Happy 32nd Hubs!

Today was a fun day in our house. Rand turned 32! (Wow! what an old fart!)We went to church, out for lunch at Bob Heavens and then came home to eat some from-the-box cake thanks to a Meijer special. I was especially excited since baby S loves any form of carb imaginable. Oh and the sugary sweet kinds? yep, those are definitely his/her favorite! It has been a snowy blowy winter weekend here in West MI. Yesterday we hunkered down after learning how to give our future child CPR and basic first aid. Besides watching lots of TV and SNL on the computer, Randy did what he does best these days-- worked on the baby room. As for myself, well, I just napped a lot. We also fell victim to several phone calls from the fam in Florida..they couldn't resist rubbing in the 70 and 80 degree temps and tales of times at Archies (my dad's favorite restaurant/biker joint down in Ocean Village.)
My tummy is getting huge! I can't believe I still have eight weeks (plus?) to go! Life is getting a little uncomfortable these days...

The Birthday boy with the cake I made. Yep, it says "32" in Jelly Beans. Pretty creative, I know. At least it tasted good (as evidenced by the missing piece which Randy ate prior to taking the official bday picture.) Happy Birthday Sweetie!!!

Preparing for Childbirth

The general look on my face during class...

A few weekends ago, my sweet sweet hubs and I went to our first class together. The title of this class, like the title of this blogpost, was "Preparing for Childbirth." Sounds fun doesn't it? I bet your sooooo jealous! Yep 10 hours in 2 short days (fri/sat) of learnin' fun about the joys of labor, pain, children, breastfeeding, infant care, pain, labor and oh yeah! what to do about the pain!

So, anyhow, after having a few weeks (three to be exact) to detox from the horrid images that stained my brain, I feel I can finally write about it. But, first, I must say, that I was really (no sarcasm, for reals) glad we went.

If I were able to ask the people who created the videos for this class some questions I would ask include:
1. Why the 90's? Would it be possible to update sometime this decade?
2. Could you please warn us before very gross images are about to take place on the screen?
3. Was sound really necessary?
4. Could we focus a little more on the END RESULT verses the journey through...childbirth?
5. What is a perineum anyway? (lots of assumption on labels of female parts...I needed a refresher class even though I was a biology major in college I guess)

It was interesting being in a class with the hubs. I don't particularly like drawing attention to myself in the first few minutes of a class. You know, get a feel for the crowd. Oh no, Hubs had words to say in the first few minutes. Yep, we were that "question asker" couple that was real open about our naivety. Woo hoo! Go us! First time parents without a clue!

The funniest moment was during a breastfeeding video where a little kid jumped up on his mom's very full breast and slapped it while going for the food (nipple.) Rand was red as a tomato; every dad in the room was trying to conceal their laughter.

All in all, though, it was pretty helpful and I plan to keep that binder full-o-information quite handy in the next few months. Does anyone else have stories on this to share? I can't be the only one who has a love/hate feeling about preparing for childbirth classes.....right?

The Elixir of Love

One of my all time favorite movies is "Pretty Woman." The whole movie is great but I especially like the scene where Julia Roberts gets all dressed up in a red and goes out for a night to the Opera. I've always secretly wondered what that would be like....

Until last night, I've never been to the Opera. And I have to say, I thought it was awesome! Oh and, uh, by the way, THANKS mom and dad, who generously gave opera tickets and dinner to me, Randy, Erik and Jilly to celebrate Valentines Day.

Randy and Erik were not as excited/thrilled (especially from the get-go) about the idea of attending the opera. I think we all have a few stereotypes about this sort of thing.There were various comments from the boys about "skipping out and hitting the golf show," or " heading down to Founders for a drink" but we DID go and stayed for the WHOLE THING and it was funny and beautiful and cute and definitely entertaining.

I was unsure of how I would like hearing Italian language in song the entire time and having to adjust my focus between the English subtitles listed above the stage and the actual singing/acting going happening on stage, but it turned out to be just fine once I got used to it.

The soprano voice was absolutely amazing. Her voice, paired with a full orchestra and crystal clear male voices (tenor and baritone) made it like a party for the eyes and ears. It was also really neat (for me) because when the soprano sang especially loud and clear, the baby, on numerous occasions, did somersaults in my stomach! I think s/he is going to be a fan of music:-)

My favorite character in the production is the little man in the funny jacket in the picture above. He was the "doctor" who sold potions (Bordeaux vino) to the naive townspeople. He had various solos and, as Jill put it, "sang like a guy in an Italian spaghetti chef commercial." We all laughed at his performances. They were full of wit and funny little fat man dances!

So, in summary, if you get a chance...and you haven't gone...see the opera sometime in your life. It was really amazing and I'd definitely go again. I wish I would have brought my camera.....

Are you a Tightwad?

For all of you living in West Michigan, I have a great website for you! My husband (who, is, really, one of the biggest tight wads I know besides maybe my dad and this dude I work with, Kev) opened my eyes to this great blog site with all kinds of deals related to Grand Rapids.

Here is the link: http://grandrapidstightwad.blogspot.com/

On the site you'll find all kinds of great deals and great free events in the GR area. I, myself, plan to check it out quite frequently. This weekend we are going to hit a baby garage sale in hopes to find some gently used baby essentials for baby setsma. I love deals!

Have a great weekend!