Minneapolis and Back!

I just took my first trip to Minneapolis, and I have to say it seems like a pretty cool place, that is if you aren't looking at it through a conference window! My company had a 3-day training session up there, so I began my journey at 4:15 on Wednesday morning when my alarm went off. My morning didn't exactly get started off right, because when I was standing in line to put all my stuff in the grey boxes (you know, to run it through the x-ray), there was an opening at the front of the table where I could load up my stuff, so I proceeded to do so. In my tired state, I guess I was unaware that I "cut in line", because I sensed eyes burning into the back of my head. I turned around and saw one of the most hideous old men in this galaxy scowling at me, and proceeded to smile and say "How are you?". He stared at me (scowl continued) and said with every bone of seriousness in his body, "I was fine until you jumped in front of me!". For some reason, my triggered response was "WELL, EXCUUUUSSE ME!!". Then I moved my stuff and let him by, ignoring the other people I broke in front of.

Moral of the Story: At 5:15 in the morning, there is no such thing as "airport etiquette.

I had a layover in Memphis, and because of the storm system that was passing through that morning, I sat quietly in my airplane seat on both flights choking back the urge to puke due to the turbulence. Turbulence + mild claustrophobia= unpleasant trip. When we arrived in Minneapolis, needless to say, I was relieved. I will spare the boring details of the conference, but we did take a stretch limo to the Mall of America, which was slightly less grandiose than I expected. It is really just a big mall with a small amusement park in the atrium. I think I covered every square foot of the mall, and I noticed quite a few stores that had 3 to 4 locations IN THE SAME MALL. There were 2 GameStop stores and 4 Lids stores (hat store). I thought that was a nice tribute to our lazy society. We ate at Rainforest Cafe, which was fun if you enjoy eating with fake gorillas staring at you. The only other 2 notable events were as follows: at the dinner Thursday night, we were treated to some "surprise entertainment", which turned out to be a Hawaiian, ex-NFL defensive tackle named Ezra something singing karaoke for about 30 minutes. This quite possibly may have been one of the more bizarre experiences of my existence. Initially, I was thinking, "oh, this guy must be a really good singer!". Boy, was I wrong. His opener was Alicia Keys' "No One", and I have to say that "No One" else, especially male, should ever be allowed to sing that song. He then sang some Carpenters song and James Blunt's "You're Beautiful". Soon after that I think I blacked out and began bleeding out of my ears. Fortunately, the entertainment didn't last long. After the performance, someone told me that they thought he was the player who came out of the closet on 60 Minutes, and I can't say I was surprised by that information. The final highlight was the 4-6 inches of snow we got on Friday. Seeing lots of fresh snow in a big city is really beautiful as long as you can return home to a snowless environment when you please. To summarize, I recommend a weekend trip to Minneapolis when no conferences are involved and you have time to explore. I would also recommend going when it snows, because there doesn't appear to be a reason to be there in the summer!

Eating, sleeping, watching movies, and cleaning

If you can't tell from the title, I'm on Spring Break! Woo Woo! I didn't make any big plans this week, since Hays is going to Minneapolis and I won't see him half the time, so I haven't done much. So far the highlight of my official spring break week has been having a few girls over and watching the premiere of Dancing with the Stars and The Bachelor! I am waiting anxiously for the recap! You can check it out for yourself here: http://www.ihategreenbeans.com. I can imagine it will be hilarious, as some of the girls were psycho, and only a handful could be considered normal or cute. I have to say that after watching the clip of the Bachelor dancing at the end of the show, I officially heart Matt Grant. I want him to move here and be friends with me.
Also, it has to be mentioned that Steve Guttenberg was too cute last night and he did not dissapoint me.
Tomorrow morning I am on my way to Dothan to see my bro and SIL. I am very excited, and hopefully the weather will be good and warm!
Margaret Anne is doing well! She seems to be moving around a little (I think that's what I am feeling), and was active during all of the TV excitement last night! It could have been from all of the shrieking at the TV and yummy appetizers, but who knows. I will keep you guys updated. Think of me this week while I am super relaxed. I need it!

So Sad, but SO Wonderful

Well, after Monday's wonderful excitement, I was FINALLY able to watch the Bachelor "where are they now" episode, and let me tell you, it was GOOD. I know, I am a little old and pregnant to be interested in The Bachelor, but we all have our vices. I am SO excited about the new season, they seem to have wrangled together some pretty scary girls. I just want to remind all of you blog readers out there that haven't checked out my Bachelor recap link, that the girl that writes it may possibly be the funniest girl alive. Her use of the "Jim Halpert" face is priceless. Let's all watch the Bachelor this season so that we can laugh, read, and comment.
Yes, I also love "Dancing with the Stars." GO STEVE GUTTENBERG! I haven't seen you since "Three Men and a Little Lady." Oh where have you been?

Meet Margaret Anne Latimer!

Today was wild, and I don't feel like elaborating because I just got home, but here are some pics of Margaret Anne! Everything looks great as far as development, and the doctor told us she "looks smart" :). We will have much more to say tomorrow!

Great Weekend, and a BIG day today!

We had such a great weekend! We went down to Dothan on Friday night to see Hays' dad on his 60th birthday, and had a wonderful meal, then we got hang out with the fam for a while. On Saturday we got up early and came back to Birmingham because Alan and Sandi were coming in town for their four day weekend. They stayed a night without us at our house, but we got there early enough on Sat that I didn't feel like I had missed too much fun! Saturday my parents came, and we went out to eat at the Cheesecake Factory. We all ate WAY too much! We had a very busy day and came home exhausted! Yesterday we went to eat at my Aunt Donna and Uncle Tim's house (a Sunday tradition), and had a great time and ate way too much AGAIN! We went to the Galleria to walk it off! Then we came home and watched "300," which was a really good movie! I stayed up about 2 hours later than I usually do, so I am exhausted, but it was SO worth it!
Also, today is the day we have a big appointment! We have an ultrasound to find out the gender of the baby. I hope that "Bud" cooperates. I will be drinking a SMALL amount of Mountain Dew and walking around some beforehand to make sure Bud is awake. Hopefully everything will look okay and we will all know Bud's real name before the end of the day today! We will be sure to post and let you guys know how everything goes. I had interesting dreams last night that also did not help me get any rest. First I dreamed that Bud is a boy, which is confusing because I already dreamed a girl. Also, I dreamed that we went to the wrong waiting room and missed our ultrasound, AND that Hays forgot to bring the tape, so we missed everything. AAAgh!

What words drive you crazy?

OK, we all know that every one of us has words that we absolutely cannot stand. Most of mine tend to be made-up words, because most of them sound ridiculous but are generally accepted by the masses. What qualifications are required to make up a word that is then added to the Webster's dictionary? It seems all you have to do is take two words and combine them, which is idiotic if you ask me. This has even flowed over to naming celebrity couples. For instance, "Brangelina" (Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie) or "TomKat" (Tom Cruise/Katie Holmes). I think I just puked in my mouth a little when I typed that last one...what a creep Cruise is. Oh, and let's not forget "Vaughniston" (Vince Vaughn/Jennifer Aniston). Anyways, I thought up this post because my work email gets bombarded with subjects advertising "webinars". "Webinar" (Web Seminar) is quickly becoming the word that drives me most crazy. Hopefully "webinar" attendance will be so low that the business world will eradicate this word from acceptable workplace jargon. So I pose this question to you: what words make your blood boil when you hear them? Are they made up words like "crunk" or "blogosphere", or are they real words like "commode" ($1 to Meredith, she HATES that word!). Your feedback is appreciated...scour the depths of your mind for the word you detest and post it!

Meltdowns and such

This weekend I had two meltdowns. The first of which began Saturday morning while Hays was gone to play golf. I got up and got dressed to go and buy some pants for work. It was hot out, so I wanted to wear jeans and a short sleeved shirt. Well, after trying on some shirts from last spring that I was sure I could wear this early in the pregnancy, I realized that I am bigger EVERYWHERE. So my cute shirts no longer looked cute, just too small. I started to feel so GROSS. Now I know it's healthy to get bigger and I am okay with that, I just wasn't prepared to face it this early. SO, not only did I buy some more pants, but I got some cute maternity shirts, too. It made me feel a lot better to have clothes that I can actually feel comfortable in! Hays wasn't too excited about me spending a little extra money, but I told him when his body changes this much he could spend all the money he wants on clothes. He seemed to agree with me then.

Meltdown number 2 began on Sunday when we got home from Sunday lunch. I decided that it would be necessary to completely clean our house because it hadn't been cleaned in about a month and we won't be able to clean next weekend. It seemed like everywhere I looked, all I could see was dust or dog hair. And Daisy smelled RIPE. And the carpet had these "mystery droplings" on it that needed to come up. SO, what I thought would be an hour of cleaning turned into about 4 hours of cleaning, with Hays cleaning also. I talked to a friend on Saturday who said she was cleaning her baseboards. I think she is in the "nesting" phase of her pregnancy. This made me look at my baseboards, which I realized were disgusting! Hays was not happy however, when I asked him to clean them. I would have done it myself, but I was in the process of scraping week-old burnt on gunk from the smooth top stove. He did agree with how dirty they were, though. We got a lot of cleaning done, but not without lots of obsessing and nagging on my part. I had to clean the bathtub twice because it just didn't look clean enough! I had Hays move the shower curtain rod up a few inches, and in the process the paint came off the wall in those places. So THEN I have to break out the "Waterfall Mist" paint and paint the bare spots on the wall. I am lucky to have a husband that puts up with me! He even vaccuumed the furniture, the stairs, and steam-cleaned the "mystery droplings!"

I wrecked my back in the process of all the kneeling and scrubbing, which caused the mini-crying spell I had later. Oh, the JOY of pregnancy hormones.

To satisfy those who I love, who read the blog and actually comment, I will put up a belly pic as soon as I can remember to get Hazer to take one!