Ok, really? That's not very neighborly.

You would think that being full of pregnancy hormones and happiness that I would find all children wonderful.

I don't. I am great with kids, I know how to handle them, but when it comes to children of the general population, I'm not usually a fan. When I go to a restaurant or to the store, I just want to avoid children, because let's face it: the majority of children we see in public aren't well behaved.

Well, not the ones that you remember. I am only capable of remembering the heathens of the universe.

I moved into this apartment complex in August of 2009, and Travis moved in after we got married that December. Until about 2-3 months ago, we had the same next door neighbors from day one, and they were awesome. What made them awesome? They were quiet. It was a mother and her two boys, and later I think she got married or got engaged or something, because a guy moved in. Even then, they were remarkably quiet and to themselves, which is what I like in a neighbor. I can't think of a single time that I was bothered by any noise coming from their apartment.

Fast forward to a few months ago when my old neighbors moved out, and the new neighbors moved in.

About a week or so after I noticed that we had gotten new neighbors, I was driving through the parking lot to our garage and was frustrated when there was a kid riding a bicycle slowly in THE MIDDLE of the road-thingy. He turned, saw that there was a car behind him, and continued riding in the middle. Of course, I was tempted to speed up and hit him, but in fear of criminal punishment, I opted to just be patient.

Did I mention there are sidewalks ALL OVER our complex that he could have been riding on? Because there are.

There have been many instances similar to this, where he's just playing in the road, riding his scooter, etc. What's crazy to me is that as long as I have lived here, there have always been a good number of kids near us, and they all know that when a car is coming, move out of the way. They're just smart like that.

Then the other day, we took Ethan down to the pool, and after a while, the kid next door and a friend came down to the pool, threw their toys in the water and then sat to eat a snack of some sort. We had brought down some toys for Ethan as well, and we didn't mind that other kids were playing with them, because the other children were normal. When my neighbor-kid (who is like, 10) got in the pool, get grabbed Ethan's blow-up boat (that is intended for small children) and jumped in and he and his friend started fighting with it, etc. My solution to the problem was to just steal neighbor-kid's watergun, but I again, decided to be an adult and not steal from a child.

That brings me to today. To provide visual aid, here is the front of our apartment:

The garage on the left, the front door next to it and the window on the left are all a part of our apartment. The right garage, door and window are all for our neighbors.

If anyone is my friend on Facebook, you may recall seeing this update:

After I posted that, I grabbed my pillows and got comfortable on the couch, popped in a DVD and was ready to fall asleep.

Then the banging started. At first, I thought it my upstairs neighbors, as their stairs are on the other side of one of the walls in our living room, so I occasionally hear thudding, but then I realized it wasn't them. The thudding was lasting too long to go just up or down the stairs.

Then I realized it was coming from next door. I laid on the couch, trying to ignore it, and the banging continued. I finally decided I was hungry anyway, so I got up, and started to eat lunch, and the banging was still happening intermittently. It was kind of like, "BANG. BANG. BANGBANGBANG..........BANG. BANG.......BANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANG" it was seriously driving me nuts.

Then I turned into that neighbor. I opened the front door, only to find it was that freakin' kid from next door that I can't stand banging on his own front door, gave him a dirty look and came back inside to finish my lunch.

Then, it stopped. And I was so happy. Of course, right as I was finding my peace and happiness, the banging started up again. I had been texting my best friend, Kim, back and forth about how I was ready to beat the crap out of this kid for interrupting my exciting nap, and I told her I was going to go out there, politely ask him why he was banging on the door, and if he was locked out, (his family's vehicle is there) offer for him to use my cell phone to call his parents and ask them to unlock the door...afterall, maybe they're napping too, and completely deaf. Who knows.

Then I heard the lawn people and their blower right outside my front door, so I had to wait for them to go away before I could go outside to handle the nuisance child, and when I did, he was gone.

Next time, I'm just going to start banging on my walls, turning my television/music all the way up and hollering (to myself, I guess). If they were to knock on my door and ask why all of the noise, I'd probably just say, "Oh, can you hear that? My bad."

In short, I can't stand the kid next door. We're going to have a long summer coexisting in this complex together.

Third Trimester?! Are you kidding me?!

How far along: 27weeks, 4 days

How big is baby: According to thebump.com, the baby is about the size of an eggplant. He weighs about two pounds!

Total weight gain: About 9lbs or so.

Sleep: Sometimes, I sleep really well, and sometimes I don't.

Maternity Clothes: Definitely

Morning Sickness: Nope

Food cravings: Nothing new.

Food aversions: Nothing new.

Challenges: Doing anything without grunting and also a lot of back pain.

Movement: All the time! :)

Boy or Girl?: Boy.

What I’m looking forward to: Everything. Seeing him for the first time. Getting his nursery together.

What I miss: A painless back.

Next appt: I think it's next Friday, but it's probably this Friday. Thankfully, they always give me a reminder call. This is the appointment I'm dreading--the glucose testing to test for gestational diabetes. FUN!

I'm seriously in disbelief over how quickly this baby is growing!

I truly cannot believe that I'm officially in the 3rd trimester of this pregnancy, which only means 2 things:


1. Baby Nathan will be here before I know it
2. School will be back in session before I know it. :(


I'm not too excited about #2, but that's life, I suppose.


A question I have gotten surprisingly frequently or have heard it being discussed is drinking alcohol during pregnancy. I do drink occasionally, but when I say occasionally, I actually mean it, unlike that distant relative you have that says, "Oh, I don't drink often" and everyone knows they're lying. If and when I drink, it's a glass of wine, maybe once a month. This year at my family's Christmas Eve gathering, I poured a glass of wine, took two sips and forgot all about it.



So, the argument is that having a glass of wine once in a while during pregnancy is perfectly harmless, but here's the thing: why drink at all? In the last few months, there have been two instances where I thought to myself, "If I wasn't pregnant, I'd probably have a glass of wine right now" but it's something that I would never do. I'm not saying that I judge people that do choose to have the occasional drink during pregnancy, but being that fetal alcohol syndrome is a very real condition for babies, I just don't see how it's worth the risk.


I occasionally follow a message board on a pregnancy website and some of the expectant mothers there really freak out over issues that I don't always see as being an issue. For example, someone was talking about a pregnant friend who is hoping to deliver at 38 weeks. While I personally am hoping to go into labor naturally, if the doctor of this friend isn't worried about delivering the baby early, then that's between that patient and the doctor, in my opinion.


Yesterday, there were multiple posts on the board about putting a carseat in a shopping cart and the huge danger that it can bring. They were posting articles and talking about how they judge any mother who puts her baby's carrier in the carseat, but most of the articles mentioned that the baby's carseat wasn't properly snapped into the grocery cart and/or they were not wearing their seat-belt while in the carseat.


As these women bring up these topics, I find it a little surprising that I see many of them talking about having a glass of wine here and there. When I brought up that I had personally chose not to drink at all during my pregnancy, because "I don't need it, so why do it" two whole people agreed with me.

As I said before, I just don't see how it's worth the risk to drink at all to people. When I first found out I was pregnant, I decided to cut all of my caffeine (that wasn't chocolate, of course) out of my diet, because I figured that none was better than any, but I changed my decision (with my doctor's advice) when I could no longer handle the headaches from the caffeine withdraws.

Pregnancy definitely brings a lot of opinions from strangers. 


I guess if I decide to snap my baby's carseat into the grocery cart, I'll be sure to keep that a secret from the women on that website.

I'll Miss You, Grandma

I really appreciate the phone calls, texts and comments that I have received since my last post about my grandmother, and it has taken me a few days to find what I wanted to say about her passing, because it just felt weird putting it on the internet. I think it's because everyone has that person on Facebook who is having some type of mega-crisis and they're always asking for sympathy. I just don't want to be that person, and I don't want to make my grandmother's passing about me.

After she requested to be on Hospice care at the hospital, I made it a point to spend as much time with her as I could. I can't remember which day exactly...I want to say it was Tuesday, when I went to leave for the evening, she grabbed both of my hands and told me how much she loves me, and that I 'better not forget it.' She also told me to take care of myself and Baby Nathan. I am so thankful that we were able to have this moment and talk about how much we loved each other, because it's a moment that I wouldn't trade for anything. I even told my mom recently that I've been lucky so far, that when my Grandmom died in 2006, the last thing she said to me was, "I love you" and the last thing my dad said to me before he died in 2010 was that he was proud of me and that he loved me.

On Wednesday, I was asked to spend the day with her at the hospital because my mom was exhausted, and since I don't have work right now, it made perfect sense to me to do it. I got there at 8am and she was in a lot of pain. I did everything I could do comfort her and ease her pain. I continuously asked the nurses for pain medicine, and they were diligent in fulfilling my requests. I also sat by her when she was awake and held her hand, giving her sips of water, and occasionally wipe her face with a cool wash cloth, which seemed really soothing to her. After a couple of hours of this and her pain becoming unbearable, I asked her if she would like a sedative so she wouldn't have to be awake for the pain, and she eagerly agreed. I asked the nurse for it and they gave it to her, and for the rest of the day, she was able to sleep. She woke up a few times asking for water, but would fall back asleep before I even had time to grab the cup. Around 7, I left for about 2 hours to go watch my husband play the drums in our church's band just a few minutes away at the Galveston Strand, and returned when it was over. I stayed until 11:30ish and found that it was hard to leave. I hated leaving her when she was asleep, because I didn't want to miss her being awake.

The next morning, (Thursday, June 14) Travis woke me up at 7 to let me know that my mom had just called with the news that Grandma passed away. The first thing I said was, "I'm so relieved" because watching her suffer was difficult for me. She told me on Wednesday that she was ready because the pain was too much. She had accepted it, and I did too. I just wanted her pain and suffering to end, and I am still thankful that it's over, because I believe in Heaven, so in my heart I know that she's in Heaven and for the first time in many years, she isn't in pain. She's been reunited with her sons that passed away before her, and while I know that we will all miss her here, it brings me comfort and peace to know that she's there.

Overall, I haven't cried much about it, but I think because I have such a strong belief that Heaven exists, it comforts me. The things that get me choked up are thinking about my nephew, Ethan dealing with this. He has seen her and spent time with her almost every single day of his entire life. He's only 6 years old, and it breaks my heart that he can't fully grasp it all just yet. He brought her so much joy in the last 6 years; joys that she probably wouldn't have had, because she's been in pain for a long time, but Ethan is the kind of kid that makes you forget your troubles and your pain. He just makes things better because he is a genuinely sweet child who loved her a much as she loved him.

I also keep worrying about my younger brother and how he's taking it. He's 21, but she was his second mom. He and I have talked about my relationship with our Grandmom (who passed in 2006) compared to his relationship with our Grandma and how similar they are. Grandmom was my second mom. She was a huge part of my life and without her, I wouldn't be the person I am today. I love all of my grandparents and always have, but my relationship with her was different. The same is true for my brother and our Grandma. I know what he's going through, because I've been through it. I know how hard it is, and if I could do anything to keep him from going through it, I would, but I can't, and that it what's hard for me.

Lastly, I keep worrying about my mom. My mom has been taking care of my Grandma and Grandpa since 2004 when my Grandma fell and broke her hip. Being a caretaker is not easy. How do you tell an adult who has been making decisions for themselves their whole life that they can't do something? In addition to that, when a person because disabled, they have to process it, and in that process, there's a lot of anger that gets misplaced. Since my mom was here every day, my mom often got the anger put on her, because my Grandma really had trouble accepting that she couldn't do things she wanted to. It has been hard for my mom, just as it was hard on my Grandma, but I can never applaud my mom enough for not giving up and walking away. My mom has had plenty of moments where she thought she was going to lose it, but chose family, and I am proud of her for it. I know that she is relieved as well that my grandmother is no longer in pain, and she is finally at the point where she can focus on herself again, which is wonderful, but at the same time, she just lost a parent. It doesn't matter if your parents are 50 or 100, losing a parent is losing a parent. I even told me mom last week that I wanted to help her through this as much as possible, because she has never lost a parent, and unfortunately, I have.

If there's one thing that I know, I know that my family, although dysfunctional more often than not, certainly understands the true meaning of family, and because of this, I know that family comes first. Family is about unconditional love, and I am so grateful that I have been taught that, because I want the same for my family.

I think the thing I'm going to miss the most about my Grandma is our jokes. For example, when I was in college, I used her address as my permanent mailing address, so I get a lot of junk mail here, including catalogs. I always gave her a hard time about "reading my mail" if she looked through my catalogs before I could, and she always thought it was funny, so eventually, the minute I'd look to check my mail, she'd say, "I already read it all!" or something along those lines, and it would always crack her up. Maybe she'll get some of my mail in Heaven. :)

 Maxine Carroll Waldrop

January 10, 1933 - June 14, 2012

Maxine  - 16 years old

Maxine - 1960ish
She looks so fabulous to me in this picture.

She was beautiful.

An Update.

Yesterday we had our monthly doctor's appointment, and Nathan is still doing well. I'm 26 weeks, and his measuring at 27 weeks, so I keep thinking maybe down the road they'll move my due date up, which would make me happy so I can see him sooner! :)

Travis's parent's just returned from a 3-week trip to California, which included visiting San Diego, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and of course, Disneyland---I have to share what they brought back:

ZOMGCUTEADORABLE!!

I'm talking about all of that because I'm having trouble finding the right segue to what I really want to talk about, which is news about my grandmother.

For the last few days, I've been wanting to find a way to let people know what's going on in our family, but I also don't want people to think I'm just asking for sympathy, because I'm not. I just want people in my life to know what's going on, so I'm opting to share information on my blog, because not everyone on my Facebook reads my blog (because I am so popular and I have like 15 trillion friends of course! ...ok, not really. I just have trouble saying no to friend requests), and I figure people that actually care about me are probably the ones reading this...so here we go.

In terms of grandparents, I have been blessed in my life. Until 2006, the only grandparent that I had that was deceased was my paternal grandfather, and he died before I was born. My mother's parents both divorced and remarried in the 1970's, so I had an abundance of loving grandparents, all of whom lived in the same city as me. I never had to travel far to visit grandparents...just down the street, and I loved it. Growing up, we never said things like, "my step-grandmother" or "my step-grandfather" ...it was Poppaw and Grandmom (my mom's dad and his wife) and Grandma and Grandpa (my mom's mom and her husband). All I knew was that they were my grandparents and that I loved them and they loved me.

In 2006, my Grandmom (who was technically my step-grandmother) passed away. Anyone who knows me knows that she was one of the most important people in my life, and that she and I had a very special bond. Losing her was definitely one of the hardest things I've ever dealt with, but in time, I learned how to live my life with her in my memory.

This year has been really intense in terms of my grandparents. My Poppaw (my mom's dad) has had some really difficult health problems, including  waking up one day and being essential paralyzed in his legs around Thanksgiving, to having pneumonia and contracting infections that he's had trouble battling, and a couple of months ago, I really thought that he wouldn't make it much longer. Thankfully, he has really progressed and seems to be on the road to recovery. In addition to dealing with all of his health scares, my Grandma (my mom's mother) has had some health problems. They discovered some heart problems, she's lost a lot of weight and can't get any back on (she weighs less than 100lbs), they've questioned her liver, and just a multitude of other things. On Monday of last week (June 4) she was admitted to the hospital for pneumonia. They began treating her with antibiotics immediately, but on Wednesday, the doctor met with our family and informed us that she has lost nearly all of her bone marrow, and that because your immune system is highly dependent on bone marrow, they didn't think she'd recover. They offered to do a bone marrow biopsy to see what was causing the loss, but bone marrow biopsies are painful, and aside from that, my Grandma didn't think that the testing would be worth it. She's 79, and due to extremely advanced osteoporosis and her other health problems, her overall quality of life has been pretty miserable, as she is pain constantly.

She and my Grandpa came to this decision together, and when I learned of it, I was completely supportive. After watching my Grandmom suffer for years with her health problems, I strongly feel that quality of life is far more important than anything else.

When Grandma and Grandpa reached the decision to opt out of testing, I just didn't know how long before the pneumonia would really take it's toll on Grandma. On Saturday night, Travis and I went to visit her, and there were a lot of people there, and she was sitting up and enjoying seeing everyone. During the night, her pneumonia got worse, so much so that she asked the doctors to quit treating her for pneumonia and put her on Hospice care. Originally, I heard that the doctor's were predicting that she'd make it through today, but now they're not too sure of when things should happen.

I just ask that if you're reading this, you keep our family in your thoughts/prayers. I know that this loss will be much harder for some than others, but it will be hard for everyone. My biggest prayer is that people like my Grandpa, mom and younger brother, Bryan, find the comfort they need. They are the 3 people that have spent the most time with her over the years, and I know that this loss will bring a range of emotion, and I'm praying that they will find comfort with their feelings and emotions, and they aren't afraid to talk to someone if they need to. If there's anything that our family agrees on, it's that our Grandma wouldn't want people worrying over her, and I know that she is worried about everyone.

She even told me last night to be careful on my drive home, and I told her that I promised I would, but she doesn't need to worry about me. She just needs to rest. I don't want her to have any more worries. I just want her to find peace, and to only think about good things.

25 weeks and counting...

How far along: 25weeks, 5 days

How big is baby: According to thebump.com, the baby about the size of a cauliflower, weighing about 1.5-2.5lbs, measuring 13-14ish inches.

Total weight gain: About 6lbs.

Sleep: Getting better. I was having trouble sleeping on my right side because it was making my hip hurt, so Travis and I decided to try switching sides of the bed, and it's been a good choice.

Maternity Clothes: Definitely

Morning Sickness: Nope

Food cravings: For a while I wasn't really wanting sweets as much, but in the last couple of weeks, I've been wanting them more.

Food aversions: Nothing new.

Challenges: Any time I drop something, (which is all the time) it's so hard to bend down to pick it up, and it's even harder to come back up.

Movement: All the time!

Boy or Girl?: Boy. 

What I’m looking forward to: We're planning to start our baby registries tomorrow, and I'm also looking forward to getting the nursery underway.

What I miss: Sleeping on my stomach. Last night at some point, I must have decided to lay on my stomach, and it was so uncomfortable it woke me up.

Next appt: This Monday.

I know it's been forever since my last update, and I'm sure nobody really noticed, as the school year was coming to an end, I just didn't have time to update, and when I did, I found my time was better used laying around and being unproductive...speaking of being unproductive,

SUMMER IS HERE!

I'm so happy that it finally arrived. Those last few weeks were crazy. I had students doing/saying all sorts of crazy things. Examples, you ask? 

I gave my acting classes about a week and a half to prepare for their finals, which was to find a scene or monologue in the library. Once they found it and had it approved by me, they were to complete a worksheet over the scene and then begin working on it.  They had 3 days in the library and the rest of the year in class. The last Friday of the year, I was disappointed because of low attendance in class, and that day as I was leaving for the afternoon, I see one of my students that had skipped class, and had their final the day after Memorial Day. I asked the student why they weren't in class that day, and the conversation went as follows:

Me: Where were you today? You missed the last chance to work on your scene before Tuesday.

Student: Oh, well, I wasn't at school today.
Me: Really? Then why are you here at 4pm on a Friday? You came back?

Student: Well, I was here, but I wasn't here.

Me: So in other words you were skipping?

Student: No, no, no, no, I was in school but I wasn't in school.

Me: Well if you weren't in school, why are you still wearing your ID? Is it a fashion choice? 

Student: ......

Me: I tell you what, I don't really care if you skip class or not, because it isn't my grade that's on the line. But I'll tell you what I do care about...I care about your partner that couldn't practice today because you were skipping class. 

Student: I'm sorry.

Me: Tell that to your partner, not to me. Again, it's not my grade. It's yours. Have a great weekend.

Then I continued toward my car, and it felt like one of those moments in a movie where the wind is blowing in the character's hair and they have excellent music on the soundtrack.

In addition to that, if I had a dollar for every time I had a student tell me, "You don't understand. School is almost over, I'm done doing work" I would be at least $100 richer. 

In other news, we've still yet to really begin on preparing for Baby Nathan's arrival. We have picked out the bedding that we want, and this week I was even going to get the crib, but Target has discontinued the crib I was wanting to get.

Thanks a lot, Target.

I was shopping online when I saw that none of the Target stores in my area were currently carrying the crib, but the Galleria Target store allegedly had 2, so I rounded up my brother-in-law and his wife, The Hazzardous Housewife to join me in the exciting adventure to the Galleria to get Nathan's crib. They were still showing that they had two, but a man from the store-room, Larry, explained to us that it was an error in the system, as he scoured the store-room for us, and that it showed in the system as a discontinued item. He did offer a little hope though...he said that Target was about to put out a new line of baby items, and that they often bring back popular items, and sometimes they're just updated. He said that this particular crib is very popular and he wouldn't be surprised if they brought it back. Here's to hoping that Larry is on the right track. :)

Travis and I also made our first trip to Babies-R-Us since we found out that we were having a baby, and we picked out the baby's bedding, assuming he'll eventually get a crib to sleep in.

The picture is horrible, just like the Babies-R-Us website.

It's overwhelming to me when I think of how loved our child is already, and he isn't even here yet. I know how much I love him, and of course Travis does, but when people that are friends and family get excited about Nathan, I'm overwhelmed. Above I posted the link to my sister-in-law's new blog, and she has recently begun learning to sew, and she made Nathan wash cloths because she needs a project, but I think that she also just wants to do fun things for her first nephew. On the last day of work, one of my teacher-friends was so sweet and gave me a gift bag full of brand-new (and adorable!) outfits for Nathan. Again, it just overwhelms me how much people love our baby already. :)

In my hiatus from blogging, I didn't really take time to take pictures of my growing belly, but I did take one, so I'll leave you with that.

Until I remember to post again,