Archives for April 2009

Pregnancy Update

April 20, 2009 by Maren 17 Comments

Month 1: I felt fabulous!
Month 2: I felt fabulous!
Month 3: I felt fabulous!
Month 4: I felt fabulous!
Month 5: I felt fabulous!
Month 6: I felt fabulous!
Month 7: I felt fabulous!
Month 8: I feel fabulous! A couple more side effects than before, though, that need mentioning:

Sudden Urge to go the bathroom. Pee. Wait 5 minutes. Repeat. Cycle continues both day and night.
If you’re wondering what pregnancy feels like, don’t put one of those pregnancy bellies like they have at a maternity clothing store up your shirt and think that it will feel remotely similar. Instead, to have a more accurate simulation, shove a bowling ball up your shirt and walk around with it all day. This will help to simulate the feeling of a pregnant belly and also give you an explanation as to why most pregnant women always walk around like they’ve got a bowling ball up their shirt.
My old appendectomy scar that I received when I was in 7th grade has stretch marks extending diagonally from it. Now, it looks like I have the mark of Zorro on my belly. Riveting.

41 days left until due date! EEK!

Here’s the most recent pic, taken 3 weeks ago. I’ve ballooned since then and feel ginormus compared to this picture…So it’s not completely accurate, but you get the gist…

The Definition of Irony

April 17, 2009 by Maren 6 Comments

A few weeks back an older lady in our church, Margo, was not feeling her best. My husband was at a Bible Study small group, but due to it being a busy week compiled with a nasty sickness making its rounds, there were only 2 in attendance. Because the numbers were low, Michael and the other guy went out to eat instead and decided to pay a visit to our friend from church, taking her a bouquet of ‘get well’ flowers. When they got to her apartment, she was not there. She had gone to the grocery store for some dinner. Being rather goofy, they decided to sign the card in an unusual manner, just for fun. The card’s inscription read: “My dearest Margo, So sorry that you are not feeling well. Get better soon. With all my love, Hugh Jackman.“

Now unbeknownst to the guys, at the same time at the Whole Foods grocery store in Louisville, here is the situation that was transpiring between our dear friend Margo and a random shopper. Margo had just finished making her selections and was carrying her goods to the checkout line. The man who was in line in front of Margo, saw her overly occupied hands and made way to let her go before him. To him, she turned around and expressed thanks, then looked at the man as if she had seen him before. She asked the man, “Has anyone ever told you that you look like Hugh Jackman?” The man told Margo that he received that comment ALL the time. They exchanged more pleasantries and then she left the grocery store.

She made a few stops along the way home and returned to find flowers on her doorstep! Imagine her alarm when she read the inscription and wondered how on earth the local Hugh Jackman lookalike shopper could have known where she lived?!?! She called Michael and wondered if she should be concerned. However, when Michael laughed about the situation and explained it to her, they enjoyed a hearty laugh! All was well.

So, the moral of this story is: If you think Hugh Jackman is stalking you, it may just be your well-wishing friends.

They say pregnancy messes with the brain…

April 14, 2009 by Maren 2 Comments

In the last couple of weeks, I’ve done a few things that were drenched in dumbness.

I shredded my keys/badges in the shredder at work…oops– Try explaining that one to the boss.
I ordered a shower gift early, and printed out the directions only to find that the shower had already taken place ONE WEEK BEFORE.
I asked a lady which cream pie was the coconut cream pie…(there were 2 cream pies on the table: banana, and coconut). She looked at me like I had just arrived on planet earth and said, “The coconut cream pie has the coconut sprinkled on top.” Why do they have to make things so difficult these days???
I had another ‘incident’ but I’ve forgotten.

They say pregnancy messes with the brain. I think NOT! I’m normal, I promise.

And then, I became One

April 8, 2009 by Maren 3 Comments

I don’t really remember being scarred at the dinner table growing up. I remember having to TRY all foods, but not being forced to clean my plate and choke down every morsel of food on the plate. Maybe I’ve just glazed over the dinner table memory portion of my life, I don’t know. Regardless, the only thing I remember being forced to do was to TRY each food. As I have grown up, I’ve found that the trying has developed into liking new and different foods, and I’m thankful that I didn’t have the option while younger of turning up my nose to foods permanently.

But one thing that I have recently thought about, stewed upon, and smiled about was how my tastes have changed over the years. You see, growing up, there were things that my parents ate (and liked). I remember thinking that normal people just don’t touch these foods, yet my parents ate them with pleasure. Two of those were Triscuits (with pimento cheese spread) and shredded mini-wheats.

I remember going to my Nana’s and Papa’s and being served Shredded Wheat for breakfast (at that time, who knows if the mini wheat had been invented yet…). One ‘little’ shredded wheat pellet was more the size of an entire loaf of bread and to make matters worse, it was served with lukewarm milk. Anyone that has ever had to eat cereal with lukewarm milk knows the agony that this causes with every bite consumed. At that very moment, it was a deal clincher in my mind that FROSTED (MINI) WHEATS were most definitely for stopped-up old people.

Another memory I would have would be meals on the Meyers’s family vacations. Inevitably around lunch time, Dad would run into a grocery store somewhere in Podunkville to grab some lunch as we tooled down the road in our Suburban, 4 kids and 2 adults in tow; destination: Timbucktoland. I suppose that going into a grocery store with 4 kids would send any sane parent into cardiac arrest–and it was probably because of this that dad would go into the grocery solo while the kids sweat to death in the car, waiting for our lunch. He’d come back lugging an arsenal of miscellaneous foods, and it was inevitably predictable that part of that arsenal were TRISCUITS and PIMENTO cheese spread… Without hesitation, I would pass on that snack e.v.e.r.y. time. Pimento cheese spread was for the birds, and Triscuits were worm food. DISGUSTING. I remember trying to decide how anyone could favor the combination and actually LIKE pimento cheese spread…to make it worse, to eat it with something as offensive as Triscuits about made the bile rise in my throat.

Recently, I found myself with a hankering. I took a lunch break from work, perused the grocery store and decided upon something that 14 years ago would have caused me to question my normalcy. For the first time in my life, I bought pimento cheese spread. I was forced to laugh about the turn of events and called my dad to tell him the news: I had actually bought what I once despised.

Another revelation recently has been how I’ve actually bought mini-wheats and enjoyed them, though for trademark purposes, the ones I get are called Mini-spooners, if you care to know. Regardless, I actually enjoy the taste of them. What once was considered a despicable & disgusting food has now become a favored one.

Given my new track record, perhaps Triscuits may be all I eat one day. Eek. I hope not.

So my question to you is: What is one food that you a) HATED as a kid, b) would have NEVER guessed you could ever even tolerate it, but c) now you actually favor it as an adult?