on a tour or whatever of the materity ward to find out more about that whole mess, because knowledge is power.

My Son: 

We are at 29 weeks and growing

My baby boy now weighs about 2 1/2 pounds (like a butternut squash at right) and is a tad over 15 inches long from head to heel. His muscles and lungs are continuing to mature, and his head is growing bigger to make room for his developing brain. To meet his increasing nutritional demands, I am need plenty of protein, vitamins C, folic acid, and iron, so I got some new better tasting prenatal vitamins and because his bones are soaking up lots of calcium, I am eating dairy like crazy and poppin’ Tums once a day. This trimester, about 250 milligrams of calcium are deposited in on his hardening skeleton each day. By this week, all of his bones have fully developed, although they haven’t finished hardening so they’re still soft and flexible. He is very active now and busles around in their doing whatever it is he does. He like to wiggle in the morning when I wake up and in the evenings as I am trying to sleep and appearently he wants to be invovle at work and school because whenever I first get there he goes into rapid fire mode.

COMICS:

School:I went to my first class today. It is my math class for this semester and almost garenteed to be my favorite class. Sue is the professor. I had her las semester for MTE180 and she is super cool. I let her know that I would be missing time when the baby comes and she said she would work with me. I also have quite a few people I know in that class from last semester. Justine Huff is in my class, a few of you may remember her from HS. There is also the super preppy, perky Christian girl Ariel in that class with me ,so I have buddies and it makes me super happy. We got through our algrebric thinking problem lickity split and I was pumped. I definitely think this year will be my best so far in college. Though I like the services available on campus better at GCC, I definitely like the community atmosphere better at ASU. I was worried about my night class that I have tomorrow but when I got home I had a welcome to my class email from the teacher and I figure if he is nice enough to go out of his way like that he’s bound to be a nice teacher. Plus Casey T. is supposed to have this class with me so I am excited to have a friend, but I am going to miss my Erica hardcore if we don’t find time to spend together during the week.

Work: Big boss man did not like my 10am – 6pm schedule for Wednesdays, so Christine had to give me the bad news today. We changed it that I will be working 2 – 6pm on Wednesdays and I will be able to come in on saturdays to make up any hours I need to get to 40. I was stoked because I thought that getting out of school at 3:15 that I wouldn’t be able to make it to work until 3:45 or 4 but I made it there right on time at 3:30pm, so I didn’t have to trust Darlene to go throgh their paperwork, which made me super happy.

Family: I am super thankful for my family more and more each day. They tryly, truly love me. I hope all of you are as lucky. Mom was really great about my school schedule and what all has been going on with everything lately. She took me to school, picked me up and took me to work. Ben picked me up from work at like 11:30 PM and he is really good about it because I know he has to be at work at 9 and I know he’d probably rather be sleeping. Rachael woke me up at 7 AM today but when she realized I didn’t have to be at school right away she reset the alarm for 9:30 to let me sleep in. Then she even apologiezed that she could lend me her car because the power steering is dying. She apologized to ME and I was all Rachael I was lucky you let me use it at all. They are all so kind. I don’t know what I would do without them.

Other Stuff: 

• My phone is still MIA. I order another one, but I don’t know when it will be shipped/activated, so if you need to get a hold of me, email me or message me on myspace or comment on my xanga or call one of these numbers and my wonderful family members will pass on the message to me: 480-235-5016 or 602-754-8238 or 480-239-0821. My phone number will be the same when I finally get my new phone.
• The big 22. My b-day is on Thursday, I whave no idea what I will be doing for it but I am happy to be getting older none the less.
• Xanga Changes. I made it look different, hope you like it. I am going to starting updating at least once a week if not more often, be happy.

Baby and Medical: I thought I would post more information just because I find it interesting.

Week 28

Baby’s Length: 15.25-15.75 in

Baby’s Weight: 2.25-2.5 lbs.

Baby’s Size: Pair of sneakers

My Baby

We’ve now officially entered the third and final trimester. This is it — the home stretch! But here’s the biggie development news this week: After being sealed shut for many months, my baby’s eyes will begin to open and close this week. Even if I could peek at the color of his peepers now though, they might not stay that color, as baby’s eyes can change up until he’s 6 months to a year old (especially if your little guy is born with baby blues).

He’s also probably banging around like mad in there — except when he’s sleeping. Yep, my baby is snoozing on a regular schedule, but in very short spurts (only about 20 to 30 minutes at a time). Right now he weighs roughly 2.5 pounds and measures a little over 15 inches from head to toe (your baby’s now big enough to get a better measurement this way, and he’ll be stretching out fully when he’s born in just a few weeks, so we’ve switched from crown-to-rump to whole-body length). My doctor will track the baby’s growth during checkups by gently pressing on your belly to feel where the top of your uterus is, also known as fundal height.

My Body

Speaking of the uterus, it’s grown impressively large. Normally it weighs about 2 ounces and holds less than half an ounce of fluid; now, it’s expanded to house thebaby, the placenta, and an entire quart of amniotic fluid. In fact, most of the side effects of late pregnancy are related to this uterine expansion — including back pain, swelling in feet and ankles, varicose veins, heartburn, hemorrhoids, itchy skin, and heartburn. But the good news is that most of these symptoms will go away as soon as the uterus starts shrinking after delivery.

Comics:

School: ¡Ai Carumba! So I register for my Teacher Prep Program on Tuesday of last week. They let me know that it was all golden by Thursday which was great, because I wasn’t expecting to be able to get into the block program at all. Then they told me I wasn’t able to register for class until I had an appointment with an advisor, and that I wouldn’t be able to meet with an advisor until Monday, January 14 (the 1st day of class) which I thought was ridiculous and they were pretty much just trying to squeeze a $50 late register fee out of me I figure. None the less I was able to sign up for classes today but the scheduling and availability for all of them sucked major monkey balls, especially with my work and transportation currently. Here’s what my schedule looks like:

Work: They mixed up my schedule to accommodate for school so here’s what I am working now:

We had a meeting on Sunday, which was great because we haven’t had one in forever and we really needed one, but it did go at all like I wanted. Matt and Kim were really confrontational and there was a good deal of stupid bickering going on. Chris nearly cried; I felt so bad for her. Most of the supervisors are driving me up the wall right now. Getting my birthday of was like pulling teeth because Darlene pretty much didn’t want to stay an hour later to cover my shift, which was BS. She is also driving me nuts because she never asks anyone for help and she doesn’t retain any knowledge. Cassie is pissing me off because I think she is taking advantage of her friendship with Kim and is taking too many smoke breaks. Victoria is pissing me off because she’s won’t drop the attitude. She is getting paid less than all the other supervisor and that sucks I know, but right now she is not putting forth as much effort as the other supervisors so we are kind of paying for what we get. She also playing this poor me card and is stupidly confused over some of the basic aspect of her job, and Kim is not helping because she’s being all abrupt when telling her what to do, which then only frustrate her and makes her cop an attitude. Everyone just needs to calm the FUCK down at work. Myself included. I am pissed because we have had 7 different people falsify and skip questions and then get their stupid asses fired and there’s nothing we can do about it and it is just really pathetic. Also it is like pulling teeth to get the new manager to actually do anything about serious issues like falsify and harassment and other disciplinary issues. It is a pain in the arse.

Family: It seems everything falls apart at once. Dad manage to lose each and every one of our keys for the Dodge Shadow, The Dodge Ram has a leak in the radiator and is in need of an oil change because Ben and I added too much oil and the Dodge Dynasty’s power steering is dying hardcore. It is all very sad and terribly inconvenient. Dad ran a half marathon and tried to kill himself. I did a little bit of walking and Mom is right I do need to get moving to help those muscles be ready for birth. Ben was a sweetheart this weekend.

Social / Leisure time: I hung out with Kim and Victoria. We went to Denny’s and some very rude guy tried to seel us Exstacy. I went to see AVPR with Erica, which was bueno. Chelsea hung out at the house for a bit this weekend, which was amusing. I got to head out to the Big Bang with Dennis and Amy O. I met Dennis new live-in boyfriend Brett who is a real sweety, I also got to see their new apartment and meet their chuahauh mini-pin mix who was adorable. I experienced my first virgin bar night. I truly enjoyed my first ever experience with Shirley Temples and Virgin Mai Tai’s. It was very good. I was the only person who left the night more hydrated than I came.

Medical & Baby Related: A lot has happen in this area. First and formost I went down to DES and had my appointment to apply for AHCCCS and when I called today they said I had been approved and should be receiving a packet in the mail. Woohoo for medical insurance! Apparently I jus squeaked it with the income requirements; had I made $32 more on my last 2 pay stubs I wouldn’t have been eligible. I am really relieved because the medical insurance will help so much. Right now I have a stack of medical bills totalling $5,400 and I am just in way over my head. (BIRTH CONTROL MY FRIENDS, use it, it i so much more affordable, even if you splurge on high dollar condom lube and other luxuries the cost doesn’t come close to that of a pregnancy let alone a child.)

Additionally, I went down to the WIC office and had a lovely run around with them. I went to the closest one listed on their website which was on 43rd and Glendale, but when I got there they told me that they were not accepting new cases and they sent me to the next closest on which was on Thunderbird and 55th Ave, but was not listed on the website despite the fact that it has been open and operation since August of 2006. There I had to wait for 20 minutes just to fill out a half sheet of paper and make an appointment for February as it was the earliest they have available. This is all just prove that our government is run like poop, but what can I really expect, because look at our president for peat sake.

Anyway. I had a doctor’s appointment on Friday and found out that my ob/gyn’s daughter died in that big bus accident, so she is on a leave of absence. I feel bad for her and it makes me sad, because she was the cool doctor and I want her to come back asap. I had my glucose resistence test done to make sure that I won’t suffer from gestistanal diabetes throughout my pregnancy and my test cam back normal. They also measured me, I was suppose to be at 27 cm at 27 weeks, but I was at 30 so my son is either growing fast or I am just too fat: haven’t decided which yet. I check out the chart below on line and found it super interesting so I thought I would share it with you:

Click to enlarge

I think my son’s is going to show up early. Knowing my luck he will show up on April 1st, the exact day I don’t want to be born on just to piss me off. It would make since because then he’s birthday would be on a non cool holiday just like every other member of this family (Mine is frequently on Martin Luther King Jr Day, Mom’s is on Ground hogs day, Dad’s is on All Saint’s Day, Rachael’s is on Patriot day, and Ben’s is the 1st of June which is frequent the 1st day of spring) I also get that gut feeling that he will probably show up that day, just like I got the gut feeling at 4 and a half weeks that I was pregnant and the gu feeling I had that he would be a boy.

Also to give you a run down of our development this week: I am in the home stretch of the last trimester and at this point, I’ll starting visiting my doctor every two weeks. Then, at 36 weeks, I’ll switch to weekly visits. We are at week 28 as of Tuesday. By this week, my baby weighs two and a quarter pounds (like a Chinese cabbage shown right click to make big) and measures 14.8 inches from the top of his head to his heels. He can blink his eyes, which now sport lashes and I hope are baby blue. With his eyesight developing, he may be able to see the light that filters in through your womb. He’s also developing billions of neurons in his brain and adding more body fat in preparation for life in the outside world. The hair on his little head continues to grow, and if I am at all luck it will be ginger. 

COMICS:

Ladies and gentleman,

My cell phone is lost, so if you have been trying to call me you won’t reach me unless you call my house (978-6186) or family memebers. I am getting another phone but i dont know when it will be here or be activated. Additionally this mean i have lost all my contact numbers. So if you love me and/or want to hear from me you have to give me your number again. Email me: Iamafish101@aol.com or comment it or messege me on my space.

H ere’s to the nights we felt alive
Here’s to the tears you knew you’d cry
Here’s to goodbye
Tomorrow’s gonna come too soon…
and then I may update with more than just comics.

Luann:

Good stuff from Zits:

Rose is Rose:

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