I realize I'm being a little insensitive

Adrian is home sick. Again. This is the second day in a row. Don't get me wrong, I love my husband and when he is sick, I really feel for him and want him to get better stat. But my house is my domain during the day. I like to watch what I want to watch, listen to music as loudly as I want when I clean, not have to listen to snoring in the living room because he doesn't understand the concept of a bed, and just in general have my own space.

Not to mention, I'm 37 weeks pregnant, sore, tired, uncomfortable, having occasional morning sickness, swollen so badly to the point that my toes look like sausages you could pluck off and eat...you get my point.

Perhaps if he rubbed my feet when they were sore or went to the store at 10pm (not asking much here!!) when I was craving peanut butter M&M's, I might be able to muster up an ounce or two of sympathy. Instead, I told him he stunk and needed to take a shower.

I think this baby needs to make a quick exit because it's only getting worse by the day...

It pains me to say I told you so...NOT!

When I hinted at the fact that Adrian can be stubborn and frustrating in my last post, boy was it an understatement. He happens to be one of the most hard-headed people I've ever met in my life. Combine that with my stubborn streak and you can understand why our relationship can get a little volatile interesting at times.

He thinks he's always right. I know I'm usually right. He doesn't like to do anything unless it's his idea. I like to try to help him along the way, but it's mostly useless. Our conversations generally go a little something like this:

"You should really blahblahblah because blahblahblah is going to happen..."

 He ignores what I say and blahblahblah happens.

"I told you that was going to happen! Now I have to do blahblahblah to fix it because you didn't take care of it..."

 Wash. Rinse. Repeat. Every day of my life.

Well...I have been mentioning (and by mentioning, I mean I tell him any time we drive together) that his new truck's speedometer is off. As in, it shows 8-10 miles lower than what he's actually driving so kind of a big deal. I don't know what it is about men and their trucks, but ever since he got this thing, he drives faster than he used to.

On Sunday he got a ticket for speeding. His speedometer is off by about 8 miles, between the speed I saw him going and the speed the officer got on his radar. When the officer was done writing him up, I looked at him smiling.

"Jess, don't even say it."

"But please, can I??!"

"No."

Since I can't say it to him, I have to say it somewhere...

I TOLD YOU SO!

2008 - Present

Our lives have changed pretty drastically over the last few years.We've spent time with in-laws and families, exchanged traditions and experienced the highs and lows of the holiday season. Together we've spent Christmases overflowing with gifts and still others spent clutching the few pennies we had and making promises for next year.

When I look back on the few years we've spent together, the common thread I see is that whether our pockets are overflowing or completely empty, there is always enough. Enough food on the table. Enough time to make each other and our families feel special. Enough love to go around.

Our first year together was spent in Ventura/Camarillo with Adrian's family, then to Big Bear for Christmas Day with mine. We were young, unmarried, pregnant, broke, anxious yet hopeful. Our parents were nervous for us and what we had gotten ourselves into...

Christmas 2008 - Ventura, CA

This picture was taken three days before our wedding. We decided on the 20th to get married and somehow, in 7 days, a wedding materialized (thanks almost entirely to my parents who are amazing) and I married my frustrating, stubborn, lovable best friend. We had moved to San Diego that November because Adrian was laid off so we literally had nothing. But, as Adrian likes to say, money isn't real. Love is. Family is. And we officially, legally became a family that year.

Christmas 2009 - Alpine, CA

Last year was exciting because Gabriel was old enough to figure out how to open presents. We were actually able to spoil him, each other, our parents and my siblings; for a couple who hadn't had the pleasure of spoiling their families, it really, truly was the season of giving. It was so nice to, in a small way, bring joy to our loved ones. (I personally think our faces were a little brighter this year)

Christmas 2010 - Alpine, CA

This year, things are so different and yet reminiscent of the same feelings I had in 2008. We're a little older and wiser, settled in our role as parents and soon will be celebrating our second wedding anniversary. Any day starting after Christmas, our baby could arrive, leaving me with similar feelings...anxious, hopeful, excited, scared... 

We'll be spending this year at Adrian's parents' house, for both Christmas Eve and Day. As much as I'm sad to miss out on the festivities that are always so much fun at Nana's, I'm looking forward to Gabriel being able to spend some much needed time with his cousins on that side of the family. Plus, I'm not giving up too much because we're going to hopefully make it home in time to have a Christmas dinner at my parents' house. All in all, it's shaping up to be quite a lovely holiday!

Christmas 2011 - El Centro, CA

Christmas crafting

We've been having lots of fun around here, channeling the Christmas spirit. Gabriel has really enjoyed helping me put up the Christmas decorations around the house, from playing outside eating ice cream while Adrian put up lights to making hand print ornaments for our tree (which we have yet to get...tomorrow!). He's loving watching Elf, the Grinch and Rudolf and the Island of Misfit Toys, as well as having lots of kitchen dance parties to Christmas music with me.

Here are some of the fun things we've been up to/making...
 

Christmas Ornaments for Nana, Mimi and Tata, and Grandma and Grandpa...

Gingerbread Houses with Nina...

He was more interested in eating the candy.

And making random crafts...

No-armed snowman family

At this point, I'm a little crafted out, so I'm trading it in for Christmas shopping! In fact, as soon as I put Gabriel down right now for his nap, I'm heading back out to do some more damage...woooo!!!

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Don't worry, I've stopped wallowing in the what-if's and the should-have's of yesterday. We're on to bigger and better things...and by bigger, I mean my huge-ass (haha, huge ass...seriously though...) belly!

Cool random fact: Baby bean child has been baking for 34 weeks and Gabriel is now 34 months old. Kind of trippy, right? Kind of like all is right in the world or something.

Bean child is supposedly weighing in at a whopping 4.75 pounds, basically about the heft of a good-sized cantaloupe. So essentially, he makes up about 18% of what I've gained thus far, all of which has settled in the huge ass and the thunder thighs. It's all good, though. I'm planning to jump right back in to Dub-Dub for the Chub Chub, otherwise known as Weight Watchers, as soon as I can evict this little love child. My sissy needs to drop some poundage too so she said she would jump on the bandwagon with me.

I decided to switch doctors after my last extremely disappointing visit  and I am sooo happy with my decision. My friend/doula recommended that I consider it and at first I was pretty hesitant because I'm so far along but after meeting with my new doc, I'm really glad she encouraged me to consider the option.

We decided on a nursery theme and we're going to do cowboys/cowgirls. I found this amazing Lonesome Dove sign on eBay and I'm totally going to nerd-out and put it in the room (PS, is it bad to have a sign that says "saloon" in your child's room?). And maybe I'll put a picture of Cap'n Call and Gus in there, just because I can...haha. I've found a bunch of other fun stuff, especially on Etsy, that I want to buy but I'm attempting to have some restraint.

I follow/lurk on my Babycenter.com birth month group and I swear all of the women have already packed a hospital bag. Their nurseries are all finished and beautiful. As in, ready for the big day. I'm so not ready. I felt guilty that I hadn't done anything except unpack a few boxes of clothes so I set up the pack'n'play bassinet in our room next to my bed. It's really highlighting the stark reality of the fact that this baby could show its face in as early as 3 weeks. What the whuck? Seriously!

Enough baby, I'm sure you're sick of it but too bad because I still have 6 weeks, and then after that
you'll just be bombarded with obnoxiously cute pictures of the little bean and brother.

Speaking of obnoxiously cute...

Note to self - do not leave lotion at toddler's eye level...

We've finally gotten him to sleep in his bed again by convincing him that if he sleeps there, Santa will bring him this awesome Cars bed. It costs about million dollars between the frame and the mattress, but if it means he'll consistently sleep there,a I'm all in! Since we're getting him the bed, we're going to re-do his room in Cars stuff, maybe not completely, but at least a few cool things.

We've done a couple of Christmas crafts that I'll post as soon as I can go through the extremely exhausting task of uploading photos...but seriously, I keep forgetting. Hopefully we're getting our tree on Monday - we have a busy weekend with Adrian's work Christmas party on Saturday night and then a little vacay to Big Bear on Sunday. After the tree is up, I'm hoping I will find the motivation to do a little more Christmas crafting.

On a completely non-baby/Gabriel/obnoxious note, look at these pictures. I literally cried buckets looking through them because they are so gripping.