brief update

I'm not going to be able to do a proper post with pictures and stuff until I get home from my parents' house because they have dial up, but I thought I would drop in on my own blog just to keep things current.

I am at my parent's house in Sunnyside, Washington, a place aptly named. We've had nothing but sun since I got here, and I understand that home has been continually overcast. I've been keeping busy with simple things like shopping for maternity clothes, drying apples, canning peaches, baking cookies, visiting friends, and taking lots of naps. I must feel more relaxed than I did at home because I'm actually sleeping all the way through the night. It probably helps to have people around so much. Loneliness can unsettle the brain.

This morning Dad and I went gleaning apples. Gleaning (for those of you who haven't; not many, I know) means going through a field or orchard after the professional pickers have gone through. Most people don't mind as long as you ask permission first and are very careful with the plants. Gleaning apples like a treasure hunt because the apples are never in obvious places. It requires a sharp eye and a willingness to bend yourself all out of shape to reach one particularly tempting fruit (parallels to original sin, anybody?). My dad has a stick with an old coffee can on the end that he uses to reach fruit that are out of reach. Of course, there's always the chance that the pickers left a certain fruit behind because it was soft or eaten on the side you can't see and sometimes beautiful fruit are wedged so tightly between two branches that they can't be pried loose, but it's not hard to collect several buckets of good fruit in the space of an hour.

When I would go gleaning in high school, I would climb trees (frowned upon) and twist myself into all sorts of nooks and crannies to get at fruit. I almost thought it was an insult to leave a good apple behind. Now that I'm twenty-six and four months pregnant (almost), I've discovered that some of my old gleaning habits just aren't dignified. Jumping after high apples in poorly cushioned boots -- bad idea. Twisting in between tight branches -- bad idea. Riding through orchard in old truck with bad shocks while wearing lap belt -- bad idea. Without lap belt -- also bad idea. Now baby is just fine I'm sure, but I did scare myself a couple of times, enough that I let Dad carry all the apples back to the truck, whereas in high school I would have dragged my own bucket back if it killed me.

So this afternoon, after my nap, I'm going to fill the dehydrator once again and wait for Mom to come home. Then this evening, we can get started on applesauce.

Milestones.

Oh, boy, is it hot here. I hate heat. I never realized how much I disliked heat until it got hot during this pregnancy. Now, I really wish it would rain. A week ago, it rained for three days, and it was wonderful. Some of you will say that temperatures in the high 80s is not hot, but I assure you, it is hot when no one bothers to install air conditioning anywhere but the bank and the grocery store. The weather rarely gets hot enough to justify the investment around here, but this week, it's hot.

The thought that sustains me through the heat is the thought that I have passed a couple of milestones in my pregnancy. The first milestone is my first trimester. It officially ended last Saturday, and my morning sickness vanished not long before that (it came back as I got over my cold. Go figure. Maybe my body just decided that there was only so much it could handle.). I have now gone a week and a half without the need to be sick, and I am very happy with that situation.

My other milestone is that I outgrew my first pair of jeans. Sunday afternoon, I found that I just had to change out of my jeans. They no longer fit. I still have two other pairs that fit, so I haven't bought any maternity pants yet, but I was pretty excited on Sunday, and yesterday, I went through my closet and tried on everything to see what else no longer fit. Seth laughs at me every time I get excited about something small like this, but if I don't enjoy all these things the first time around, when will I enjoy them? However, inspite of outgrowing some of my clothes, I find that I still don't really look pregnant. Seth says there's a little change. I can feel a change, and sometimes I think I see a change, but that tiny bit of thickness around my waist still seems like an optical illusion to me.

Still coughing.

Hi, everyone.

I went to the doctor yesterday because Sunday, I was absolutely miserable with this cold. While I'm waiting for my appointment, I strike up a conversation with a woman sitting across from me. Turns out she was waiting for a biopsy (Pray for her please. She isn't inclined toward prayer herself). I'm sitting there trying to think of encouraging things to say, and she's looking at me with concern. "Are you sure you're alright?" she asks. "You don't sound so good."

Now I've got a doozy of a cold, but all I have is a cold. The doctors (I got a doctor and a medical student.) both agreed that there was no reason for concern. They gave me some Benadryl (which is about as pregnancy safe as medicines get. You can pass that information along.) and a cough suppressant, let me hear the baby's heart beat (strong and fast, just like it's supposed to be), and sent me on my way. But I still have to laugh over the fact that a woman who was weighing the possibility of cancer found my symptoms severe enough to distract her.

Being as sick as I am, I once again have to thank God for my wonderful husband who came home from two days on the boat and offered to wait on me hand and foot so I could rest. He must have been raised well. Very considerate. And I am also grateful for my friends and family who have offered all manner of advice (stewed carrots! Who'd have thought?) and assistance. Speaking of which, I haven't taken my vitamin C yet today. I'd better go do that.

Love to you all.

Jennifer

Hello, all.

I've been dying to update my blog, but I haven't really had anything to write. I'm getting tired of regaling people with the ills and woes of pregnancy. (I know something's getting old when I'm tired of complaining about it.) In that regard, I am slightly better. The constant feeling of nausea and regurgitation is gone. Mostly now, I'm just tired, and in a week or two that's supposed to go away too. Lately, I've been managing to cook and clean and generally maintain the house. I don't know what I'm going to do with myself when I have energy again. Finish all the projects I meant to do this summer maybe.

On the other hand, I have a cold. I am not happy with my cold. It's probably what's sucking up all my energy. And I'm worried that if I sneeze too hard, I might blow the baby right out of me (Alright, the joke is in bad taste, but if you've ever heard me sneeze, you know why the thought occurred to me).

Max has a new friend outside the fence. There's a big black and white dog with a Harley Davidson collar running around the neighborhood. I've been thinking that if I take Max for a walk, he might follow, and we can find out where he lives, but he's already been chased home once, and he came back, so there's probably no one at home to receive him. It's a shame. He's a beautiful dog.

My neighbor dropped by with a book from the library reject pile. It's called Expect the Unexpected When You're Expecting. It's a parody on all those pregnancy books. Now I haven't read any of those pregnancy books. I've contented myself with some Internet research, but they're so well known and so infamous for making mothers-to-be paranoid out of their minds that I am sure I will enjoy it.

Love to you all.
Jennifer

I'd like to know.

Alicia tagged me a while ago. The rules of the tag are that I have to list ten random things and then tag ten people. I'll worry about tagging people later. But for now, here are ten random things.

See I just finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and while I enjoyed it immensely, I felt that the dennoument (the wrap up where everything gets explained) didn't explain enough. So I'd like to know

1. What happened to Luna Lovegood? She plays a prominent role in the last three books and then disappears in the epilogue. Is that fair?

2. What do Harry, Ron, and Hermione do for a living 19 years later? Seth says that maybe they're independently wealthy. I want to know if Harry ever became an auror. Or maybe Trelawney hit it on the head for once, and he did become minister of magic.

3. How did Hermione's parents handle a wizarding wedding? Or did Hermione have a muggle wedding, these things being planned by the bride?

4. Do wizarding mothers get morning sickness? (Okay, that is totally an extrapolation of my own imagination. I would in no way expect her to put that in the book, but I have been wondering.)

5. Who is minister of magic, if it isn't Harry? 19 years would be a little long for Kingsley Shacklebolt to hold the position. Maybe Mr. Weasley got the job for a while. Wouldn't that be a hoot?

6. Who is headmaster of Hogwarts? McGonnegal would surely have retired by now, and Neville is teaching herbology. It really should be someone we know. It's only right.

7. How is George doing in the Wizarding Wheeze business? Can he be just as creative on his own, with only one ear?

8. What happened to Dudley? He makes a big character turn around, and then he vanishes. I think it would be funny if one of Dudley's children turns out to be magical.

9. Were giants, house elves, and goblins more accepted in wizarding circles after the defeat of Voldemort? Maybe Hermione uses her status to become an activist on their behalf.

10. How is Albus Severus Potter ever going to live down that name? And what is James's middle name? Sirius? Remus? Arthur? Harry? Cedric? Ron? There are lots of candidates for that one.