Happy Valentine's Day Osama

A little Jewish girl, Melissa, comes home from first grade and tells her father that they learned about the history of Valentine's Day. "Since Valentine's Day is for a Christian saint and we're Jewish," she asks,"will God get mad at me for giving someone a valentine?"

Melissa's father thinks a bit, then says "No, I don't think God would get mad. Who do you want to give a Valentine to?"

"Osama Bin Laden," she says.

"Why Osama Bin Laden," her father asks in shock.

"Well," she says, "I thought that if a little American Jewish girl could have enough love to give Osama a Valentine, he might start to think that maybe we're not all bad, and maybe start loving people a little bit.

And if other kids saw what I did and sent Valentines to Osama, he'd love everyone a lot. And then he'd start going all over the place to tell everyone how much he loved them and how he didn't hate anyone anymore."

Her father's heart swells and he looks at his daughter with new found pride.

"Melissa, that's the most wonderful thing I've ever heard."

"I know," Melissa says, "and once that gets him out in the open, the Marines could shoot the lousy bastard.

no baby yet

my appointment last thursday confirmed nothing had really changed changed.. my belly didn't grow so now i'm right on track as opposed to ahead, and i even lost a pound .. wtf?! can't complain i guess. and i'm not any more dialated. on friday at work i was having some contractions every 5 minutes or so, so i went home. and of course while i was waiting for jay to come pick me up, they stopped. but better safe than sorry... there's no where comfy to sit at work except on the couch in the main lobby aoutside the lecture hall... yeah.. 20 year-olds do not need to see me go into labor. thanks, but no.. it's where i had waitind for jay, but i wasn't about to go back up to work.. i was very uncomfortable. so we've been waiting since then for any other since that baby is eminent.

last night i was getting very uncomfortable. as the night went on the bay felt like it was getting heavier and heavier, and felt so low that if he was any lower he'd just fall out. i said to jason.. "i say 24 hours for some serious baby activity, and if not then i'll be surprised". i haven't been felling any contractions, but that doesn't surprise me one bit, b/c i never had any when i was pregnant with evan. my water had just broke when we returned home from a trip to Target, and that was that.... we went to target yesterday walked around for a while.. but no baby.

i think part of our anxiousness about having this baby, is that we're ready for him.. we've been expecting him early for months now, on this weekend... the room is ready, i'm packed for the hospital.. all the clothes are washed.. i think we're pretty much all set to bring the baby home... unlike with Evan.. Evan was 3 weeks early, and was so unexpected, that i think the only item is my hospital bag was soem travel shampoo or soemthing. we just weren't prepared.. so now that we're all prepared watch the kid come a week late or something... Oh God i hope not. that would be cruel.

we made it through Thursday, and that's all i wanted... We went to see Lewis Black, and he was hilarious! his friend that opened up for him was hilarious too. John Bowman was his name. Jay said he had overheard some people on the way out saying it wasn't quite what they expected... well for us it was... but then again wee're very familiar with his bits and his style of comedy.. i think we own all his dvd's. and some of his bits he used the other night, referenced bits of his we had seen in the dvd's so i think they were more funny for us than people who had never seen his routine before. the only thing that was bad about the show was that it was like 90 degrees inside the little theater, so everyone was boiling.. i bet people complained b/c at one point we felt a little bit of cool air coming down, and then it got warm again. thanks guys *smack*... and that we didn't have much leg room, but the theater is old, so there was nothing we could do about that. except kick the little wooden wall in front of us everytime we moved. i ended up taking my shoes off b/c my feet were swelling up.

We even went out to dinner beforehand with our friend Trevor who had a huge gift certificate to one of the really nice restaurants 2 minutes away from the theater where the show was. so we all went out.. it was really good food... and it was the type of place that if you didn't get there real soon after they opened the doors you had to wait atleast an hour for a table. our wiat was 10 minutes... we got there about 5:30 and left about 7:40 or so.. timed perfectly for the show.

and it finally happened! we got snow a couple nights ago! not a dusting like we've been getting everytime they predict snow, but we got 3-4 inches.. of wet snow that has now sunk down to about 2.5 inches. and it's going to be really cold for the next week, they say, and some more snow on the way! it's scary to think that it's February, and we *just* got our first real snow. by the time my boys are going to school, they won't even know what a snow day is... what is this world coming too.

and speaking of which why is it all of a sudden global warming is being recognized and a problem that *people* have had a factor in.. I mean, duh, C'mon.. I think we started having a major effect on the environment since the locomotive was created.. it's been down hill since then, but only back then they had no idea. the general population has had an idea for atleast 15-20 years or so that something needed to be done soon, and what 20 years later 'experts' and our stupid president say that within another 5 years or so we'll BEGIN to regulate pollution.. or some shit like that.. WTF is that all about?! what a douchebag of a president we've got folks. he just has no clue.

so i dont' get to watch the national news much these days b/c Evan is addicted to Dora the explorer. a friend of mine on myspace changed his picture to that of the lite brite guy that shut down Boston. so i sent himi a message saying that that stupid thing shut down Boston.. he replys with telling me that it's been in the news for 3 days.. ! oops.. lol. i had no idea it was in the national news.. it didn't surprise me, but i still didn't know.. that was funny, guess i've been a little out of touch with the news. we watch the local news, but i dont' get to watch the tody show in the morning anymore.. i didn't realize that iv'e been missing out.. especially since they only have real news for like 45 minutes, and then go into fluff news and human interest stories. I still think it's pretty funny that those things shut down Boston. but i'll add that many people who criticize the fact that the city over reacted to the event, weren't the ones who had their airplanes hijacked killing thousands of innocent people. we're just that much more sensitive about strange ongoings, than most communities, and sometimes that needs to be recognized.

baby update

had my 36 week appointment this morning. it's looking good. i'm measuring for 38 weeks. not surprised, and i'm already dialated a little bit but the midwife says the baby isn't really pushing down on it so it could mean that i'm pregnant for a few more days or a couple more weeks.... i'm only aking for one more week.. that's all. we have tickets to go see Lewis Black next thursday night! guess i gotta get on the ball and pack my hospital bag... I want to make sure that it's ready this time around.. with Evan I had only just started packing it the day before so it wasn't fully ready yet... the baby bag is easy enough and i'm pretty sure that's ready.. except for burp cloths.. but i've got to wash them first.

oh, and technically i've only gained 6 lbs so far. lol.. but that's only b/c i lost so much earlier in the pregnancy. i only gained 15-20 lbs with evan so even for me this is a light load. the midwife says she thinks i got a big one too.. lol can't wait until i have the baby, and see how much i weigh after. i bet i can figure out how much i gained by doing the math.. atleast a rough number.

hope everyone is staying warm.. it's nasty cold out this week over here

woo!

so I had a listing appointment yesterday for that house near me, and I got it... it's really not worth the price their asking but they can't afford to go any lower between paying the comission and paying off what they owe. I mean it might sell for the priced they need we'll see. my broker was hesitant to list it at $265k b/c it won't sell fast. It was sorta funny that after my Broker left, Diane, one of the homeowners said, "she looked like she didn't want to list it for that price", and i said that she was hesitant to b/c it's means that it'll be sitting on the market for a while. The homeowners were fine with that. it's really worth about $230-$240k. They seem to like me though, which is good. Thankfully, they don't really need to make any money off the sale other than just paying off the mortgage, so that wasn't an issue. They're looking at getting a house around $175 or a 2-family, so the mortgage will be way cheaper than what their paying now. taxes will most definately be cheaper as well. I'm going to be talking with her later today, and hopefully we'll be going out this weekend to look at some houses.

so that's that. Real Estate is going well.. well enough for me.. i don't want it to be too crazy right now. not witht the baby coming soon and all that. just knock on wood that i don't go into labor on feb 1st.. i bought tickets for jay and i for Christmas to go see Lewis Black in Northampton.. he's jay's favorite comedian... and i really want to go! any time after that we're good to have the baby! I'm officially 35 weeks now, and if we go by the Evan time table, that means we have 2 weeks until doomsday. if i don't go into labor the weekend of the 4th we'll be surprised. lol. watch me have this baby late instead of early.. only because we're expecting early.. that would suck.

Evans newspaper debut!

saturday january 13th. Dylan is a friend from daycare. melly took them last week and mentioned a guy from the paper was there taking pictures :)

Bono says it perfectly about today..

"It's a beautiful day"... indeed, Bono, it is.

so i went to the doc's this morning with Evan.. who was amazingly good. they weren't running late at all. and the good news is that the baby has flipped! yay! the head is down and it's all good from here. we even got a peek with a quick ultrasound just to be sure!






What a cutie!.. the foot one is kinda hard to see, the face ones came out good. The baby is still a boy.. i had her double check. lol. just want to be sure ya know? he's got those chubby cheeks like evan had too!

i've created a web album with picasa.. there's a bunch of evan pictures up there. http://picasaweb.google.com/evansmom111003

check them out.

i'm the type of person that only likes to blog when theres something worth mentioning. so i had to mention that of course. and i didn't mention how our new years went b/c i forgot.

our new years was pretty boring. we had friends over, and at 9:30 we're all zombies in the living room tired from work and life.. we were practically asleep, and probabyly would've been if evan wasn't off the wall... . there was nothing on the tv either. we watched will and grace for about 10 minutes, and i broke down and said.. ok, lets play cards or something. we we played cards for a while which combined with coffee and wine woke people up... i had jay buy me a bottle of sparkling cider, so i had that. when it was time for the ball to drop we paused our card game got up, watched the ball drop, said cheers, kissed our spouses, and went back to playing cards. i finsihsed my sparkling juice right from the bottle. everyone laughed.. they said we should've gotten a picture. and then at about 1 or so people went home. it was good and quiet. so that was our new years... by the sounds of it you'd think we were old fogies or something.. but nope.. the avg age is 26-27.


have yourself a beautiful day too!

i'm movin' on up... to the eastside.. to a de-luxe apt in the sky...

ok so not really, but i was going to blog about my first listing appointment i just got back from, and that song got stuck in my head.

real estate is treating me well considering i'm part time and not really able to spend money on promoting myself to get business. i'm just really lucky with people calling in when i'm answering phones. so i got a call on saturday when i was in the office from this woman interested in our comission rates and stuff. so i made an appointment to do a market analysis, and we did that appoiontment today. it seemed to have gone well.

the homeowner got the house appraised last year for $275k, but i don't think that they'll be able to get that with the prices of houses coming down. even in Greenfield. cross yoru fingers for me that i get the listing.. it would be nice to sell a house... and be the listing agent.. that's where the money is.

so tomorrow morning i go to the doctor's to see how the babe's doing.. little guy still hasn't turned. grr.. i can tell by the hiccups. lol. i'll let you know how it goes.

WalkAmerica for the March of dimes and a good friend of mine

We should all do something good when given the chance and have the abilities to do so. if your resolution this yeare was to help out others more, or donate to charities, here's a great one!

from my good friend Janelle:

As many of you know, my son, Jacob, was born 6 weeks early at Women & Infants' hospital in RI. He's doing great, and recovering better than we could have ever anticipated - I say to everyone that I don't really have a "sick" baby, just one that needs to heal a little bit before he comes home =) But this experience has shown me how valuable and neccesary the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) is - and how many other babies are born in desperate need of care to survive. The March of Dimes is an amazing foundation that help to raise money for reasearch to save babies' lives - and on April 29th, I'm participating in a Walk America, a 5 mile walk to raise money for this cause, in honor of my beautiful son, Jacob Michael Scott Lincoln. (Michelle, you are so amazing and I love you! Thank you for telling me about this, and creating Team Jacob!!!)

So... if you are up for a bit of a hike, come join Team Jacob and raise money for a great cause... the walk that I am participating in is in Manchester, NH, but if that's too far, by all means join us in honor at a different location. I'm thinking its going to be a lot of fun, and I can't wait =)

Of course, the other way to help is to sponsor Team Jacob. You can visit our March of Dimes website here, and donations/payments are accepted via credit card and PayPal.

and for a quick update:

he's doing great!!! 4lbs 14oz and up to 10cc's of milk every 4 hours! and of course, he's absolutely perfect. but then again, i'm biased ;-) i'll have more pictures up soon!

lots of love,

janelle

another friend from high school and is doing the walk as well! here's what she has to say:

Jacob and his mommy Janelle

Jacob Michael Scott Lincoln was born 6 weeks early on December 19^th, 2006 weighing 3lbs 14oz. He was born with Gastioentises (his intestines on the outside of his body) He has been receiving care in the NICU at Women and Infants Hospital in Providence RI. Every day Jacob has been getting stronger and stronger with the help of a great NICU team and the March of Dimes.

I am participating in WalkAmerica on April 29^th 2007 in Machester NH. because I believe in the March of Dimes mission to save babies. Please support my fundraising efforts by sponsoring me in WalkAmerica today.

Contributing to my walk online is fast, easy and secure. You can donate directly from my personal webpage with a credit/debit card or PayPal. If you prefer, I can also accept cash or check. Just click the appropriate box on my webpage.

The money we raise helps save premature and sick babies. Premature birth is the #1 cause of newborn death and the biggest threat to babies' health today, and through WalkAmerica, the March of Dimes is funding important research to find out why premature birth happens and what can be done to prevent it.

I've joined with millions of compassionate people across the country who support WalkAmerica each year. Won't you please help me in this worthy cause? Visit my webpage and sponsor me in the walk that saves babies!

With your support, there's hope.

If you would like to join our team or sponsor Team Jacob please visit our page on the March of Dimes / Walk America web site. http://www.walkamerica.org/leftyhooha

Thank you for all your support!!

Team Jacob

ok kiddo... time to flip around.

so i had a doctor's appt this morning. my little dude is still in breech postition. i'm not happy about this. if he doesn't get his ass in gear and flip around it looks like i might have to have a c-section. not that there's anything particularly wrong with a c-section itself, but i don't want to have to go through the recovery of the surgery. i've never had surgery. i'd like to keep it that way. from what i understand recovery form a c-section takes many, many weeks.. and you pretty much can't do a damned thing that may in any way put stress on your body. i can only assume this includes most activites involving my 3 year old... like for instance.. getting up and down on the floor to play or even picking him up... he weighs in over 40 lbs these days! and most mornings i have to carry him downstairs to wake up before daycare. he's still little, and still requires to be carried on occasion.. when sleeping, or just for comfort, and the poor little guy won't understand why i won't be able to carry him, and getting ready in the mornings will be a disaster seeing as how he'll still be going to daycare while i'm on maternity leave. even if he doens't go.. we still have to pay b/c that's the way daycare works, so we might as well have him go. and i don't want to stray too much from our routine, such as letting him sleep in for those 6 weeks.. will screw us all up.. this kid doesn't adjust well to the time change.. gets all out of whack, so we need to stay as normal as possible.

so needless to say the CNM suggested two weeks ago to to the "breech tilts" or whatever which involves getting on my knees, and my head on a pillow.. i tried it that first day and all the blood rushed to my head in aboput 30 seconds, and was just downright painful in the face.. lol.. i know sounds funny, but it's true. so i didn't do it again that day.. and well forgot about it for the two weeks.. between working and dealing with Christmas stuff, i completely forgot about. so now i have to do it twice a day for 20 mins at a whack. great.. but i'll do it b/c i don't want a c-section unless i have to.

Merry Christmas!

Evan as Bob the builder.


me at 31 weeks prego... christmas day