25/28 weeks

This pic is for my friend Jenny who is also pregnant and only a few weeks behind me. She claims to have a baby bump...I contend she looks like she just had a big lunch. So my dear friend, here is what a 25 week bump looks like. And for good measure, I added my 28 week bump in there too. :)

Let's Get Ready to Rumble!

It's March Madness time again! As many of you know, that means extra birthday time in the Myers family! I'm determined to win this year. I think everyone has won at least once since we've started this except for me, so I'm due! If many of you are distressed that you will be losing your husbands to overwhelming amounts of basketball watching, let me encourage you to join in on the fun with the promise of an extra birthday. You do NOT have to know anything about the teams, and I promise you'll care more about what's going on in the weekends to come by having a vested interest in who does well.

Here are the rules:
1. Find 2-4 people to play this with you. I think this is the right amount, because if you get too many people playing at the same time, your teams will overlap and the points won't count.
2. Every person picks 8 teams. Once the teams are picked, you share them with your other players to see what everyone choose. You may have some overlap and that's okay.
3. You get points based on the seed # of the team you pick. So for instance, if you pick #1 Duke...you will only get 1 point everytime they win a game. If you pick a #16, you're banking on a #16 beating the #1 team in the first round (not likely, but would score you a lot of points). You add up your score at the end of every round of the NCAA tournament.
4. You have to be strategic with the teams you pick. You want them to be a high numbered seed, but not so high that they won't go far in the tournament.Your goal is NOT to pick who is going to win the tournament, or even who gets to the Final Four. Your goal is to get points. So even if you pick a #7 that wins twice, that's better than picking a #1 who goes all the way to the Championship game. You'll get more points.
5. At the end of the tournament, whomever scored the most points wins an EXTRA BIRTHDAY!! The people playing with you commit to providing the winner with a cake and presents as if it were their birthday.

I'm telling you, this is the best way to spend the NCAA tournament weekends. It makes me care about games against Penn State and Texas that I would normally not give a hoot about. But start picking your teams now! The tournament starts on Thursday, so round up your friends or family and start picking. Brackets are printable online! Good luck!

The Grossest Thing on Earth

These pictures probably don't do it justice, but I think I may have found the grossest thing on earth. I went to Springfield this weekend to celebrate my mom's birthday with my mom and sister. It was a great weekend and we had a blast! It was great to getaway, eat brownies and ice cream and simply get into a car without bothering with a car seat. Ahhh, luxury!

However, in one of the lobbies of our hotel, we came across this vending machine:

I'm not sure the pictures do it justice. But if you can gather from the fact that is says "Tyson" and that it's a vending machine...well that just says it all. Yes, that's right! For only $4.00 you can get some nuggets, french fries or even a breakfast sandwich. We think they come out hot, but we're not sure, because even if we had wanted to try it....they were all sold out. Which leads me to believe that people are actually buying these things. Now granted, there were about a thousand high school kids staying at our hotel that weekend too, so no doubt this appealed to the 16 year old high school boy's appetite. But honestly....gross!

Cravings

So this past weekend I went to a bridal shower. And while we were all sitting around the table eating mints and nuts, we started to discuss what our pregnancy cravings were and/or are (there were two preggos at the table). There were some interesting ones to discuss. I heard peanut butter, jalapeno peppers (God bless her!), and ice cream.

Both with this pregnancy and the one with Caleb, I could not get enough of orange juice. I mean, I seriously could gulp it all day if you let me. Thank goodness I haven't been a target of heartburn because of this - as one would surely think I would given the acidity. Maybe I'm lacking vitamin C or something, but I just love it. Doesn't matter what form - straight OJ, smoothies, whatever.

And on top of that, I found something that is just a notch better than drinking oj. If you haven't heard of this stuff or have never tried it, it's phenomenal!!! I personally love the Mighty Mango juice.

And so, donations are being accepted at any time. I might even consider sharing a glass with you...well maybe...you'd have to be really nice to me because I really love this stuff!

Loud Neighbor

Dear Loud Neighbor,
While I can appreciate anyone's taste in music, I do not appreciate the level in which you listen to yours. We moved away from apartment living, not for this reason alone, but it certainly tops the list for me. Oh how I wish you were a young teenager so that I could go over to your house and tell you to turn it down.


But alas, you are much older than me and I just don't feel okay about correcting my elders. Meanwhile, I am still trying to understand how it is humanly possible for me to even hear your music given that we have your wall, a yard and our own wall in the way. Perhaps it is because of our ancient windows that the sound is seeping in. I really must say, I am beside myself over this problem. But I must digress...I should probably count myself lucky that it isn't spring yet and the windows aren't open.
Sincerely,
Your ear-plugged neighbors

Blizzard 2011

I know that everyone got a little something different from the Blizzard that hit the Midwest. Here is what ours looked like. It took Gabe almost 3 hours to clear out our very small driveway. It was crazy! We probably had about 12 inches and up to 20 inches where it drifted. We didn't have any ice like they did in Southern IL, which I'm glad of. And then we headed over to some neighbors to help them clear out their driveways. School was cancelled Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday so we enjoyed 3 snow days with Gabe home. I think we'll be staring at this snow for a very, very long time. I hope that Groundhog is right and we get an early spring. I am so over winter.

It drifted so high on our back deck it would have covered half of Caleb if he had been standing in it.

Before we scooped. It was impressive!

My parents gave us a yard stick as sort of a gag gift at Christmas this year. Mostly because we didn't have one and they thought it was essential. Amy and Andy got one too. We've agreed that this snow came because my parents bought us the yardstick, just so we could measure it. You can see it barely sticking out of the top of the snow drift next to "the wall".

"The wall" has almost disappeared from the drifting.

A one-lane walkway

My belly bump is getting bigger (JennY, I'm not arching my back too much, am I?)

Caleb, after a visit to see Woody, the barber. He styled it for him and Caleb loved it! Woody is also pretty awesome because he gives out suckers and cookies - who wouldn't want to go to Woody?!

My little "moose" after story hour at the library. Our public library does a 40 minute story hour with 3, 4 and 5 year olds. It's great, because they go into this little room, but there are one-sided mirrors on the outside, so as parents you can spy on how your little one's are doing. It's a great social experiment to see how your child reacts to being on his own. Our moose is shy at first, but is starting to get brave as each session goes by.

Playing Catch-up

Santa and Mrs. Claus were a bigger hit this year than they've been in the past. It's a miracle he's even sitting on his lap. It helps that Santa bribes the kids with gifts.

Getting ready for Christmas!

Did you know that reindeer like carrots? That was a crazy notion in Caleb's brain this year. But he loved putting out the milk and cookies.

Mommy and Caleb

Must have been a great gift! We got a Wii for Christmas!

Sledding at Grandpa and Grandma's house after we opened Christmas gifts. The red sled goes really fast! Andy almost ended up in the creek a couple of times much to the dismay of Grandma!

Superstar Christmas at Chateau Blanc (aka the White House).

Julie, Gus and Jen

Janeice, me, Angie, Emily and Anna

The two baby bumps of the year. Angie is due May 21st with a baby girl and I'm due June 25th with baby boy #2.