9/22/08

One year ago today, Alex and I committed our lives to each other in the shortest, most romantic ceremony I have ever cried at. I have no idea if it was actually short or romantic, but in my mind it was, plus, I CRIED like, THE WHOLE TIME. So I had no idea what was going on for most of it because I kept thinking, "Why am I CRYING so much? Pull it together woman!" I didn't talk a lot about our wedding on here because...well...I had some issues with it. But the most important thing is that we got married. I couldn't be happier and I certainly couldn't ask for a better partner in life. Sometimes I feel like I might be dreaming because we are just so good together. I wake up some mornings and just can't believe I married such a handsome, charming, loving man. He listens to me. He takes care of me. He makes me laugh. And this past year was hard. Not for us as a couple. We didn't struggle with typical newlywed problems. Instead, we both had family crises ranging from my father's spine surgery to his father's death. But we made it through together. I can't imagine going through life's difficulties and joys with anyone else.

Unfortunately, we did nothing to celebrate because I have been so sick. I started off the weekend puking and never really recovered. Nothing sounded fun unless it involved laying down in bed. The thought of dinner at a restaurant made my stomach turn. Which kind of left us up a creek as far as romantic plans go. So instead we watched a lot of football this weekend and went to work today as usual. And to top it all off, we had a doctor's appointment. YES! Nothing says "Happy Anniversary" quite like peeing in a cup and getting weighed in public.

But this visit was different because we (finally) were able to hear the heartbeat. It didn't take the doctor very long to find it, but I was still nervous as she moved the doppler around. And suddenly there it was. The sheer joy on Alex's face when he heard the woosh woosh woosh of the heartbeat was unbelievable. He looked so happy and so proud and then immediately whipped out his phone so he could record it, just like a true geek. It was the best anniversary present he could have ever given me. He looked at me with the same, perfect face of love that he did on our wedding.

He adores me. He adores our unborn child. I can't wait to celebrate many more anniversaries with him.

Mr. Clean

Well, that was fun. Sunday afternoon we lost power, along with another 180,000 people in our city. We were lucky and got ours back Monday afternoon. So we went only about 24 hours in the dark. My brother and sister-in-law are still without power. Since SUNDAY. Which is insane. It was so weird because it's not like there was a big storm. It was just a lot of wind. No rain. No lightning. Just wind, wind, wind.

But! Lack of power is an EXCELLENT excuse for not blogging! Certainly better than my usual "I'm siiiiiiiiick" excuse. Which...holy cow, am I ever sick. I have a sinus infection/allergic reaction/cold thing going on that has completely knocked me off my feet. I had a spectacular breakdown of epic proportions last night and I may or may not have scared the crap out of Alex with my wailing.

I am also just a teensy bit emotional.

So here's the thing. Alex has many, many qualities that are amazing and wonderful, but being a good cleaner is not one of them. His brand of cleaning involves wiping down a counter with water only and going, "Eh, good enough." And I know this about him. I went into this marriage fully understanding that he can't (or won't) clean. The first time I ever came over to his house (now our house), he proudly announced he had cleaned. And I saw all of this...stuff...everywhere and right then, I knew. This man is not a cleaning man. Which is FINE. He is a cooking and a laundry man, so really, it's not like I got the shaft here.

Except that now I can't clean. I've been sick for almost two months now. (Two months! BabyCenter said I should be feeling fine and regaining my appetite now. Suck it BabyCenter!) Which means I don't do anything. I lay in bed. I eat. I cry. I sleep. Everyday. Notice how "I clean." wasn't listed among those statement. Gagfest 2008 has prevented me from cleaning, much less CARING about cleaning. So that has left the bulk of the housework duties to poor, poor Alex. Which means the house is, in a word, disgusting. I'm not knocking Alex. Please understand me. He is doing a phenomenal job of taking care of me and the dogs and the house and the HUGE TREE that fell in our backyard (which...we have amazing friends who came over last night and helped move all that crap while our neighbor, WHO IS THE OWNER OF THE TREE, just sat and watched) and working full time and shuttling me around to various classes and appointments. He is AMAZING. He is also busy. He also hates cleaning. Cleaning has gone out of the window.

And that is the point of this post. Our house is gross. I could have just written that and saved you all a lot of time and energy. But instead you read the word "clean" a lot and realized that our house is not. There is crap everywhere. It smells. I am appalled by it, yet not motivated enough to do anything other than gag and run back upstairs.

Last night during Super Meltdown #37 of 2008, I was so miserable and all I wanted was my mom. And finally Alex asked, "If your mom came would she, like, clean the house?" And when I said, "Yes," I am SHOCKED that he did not immediately pick up the phone and call her. Maybe he waited until I fell asleep. But I won't be surprised if one of our moms shows up this weekend to help their poor, decrepit children clean their house. We need our mommies and we are about to be a mommy and daddy ourselves. Holy COW are we not prepared.

ThisClose

Barack Obama was at my school today. Barack Obama! Presidential hopeful! Barack Obama! And I was completely and totally unaware of this. I didn't figure it out until all of the teachers had their TV's turned to a public access channel and I saw the little podium with the "Change We Need" poster. And then it slowly dawned on me that the big hullabaloo that I saw this morning when I arrived was because Barack Obama was actually in the building. The building I was in. Which suddenly made all of the cops in the hallway make more sense. Sadly, I didn't get to see him in person. But I was so close. SO CLOSE!

So...yeah

I just wrote an entire post and chickened out of publishing it. The gist of it: am miserable, feel sad. But I feel guilty for complaining about pregnancy and I can't bring myself to put those thoughts on the internet.

Uh, what else is going on? Nothing (see above: miserable).

Alex and I watched the entire Firefly series this weekend. And then I convinced him to purchase the movie, "Serenity," last night and we stayed up late to finish it. I'm a pretty big Joss Whedon fan and am happy to have converted Alex to the Whedonverse as well. (Except that I finally got around to watching Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along-Blog and didn't like it. Woops. Guess I'm not as devoted as I thought.)

In other news, two of my dear friends from college (Hi Jenny! Hi Mel!) announced their pregnancies this past week! I am excited that we are all pregnant together and our children will be the same age. This will be super convenient for our yearly get togethers (we live far, far away from each other) as we can then share war stories of toddler tantrums and projectile bodily fluids. It's funny because I met these girls ten years ago when we began our freshman year of college. And now four of us (Bell is due...SOON) are pregnant at the same time. I'm not sure we could have planned it better.

New this week on the weirdo pregnancy symptoms list: water makes me vomit. Yes. Water - life-giving, hydrating, absolutely needed to survive, water is responsible for dry heaving and much weeping and gnashing of teeth. I was only half joking when I told Alex we were going to start keeping ice chips in the house.