Destruction, thy name is Marina

We discovered Marina with sharpie all over her legs, feet, and between her toes today. This was annoying, but--unfortunately--not unusual. What tipped the scales in the favor of Mommy insanity was her comment twenty minutes later: "I color on Mommy's bed."

Sure enough, she had taken her sharpie to our wedding quilt, a treasure handmade by many of the women in our church as a wedding gift. It looks awful now. I was so mad I could've spit nails, and I am still pretty heartbroken. Just looking at it makes me want to cry all over again.

So, all in all, it's been a rough evening. The quilt incident started it off, then I burnt dinner, messed up the biscuits, and have been just out of sorts since then. It's a good thing it's bedtime for little ones, because my rope ended about two hours ago.

I am going to go comfort myself with a bowl of pudding and a few episodes of Alias (thanks Hillary...) in an attempt not to think about our quilt.

How do I love thee?

I am having a pretty serious love affair with household appliances these days.

While I was making jam, it was my immersion blender. God bless the people who invented that thing, and God doubly bless the Cuisinart people for making such an awesome one. It cut so much time out of making all that jam. Awesomeness.

Then, last week, my food processor topped the list of things that I plug in and adore. It makes pie dough, and grated an onion in about six seconds. What is not to love??

When I started writing this post, there were three appliances I was going to sing the praises of, but I have managed to completely forget the third. Ah, pregnancy brain.

20 down, 20 to go!

As incredible as it is, my pregnancy is halfway done today! It's a huge milestone, and one that I've been looking forward to ever since the first twinge of morning sickness hit. According to the "experts," the baby is currently between six and seven inches long, from head to butt (about the length of a banana), and weighs around half a pound. I don't know why they don't count the length of the legs, but I suppose it varies. When we saw the baby on ultrasound the other day, his/her legs went on forever...so I suppose it's safe to assume Baby #3 will be tall. Who knew? :)

I've been sewing a lot this week, attempting to get the girls' Christmas quilts pieced. Megan's quilt top is done, and Marina's just needs borders. I'm going to have them professionally quilted, since they will hold up better that way, so I needed to have them done early because most quilters have a 4 to 6 week waiting list. My goal is to get them done and to a quilter next week; that way they'll be back to me at least a couple weeks before Christmas and I'll be able to get the binding on.

We're heading in to Anchorage today...hitting Costco and Target, and getting to have lunch with Daddy. We haven't been able to nail down lunch with him in a couple months, so this will be a special treat. I will have to start the car early and scrape the ice off the windows, though...it's that time of year!

Comparison Pictures

Marina
New Baby
Megan

Video of Baby

This is a video of the Baby's heartbeat. There is no sound, unfortunately, but you can see the Baby squirming a little bit, and all four heart chambers beating away!

World, meet Boom-shak-a-lakka Razzle-dazzle Rogers!

Baby's spine
Leg (in the process of kicking me in the side!)
Arm, with tiny little fingers at the end!
Hello Beautiful Child!!
I see a lot of Megan and Marina in the Baby's profile.

BTW, the girls named the Baby. :) Since their Dad and I can't currently come up with anything to counter, I am giving birth to Boom-shak-a-lakka Razzle-dazzle Rogers.

Also, the ultrasound puts me a week or so behind when I thought I was, even though all other sonograms have been right on. So, depending on what my doc says at my next appointment, my due date may get changed to March 12. But, we'll see.

I hate Anchorage a little bit today.

I like to think of myself as somebody who doesn't really rant about the government, but boy is that changing this week. The Municipality of Anchorage has become a general pain in my behind, and it gets worse every day.

Did you know that in order to offer samples, I have to have a permit? And that said permit costs money? When I applied for my permit, it was denied because I do not have a Muni Food Workers Card. I have a STATE card, but that is apparently not good enough. Also, the City of Anchorage was kind enough to not offer the test for the food workers card online. You have to present in person downtown to take the bloody thing. You have to pay for the test as well. Therefore, in order to sample (just sample!) my jams for two days in November, I will have to shell out $50, as well as pay someone to watch my kids so I can take this test that basically says I know not to pick my nose before giving somebody some food.

To add insult to injury, I have to read/study/memorize a 28 page booklet of the most boring information about food safety God ever put on this earth. It is 98% common sense, and 2% memorizing a bunch of temperatures that don't even pertain to what I am doing.

Now, I realize that I am complaining a lot about a very simple thing, and that I am also probably blowing it way out of proportion. But, like with many things these days, I'm pregnant and cranky and don't feel like dealing with it in any form of adult manner. They could at least offer the blasted test online!!! It's like the city is making it as hard as humanly possible to do a very simple thing, and they would like me to pay for it as well.

Sheesh.