HE GOT THE JOB! (a job post)

HE GOT THE JOB!!!! HOORAY!!!!
Now we can provide more detail...
It is in Dover.
It is at Liberty Mutual.
In Dover.
It is with computers.
And it is in Dover.
I guess what I'm trying to say is...
Somersworth Ward:
Your prodigal children are returning!

3 month shot

This photo is kind of bad because you can't see where my belly ends and my arm begins. Needless to say, my tummy is still pretty small, but I actually wanted to keep track this time. With Oliver I have a 7 month picture and a picture on my due date. I'm going to try and do pictures every month with this baby.



And...some cute Oliver pics!

Sweet miracle of miracles! (not a job post)

That is right ladies and gents (and mostly the Camerons) the sweet, sweet beauty that is the Tim Tam is now being made in America by Pepperidge Farm. We had them last night, and while (of course) not as good as Arnott's, they are still a delectable little treat for our bellies. For anyone who doesn't know, TimTams are a delicious Australian cookie that I have my siblings in Australia send by the boat load because they are SO GOOD. They are wafer-y, cream-y, chocolate-y, yummy goodness! We found these little beauties at Target for anyone who wants to give them a try:)

Side note to the Camerons: You can find Milo in the hispanic section of most grocery stores...so now you can have TimTam Slams whenever you want!

UPDATE: I just read that they are only available for a limited time...so get them while you can!

Yesterday's Interview

Shane is feeling pretty good about the interview process yesterday. He ended up interviewing with three different people. He was feeling pretty rotten about the first one, better about the second one, and great about the third one (she, too, was an anthro major!) We are hoping to know more next week. It sounds like as long as they can get through some red tape, he has it, but we will remain cautiously optimistic until we know more. Thank you, everyone, for your thoughts and prayers, it has really helped!

<3

Yesterday I heard Mystery Baby's heartbeat after an uncomfortable amount of time searching. It is so exciting hearing that little racing heart, I love it! Oliver was in the room, too, so he was able to hear it as well:)

At my last appointment the blood lab found a foreign antibody in my blood. The antibody is called Anti-E and is usually a product of Rh disease (one parent is positive, one is negative, that is what the little + or- next to your blood type is for) Most people are positive, some are negative. What is strange, though, is that both Shane and I are Rh + which means that the cause of this Anti-E was through a virus or bacteria I had that sensitized my blood. This happens to 2-3% of the population. Now this all means that my blood is not compatible with my baby's and that my blood likes to attack Mystery Baby's blood. The good news, though, is that I have the antibody in such small levels that it shouldn't really become a problem. The other good news is that Anti-E just makes a baby jaundice (instead of anemic or other hemolitic diseases that would cause the baby to be born early) so even if the levels do get high enough (which the doc at Dartmouth laughed and said there is not way they would) it would not mean a very increased risk. So every other month I have to have blood drawn to make sure the antibody levels stay in check. I also have to carry a special card saying that I have this antibody...and I just thought of this, but I probably can't give blood anymore either...
Anyway, one last thing about my appointment, we set the ultrasound date! April 2 is when we find out if Mystery Baby is a Mr. Mystery or Ms. Mystery! It can't come soon enough! We're very impatient people:)

Prayers

Yesterday Shane was called for an interview for a really ideal job. The interview is on Friday. This is his dream job and it would be a, well, dream come true if he got it. So what I am trying to get at is we need prayers. Lots of them. Shane is fasting tonight (so that he's not hungry for the interview!) and we're both praying non stop. If you could all just consider us for a second in your prayers the next couple of nights, we would be eternally grateful.
Thank you.

No appetite!?!?

Well, the impossible has happened. Perhaps you should start looking out your window for some horsemen to be bringing Armageddon because I have lost my appetite. Maybe it is balancing out the past 3 months where I have been hungry 24/7. I think that the hormones have changed the flavor of food for me.

I crave things and then they don't taste like I want them to. Case in point; today I wanted Sun Chips like nobody's business. When I had them they were...okay, but not what I wanted. They tasted too much like corn and didn't have enough salt on them. I think what I had really wanted was french onion. I also bought some Hershey's Nuggets, and those didn't taste right, either.

Most food has been making me feel pretty nauseous, too. Tomorrow is the end of my first trimester, when that is supposed to END but it looks like it is just beginning! I also find it hard to feel comfortable, which wasn't an issue until about 7 or 8 months with the last one, but it is hard for me to sleep through the night because of the discomfort.

This pregnancy is definitely different from Oliver's, that is for sure! Because of that I am pretty convinced that it is a girl, but I have been wrong in the past!

Valentine's Picture

I was able to retrieve the camera without incident, Hooray!

This is what I came downstairs to one Valentine's Day...
It was such a great surprise! I'm so grateful for such a thoughtful and generous husband.

Oops...

Yesterday morning I came down to a wonderful Valentine's surprise (we celebrate on the 13th). Shane had developed a poster sized family portrait and framed it along with a box of chocolate for Oliver and me. He also wrote each of us a wonderful little note. It was a great way to start the day.

Yesterday evening we went to the temple which was a great way to end the day. We were met there by the Stephensons, Flanders, Simpsons, Mark, and Diane G. It was a great session, and I'm always amazed (and thankful) for the silence in the temple.

After the temple we all went to the Texas Roadhouse restaurant. Good Texas cookin' for a pretty cheap price.

It was a great day, which I have no pictures of because (OOPS) I left my camera at the restaurant!! So today I am off to Nashua to [hopefully] retrieve my camera. Wish me luck!

bleck

First nausea (but not vomit) inducing food...baked beans. Yuck.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret

This was such a fun book to read. The book, by Brian Selznick is a mish-mash of text and illustrations. There will be 4 or 5 pages of text followed by a half dozen pages of pencil drawn illustrations. It is such a creative way to write a novel. The illustrations even won a Caldecott Award. The story follows Hugo Cabret who runs the clocks in a Paris train station. I don't want to give too much away, but the story ends up being about the movie maker Georges Melies. He was one of the first film makers and he invented the *special effect*. He was the first to make someone disappear on film. The rock group The Smashing Pumpkins were clearly inspired by him and based their music video for "Tonight, Tonight" on several of his films, including "A Trip to the Moon." The way that Selznick approaches the topic of this great man is masterfully done and I would recommend this for children and adults alike. (My grandmother's town is reading this for their One Book One Community book). It was a really fun way to learn about such an amazing film pioneer.

Below are the music video for Tonight Tonight (I believe the man at the beginning with the white beard is supposed to be Georges Melies) and the film A Trip to the Moon, made in 1902.

Radiohead!

This is my favorite band performing at the Grammy's last night with the USC Marching Band. I have given up a lot of my interests and hobbies after becoming a mommy, but I am glad to say that Radiohead is not one of them! I will be a rockin' out to Radiohead in my little old granny rocking chair when I'm 90! I'm going to be the coolest grandma on the block:)

Skeletons at the Feast

I should have known that ith a title like Skeletons at the Feast that this book was not going to be a pleasant stroll down a country lane...I just did not anticipate how disturbing this book by Chris Bojhalian would be. It is set right as World War II is ending and it is about East Germans' exodus to West Germany to escape the Russian invasion. The layout of the book is parallel story lines of 3 different groups of people (a German family harbouring a Scottish POW, a female labor camp, and a Jew who has been impersonating German soldiers for 2 years) throughout the book there are more character's points of view included, but these are the threee main story lines. The disturbing parts of the book are the descriptions of what the Russians did to their German captors (rape, torture, murder) and what the Germans did to the Jews (much the same). It is interesting to see the German characters coming to realize the atrocities being done to the Jews (in their naivete they believed the propaganda that simply said the Jews were being "relocated"). The book is based on quite a few journals that were kept during this time and on family accounts. If the book didn't have such disturbing images I would recommend it just to see the many perspectives of the end of the war and to see how ignorant many of the German people really were to what was going on in their country.

After I read Sarah's Key I vowed that I wouldn't read another WWII book for a while, but I was tricked by this one because someone at my mom's school suggested this and didn't say what it was about. Also I've read another book by Chris Bohjalian (Midwives...very good, you should go read it NOW) so I trusted that I would enjoy it. Instead, the two days that it took me to read it I was filled with an ill feeling and always anticipation of what was going to happen next to all of the characters (which, I suppose, is the mark of a good author). The book does have a happy ending (which is the only reason I read the whole thing...I figured there HAD to be a happy ending), but I won't soon be able to erase some of the images from my head.

The next book I am reading is The Color of Water by James McBride. It is about a biracial boy being raised by a white mother. I'm sure parts of this book will be harrowing as well, but I am ready to leave the 1940's behind. I plan to read this book along with Barack Obama's Dreams of my Father which is much the same premise. I would like to know how both of these mens' experiences compare and contrast to eachother.

Talk of the Nation

I listen to a show on NPR called Talk of the Nation where the host, Neil Conan and guests discuss political issues and then people call in and give their opinions. Today they were discussing Judd Gregg being nominated to Commerce Secretary and J. Bonnie Newman being appointed to his position as Senator. They wanted people from New Hampshire to call in and express their opinion. I did. And they took my call! That's right! I was on national radio! It was very exciting for an NPR geek like me:)

In other news my camera battery is dead so that is the reason there has been an absence of new photos. Hopefully I'll get my act together soon so I can keep getting pics of this cute baby I have:)

Very cool video