Second Breakfast

I would make a good hobbit. Second breakfast is becoming my favorite time of day.
On days when I don't have an appointment or something, my morning routine is generally as follows:
Get up at 7 am. The three of us stumble into the kitchen and each eat a bowl of honey nut cheerios. Well, the organic alternative. Get Xiney ready for school, and us all out the door. Then I drive Xiney to school and Jason to work.
When I get back home, I make a cup of tea and drink it while I check my emails and such. Depending on the day, this can take me to about 10am. Second breakfast time!
I make myself something delicious, usually involving fried eggs. Breakfast tacos, or homefries and eggs and homemade bread. Pimped out oatmeal is another choice - oatmeal with brown sugar, dried fruit, dates, nuts, and whatever I can find.
Obviously, I'm back on my "food is wonderful! I love food!" kick.
Just so I don't come across as a lazy sloth, usually I am productive after that - do dishes and housework , cook dinner ahead of time, make phone calls, etc. In a relaxed way of course. All this can pass for bed rest, compared to working.

Thanksgiving traditions - friends and family

Yesterday I realized that I have done something different almost every Thanksgiving for the past 10 years or so. I guess you could say I have no tradition, and I like it that way. Just to amuse myself yesterday, I made a list of how I've spent every Thanksgiving since I graduated from college in 1996. Hidden within is a very brief history of the past ten years.

1996 - New York. Spent waiting tables at Cornelia Street. After the long but easy big money-making shift, I sat down to a lovely meal with co-workers that I loved.

1997 - 2002: Austin:
1997 - Spent with ex-gf Sharyn. We went to a country buffet with awful food. Depressing.
1998 - Again went out to eat. Kirby Lane this time. Better food, but still the wrong life-partner. I think I worked at the movie theater later that night, and noone showed up to any shows.
1999 - Very fun one. Believe it or not, this was the first time I ever hung out with Jason. I was dating Tom, and we had Thanksgiving over at his house. Roasted fish over the firepit. Friends dropping in and out. Jason was one of them, and I gave him a ride home.
2000 - I was dating Jason now, but we didn't spend the day together for whatever reason. I had dinner with my roommate, Laurie, her boyfriend, and her grandparents I think.
2001 - 3 month old Xiney there. Had dinner at Mary's house, where I was living. My most vivid memory of this year was bouncing Maxine in the bouncy seat while I shelled the pecans, harvested from the huge trees in our yard, to make a pie.
2002 - Went to Mary's bf's Wolf's house in West Austin. Maxine took her first steps there.

2003 - 2007: St. Louis:
2003 - went to Jason's sister Chelle's house. His aunt insisted on nobody bringing food, but after all our years of potlucking in Austin I was offended and brought stuff anyway. Kinda awkward year, after this we decide to see family around Christmas instead.
2004 - My sister Lashley visited. The day before, I brought her to an anarchist Thanksgiving at CAMP, where there were apparently no forks. We also cooked a great meal; we got most of our recipes from Organic Living magazine.
2005 - Went to Chelle's house again. Much better year this year, I think I've learned to be thankful when somone else wants to cook.
2006 - Spent with friends at Adam and Linsey's house. Adlins cooked a turkey, and we all brought stuff, another fun year.
2007 - Many of our friends will be with family this year, but we'll be having dinner at our new friends Amy and Ian's parents house in North City. It should have all the right ingredients: kids running around, eclectic mix of people, and a relaxing dinner with friends.

After - We did have a great time. Very neat people there, we are worn out with talking and eating delicious food. Hope you all had a great day!

And now for somethig completely different.

Yes, this really is how we spend evenings at home together. We're simple people.



Having fun with one of the strangest books ever written. When we read it we like to give Dollface a creepy, robotic voice to match her countenance. Or sometimes experiment with the "housewife on the verge of a nervous breakdown" effect. I know you want to rush out and buy it, but you can't, it's out of print.
Actually, if I could compare it to anything, it would be the Raggedy Ann and Andy books, from what, the 1930's? When I was little, I always got a strange, desolate feeling from those books. Maybe it was the age of the book, perhaps it was my mother's when she was growing up, it was yellowed with age. Or maybe its the idea of an animated doll, lifeless but going through the motions of human activity. Deep.

Subatomic What?

No, not subatomic. Subchorionic, as in subchorionic hematoma, as in the reason why I've been in bed reading so much lately.
Now that the ob clinic has so kindly given me a name to google (gee, this would have been nice information 3 weeks ago when it started), I've come across a great informational site, here:

The Subchorionic Hematoma Page

Basically its a blod clot that grows in your uterus. It can either resolve itself, or not. Most do. The page linked is really great because it contains a lot of women's stories, in detail of what happened in what week of pregnancy.
On Monday, we saw a heartbeat, and a large dark space where the clot used to be, where hopefully another one will not grow.
So now we all have a better idea of what to visualize, eh?

Bedrest in Limboland

Well, this pregnancy has been a rocky road thus far. I was back in the ER this week, with heavy blood loss and a diagnosis of a detaching placenta. Toward the end of our eight hours there (in which they wouldn't let me eat, or drink any water, I hate hospitals) we got another ultrasound. The fetus was still there with heart beating. They said the chances of it continuing were about fifty percent.
I got home and stopped bleeding shortly thereafter, so as far as I know, I still have a viable pregnancy, so the best case scenario is that this turns into a closely monitored, high risk pregnancy. I have another ultrasound Monday morning. I've been on bedrst these past few days, reading Barbara Kingsolver first, listening to Radiohead over and over.
I am a firm believer in the power of positive thinking and prayer, So I'd like to ask for lots of visualizations of a healthy baby and a healthy placenta. The fifty percent number doesn't mean a lot to me, because whatever happens, it's a hundred percent happening. So for now I am staying positive.

I had a dream about my baby last night, as a newborn. In the dream I didn't know what the sex was, so I looked. She was a girl.
The chances that I'm right? Fifty-fifty.