Grandpa K.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that Eric's Grandpa K. was a well-known OB-GYN in the area for many years. His picture is even up (twice!) in the hospital where I am going to deliver, so when Eric and I took our birthing classes and got a tour of the hospital, we stopped to take pictures of Grandpa's pictures.

The pictures aren't stellar because they were taken with Eric's phone. Plus the one photo has that really terrible glare. Not to mention that I was looking ESPECIALLY awesome that Saturday. We'll have to be sure we get some pictures before we leave the hospital with the mancub some time in the next month or so.

Fatty Dairy Products

Eric and I fancy ourselves fairly healthy when it comes to our eating habits. One thing we try to do is figure out which foods are worth buying low-fat or no-fat and which foods need to be the real thing. We've found that we can tolerate and even like quite a few low-fat and no-fat dairy products.

We drink 1% milk. I just can't handle skim; it totally grosses me out. I prefer fattier milk, but I quite like 1%, and it is cheaper than the milk with the higher fat content.

We buy fat-free or low-fat sour cream, depending on the expiration dates. (Usually the fat-free sour cream expires a couple of days after our shopping trip, so we only buy it if we know we will finish it in time.) To be honest, full-fat sour cream is better than the low-fat and fat-free varieties. It is thicker and has a better texture. But, we're not eating plain sour cream by the spoonful. We mix our sour cream in with other things and use it as a topping where all that really matters is the flavor. For us, the low-fat and fat-free options are entirely doable.

We bought fat free cream cheese a few weeks ago, and it was terrible. I had some on my bagel and texted Eric telling him how bad it was. That night he tried some on his bagel and said he would prefer to have a plain bagel over that stuff. It basically had no flavor at all. We were unimpressed. However, we had been (and went back to) buying Neufchatel cheese. It is basically the same as cream cheese, but it has one third less fat. I highly recommend it. It tastes great and spreads easily, and it's less fat. Winwinwin.

What food products do you buy that are the low-fat or no-fat varieties? Which products would you never dare with the healthier options?

36 Weeks

I'm probably going to have a baby this month. I know that you may be thinking, "Sherry, your due date is November 29, you could very well go over and not have your baby this month." And until Friday I would have agreed with you. In fact, until Friday when people asked me when I was due, I would either say, "around Thanksgiving" or "roughly the beginning of December." Because I like to be realistic. And realistically, this baby could come in December instead of November.

On Friday I had an appointment with my midwife, and she told me the baby had dropped and that he was very low indeed. And that my cervix has started thinning. (Oh, hi, you just read about my cervix. Sorry if you found that disturbing. You may have to get used to such topics around these parts.) So the ball is rolling. And to be fair, this ball could be rolling down a very gentle incline - meaning the he'll arrive close to the due date after all. On the other hand, my midwife also told me that it was VERY unlikely I'd go past my due date. So there you go. The baby is not going to stay in there forever.

Happy Halloween!

I think I was a hippopotamus ballerina for like three years. I can't remember how long Steven was Raphael the Ninja Turtle.

As usual, I have no costume this year. I don't really do costumes. They are not my thing. I think Halloween is a kid's holiday, and I never have a reason to dress up. Plus I'm too lazy to bother. It was so much easier when my mom just went a found a costume for me.

Real Estate Photos

Eric and I are shopping for a house. That is, we are saving our money and occasionally will search the interwebs for houses so we have an idea of prices for different areas and sizes of houses and such things. We anticipate being able to actually buy a house within the year, but we are not gung-ho searching yet. One thing that completely befuddles me are the photos people post of their homes.

Folks, I get that your home is not spotless all the time. (Neither is mine.) I get that you maybe are not a professional photographer. (Neither am I.) I get that you are maybe not particularly good at decorating. (Neither am I.) What I don't get is why some people are completely incapable of cleaning up a room, even a little bit, before they post photos of said room on the Internet. Aren't you trying to impress me? The cluttered counters, toys all over the floor, vacuum in the middle of the living room and pile of clothes heaped casually in a corner do not impress me. They make me think you are maybe not savvy on how to market a house. But really? Isn't it common knowledge to make something look nice if you are trying to sell it? Look at some of the photos:

I mean, really. Is it that hard to just clear the clutter out of the area you are about to photograph? I'm not even saying you have to actually clean! Just move the stuff out of the way, snap a photo, and put it all right back where it probably doesn't belong anyhow. And the thing is, a lot of times the things that make the photos look bad really could be easily remedied and would make the rooms look so much more appealing!

35 Weeks

In case you were wondering, yes, this is how I actually looked today - in real life. We stayed the night at Eric's parents' house on Friday, and it seems as though I left my make-up there. Plus my morning routine currently consists of:

1. Rolling out of bed.
2. High-tailing it to the bathroom.
3. Brushing my teeth.
4. Brushing my hair.
5. Finding something to eat.
6. Walking to work.

So, I'm basically a fashion model every day. It's awesome.