Life On The Other Side

Right now I am obsessed with the HBO original series Big Love. I am not nor will I ever be a proponent of polygamy or any other multiple spouse type of arrangement. I think the most fascinating part of the show is how this one man tries to balance his time between three wives and three families. Frankly, I can barely balance my time with my one husband and my one family so thinking about having to rotate between another two seems impossible. Of course I’m speaking from the standpoint of a woman so maybe it’s a little easier for a man though I highly doubt it. Polygamy itself used to be associated with the LDS in Utah but was outlawed by the Church in the late 1800s. However, it seems that there are certain factions within that religion that still support such a lifestyle going against the Church’s view.

My main interest in this show stems from my time in Las Vegas. Despite the city’s reputation, there is a very large Mormon population there. Of the Mormons I have known or do know, none of them practice or subscribe to the polygamy lifestyle. I know from watching several types of news shows that polygamy still exists in Utah and some other parts of the United States. I wonder how a show like this will affect how people view or feel about it. I also wonder how the Mormon population including the Mormon Church feels about a show like this one. I’m sure there will be some controversy if there hasn’t been any already.

Spring is here somewhere and I thought it was time for a change. I saw this template and decided to try it out for awhile. It doesn’t really reflect my lifestyle or where I live but I rather like the richness of the colors.

Yes, spring is almost here if not here already. Although we’ve had a long winter with no real winter in my opinion where we live, I’m not ready for spring or summer and the heat it will bring. I guess the good thing is we’ll have this baby long before the most uncomfortable part of summer will arrive.

I’ve been pretty busy the last couple of weeks since we’ve been home from our vacation. We’ve begun taking some of the classes offered by the hospital we plan on having our baby at as preparation for the changes ahead. The first class we went to was more of an informational seminar than a class: epidurals. I have yet to swing either way when it comes to having or not having the epidural. Frankly, I’m pretty middle-of-the-road if that’s possible since I don’t really know what to expect or how I will be feeling when the time comes. Also, I learned that there might be some point during labor where it would be impossible to even get an epidural so I really have to be middle-of-the-road. Truthfully, I really hate needles with a passion and anything that resembles a needle or goes inside my veins (i.e. cathether) so it’s going to be a challenge for me to overcome the hatred or rather fear. In any case, I know the pros and cons, and what to expect and that’s more than I could ask for at this point.

The second class we took was an infant CPR class. It really was more than a CPR class because we talked about potential dangers and hazards a child might encounter in the home, what to do in an emergency, what is an emergency, etc. I think every new parent should take some kind of class like this because what you think you might know about handling things like fevers, cuts, bites, etc. goes out the window after you hear this information. Plus, you need to hear things from the perspective of a child or rather an adult who has a better idea of what a child might encounter. Things we take for granted such cords, outlets, cleaners, small objects, et al become deadly for an infant. I would definitely recommend this class for any parent.

In other news, I finally have a job. It’s not a job in the traditional sense where I get up and leave the house everyday, but rather I have a stay-at-home job. I applied to do some editing for an online secret shopper type of company a few months ago and got an email about a month ago to do a test for that job. Well I passed the test and was put into their apprentice program. Last week I spent doing their online orientation and this week I started doing some editing. It’s been a slow process because of the training and now the apprentice program. The apprentice part is expected to be about four weeks and once that is done, we have two chance to pass the junior editor test. Once we pass, we’ll be junior editors but if we don’t, well you can guess what happens. This job sounded interesting because it was a chance for me to get back into something I haven’t done professionally in awhile which is editing. My editing mainly came with writing for a newspaper many years ago and it’s a pretty thankless job not to mention without much recognition. However it is important if not one of the most important aspects of any written piece. This job will give me a chance to brush up and sharpen my editing skills while making a little bit of money.

Finally, the last bit of news is that the hubby and I went out on a “blind couple’s date” with another couple we met locally. Rather, I met this girl through a local online board and we decided to meet up for dinner with our husbands. She and I are both pregnant with our first child and they are due about two weeks before we are. It’s nice to finally make some connections with people in town and we’ll see how it goes.

We had a lovely time on our trip down to Georgia and especially to the coast where I finally got to meet some of my hubby’s extended family. Both of the hubby’s parents grew up in a town along the Georgia coastline which over the years has seen some changes but remains relatively the same in population. The attraction to this town is really the islands off of it known as the Golden Isles. These consist of Jekyll Island, St. Simons Island, Sea Island and Little St. Simons Island. These areas are rather the “touristy” areas that attract visitors to the town where my hubby’s parents grew up because getting to these islands you must travel through Brunswick.

Since it was my first time there, this gave my father-in-law the opportunity to play tourist with all of us as he showed us around the town and throughout two of the islands: Jekyll and St. Simons. Jekyll was once the winter retreat to many of America’s wealthy families including the Rockefellers, Cranes and Macys. Today these homes are being maintained and/or restored for the public to visit. While we didn’t have time to tour inside the homes, we did take a lovely walking tour of the area where these homes were.

This is Indian Mound, the winter cottage of the Rockefellers.

This is the Crane Cottage, the winter home of the Crane family of the Crane faucets and fixtures.

We also visited St. Simons Island where we had dinner with some family one evening and walked along the pier. The next day we visited the Fort Frederica National Monument. Here are a couple of pictures from our visit there:

This is the fort itself along the coastline.

A lovely picture of the coastline along Fort Frederica.

The trip down to the coast of Georgia was just wonderful and especially getting to meet the hubby’s only living grandparent, his grandmother who is truly a southern lady! Even at the age of 88, she is sharp as a tack with a lovely sense of humor. I can’t wait until our son gets to meet his great-grandmama.

Other highlights of our trip was visiting some of my hubby’s college friends and their new babies; spending time with his parents, brother and sis-in-law; and finally eating some Chipotle and yummy Chinese food! In all, it was a nice vacation and one that the hubby needed!

The hubby has decided that he has earned a well-deserved vacation. Here! Here! I totally agree! So this weekend we’re off to visit family and friends in Georgia. It’s always nice to getaway even though the getaway is only a couple of states away. Part of this vacation will be spent near the coastline of Georgia and I am looking forward to that. I haven’t seen the ocean since our last trip to Charleston, SC which was last July. Even though my FIL (father-in-law) says there isn’t much to see because of the brown ocean water, I still marvel at the vastness of the ocean and how open and unencumbered I feel when I’m around it. The ocean brings back so many good memories of growing up and spending time with my own family there. I can’t even begin to count the numerous times we’ve gone swimming, fishing, camping and had picnics by the ocean in Hawaii. All those were the best times growing up especially because my dad loved the ocean. I hope our son who will have the honor of bearing his late grandfather’s name as one of his own feels the same way. I hope to take lots of pictures on this trip and to post a few here to share. I haven’t been to the coastline of Georgia so I’m looking forward to a couple of things besides seeing the ocean. I’m looking forward to the drive there because it’ll be somewhere I’ve never been before and I am looking forward to visiting a new town. Really, the significance of this visit is to meet some of my hubby’s extended family members that I have never met before, not even before we got married or at our wedding. In fact, I have only met my husband’s immediate family so meeting extended family is exciting to me. On this trip I will meet his only living grandparent, a cousin or two and an aunt and two uncles, I think. Like I said, it should be fun and I enjoy spending time with family. Updates when I return!

After going through the first 20 weeks of pregnancy with only a slight weight gain of 3.5 pounds, I have officially joined the rest of my counterparts with a significant weight gain in the last five and half weeks. Drum roll, please!!!! I have gained an additional 5.5 pounds bringing my grand total at about 25 weeks of pregnancy to 9 pounds! Doesn’t seem like much to you but it is to me. Suffice to say that my blood pressure continues to rock at 120/80 and hopefully will stay that way. The doctor did not seem at all concerned about my weight especially when it came out to a pound a week. Can y0u imagine if that were to happen as part of our normal lives? Yikes!

The appointment itself was pretty quick since there wasn’t much to talk about. We heard the baby’s heartbeat though he was being his stubborn self by trying to hide from us. Got measured for the fundal height to make sure I’m on target and I was at 25 weeks. The OB also went over our results from the last ultrasound which is no surprise to us that the report said they still could not get the baby’s heart measured. The interesting part was that the OB showed us in my chart the estimated due date of the baby at each visit. And as if the little bugger wasn’t almost right on target going back and forth between June 16th and June 15th. Despite the fact that his arms and legs seem to measure a week or more ahead as does his skull size, we are still expecting him to make his grand entrance in mid-June. I would expect that he might measure longer in the arms and legs with my six feet, two inches tall hubby! Another four weeks until the next prenatal appointment and we’ll be back with our regular OB then. We also have the gestational diabetes test to look forward to. woo-hoo.