"16 and Pregnant"

Yes, I’m admitting to watching this show.
At first glance I was shocked that MTV would be producing a show like this. Thinking of shows like “My Super Sweet 16” I was concerned that MTV would make teenage pregnancy look cool or an achievable means of having a reality show on the network. I’ve now seen the entire series (minus reunion) and I think they’ve done a pretty good job. There hasn’t been anything glorified (it’s actually quite depressing) and the filming of the birth seems a lot more realistic (and painful) than your typical “A Baby Story” on TLC. In fact there have been times when D has looked at me, horrified, and has asked if I’d like the TV turned off.
The episode we just saw hit very close to home. For the first time we saw a couple who chose adoption. It was so heartbreaking to watch the couple, who were very mature considering the situation they were in, support each other throughout the process. Giving up a baby is a hard, life altering decision. Even when you’re young….
I know that from my own family .When I was 6 years old my youngest Aunt was “16 and Pregnant” and chose adoption. I grew up with the knowledge of what had happened and I saw how much my Aunt loved her daughter even though she had never met her. She ended up marrying her high school boyfriend (the one who fathered her first child) and they had a second daughter together.
Over the years my Aunt obsessed over the adoption. I think it was extremely hard on her being with her husband and not knowing their first daughter. Eventually, after 20 years, they were re-united. I’m sure my “new” cousin would never have expected to find her birth mother, birth father and a full biological 8 year old sibling waiting for her after all of those years. She essentially found a fully intact family with Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, and Grandparents. I feel for her adoptive family – they must have been equally as shocked. Overall it has been a “dream come true” for my Aunt and Uncle.
Anyway, when I saw the maturity of the two kids in this episode and how close they seemed I thought of what future they have together. Honestly, anything is possible and they could end up just like my Aunt and Uncle, married with children in the future. If they do it will be a rough road.. but they made the right decision.

Oops

I had to ask my friend for help with our car today. I bought him lunch in exchange for checking our oil and tire pressure. I’d tried to get help from my dad but I don’t think he fully understands how little I know about cars. My only driving experience has come from rental cars. Things like tire pressure, oil and wiper fluid has never been my responsibility. My expectation up until this point has been a clean, well maintained car.
The top 3 things I now know (from car ownership in the last 2 months):
1) Cars get dirty quickly and rain does not count as cleaning.
I’ve gone to car washes before but that has only been to clean off dead bugs from driving in the south. This dirt, however, is black smog like dust caked on my car and dripping down from my door handles. I now understand how people can end up with “wash me” written across their windows. Right about now, I’d deserve it.
2) If a tire looks squishy, it needs your attention.
Last Sunday, while unloading the car, I noticed that my tire looked funny. I squeezed it and it gave a little. That was when I decided to ask my friend for help. At the time I didn’t think that much about it because I’ve had a flat before and the car I was driving told me by way of a light on the dash. I figured that if there was something wrong I’d know. I didn’t realize that was a feature of that specific car and that not all cars have sensors. It ends up my tire pressure was dangerously low – in all 4 tires. The suspect squishy tire’s pressure was so low it did not even register. So, yeah, something like less than 10. Apparently that is very bad.
3) If you’re driving a subcompact and it’s sucking gas back like an SUV, see point #2, and check the tires.

The short ride back to work after lunch was amazing. The car feels like it is brand new (this really shouldn’t be an accomplishment for an ’08). I can’t believe I’ve been driving around on tires with such low pressure. It makes me wonder how this happened. Yes, I’m clueless but I had brought my dad with me to check the car both when I purchased it and picked it up. You’d think that the dealer would have checked the tire pressure before sending it off the lot as well. Apparently not considering ALL of the tires were much lower than they should have been! The only other explanation, for the squishy tire, could be a small leak. I’m going to check it again on Monday to see if the pressure has changed.
At least I now know how to check my own oil and tires. It’s a start.
And... yes... I did get in trouble for posting the below picture. In my defence, I do think that the room is in orderly chaos. No one will be calling TLC.... It's not THAT bad. There's clearly a path to the dresser and our crap is stored in crates. Oh well....

Before

I'm posting a "before" picture of Sadie's room in an effort to motivate myself towards there being an "after" picture. D will probably kill me when she sees our messy room posted on the internet... this is a drastic measure!

As you can see the room is a bit, well, full. We're getting rid of the dresser and couch and the scary pile of stuff is currently TBD. A lot of it is toys from taking care of our nephews and neice and stuff that we brought from our childhood. There is a fairly impressive pile of Disney VHS tapes in there somewhere. I'm not sure what we're going to do with those since we've donated our VCR to goodwill already!

You'll see that Sadie already has TWO Cabbage Patch kids.... however for the record... the American Girl in the upper left hand corner is MINE and I'm not sharing. Sadie will have to get her own!

SOS - we have A LOT of work to do!!

Just my luck...

I've been summoned to Jury duty!! For an 8 week MURDER trial! D is fairly positive they'll disqualify me based on the fact that I'm pregnant and will be 27 weeks at the start of Jury selection. We also highly doubt, if I do make it to the interview stage, that I'll be selected. We already know what the trial is for because they sent the witness list with the accused/deceased names. There isn't anything in writing saying I can't discuss what trial it is but I'm not comfortable blogging about it. .
Ironically D was ALSO called for duty in the spring for another high profile murder trial. The selection process here doesn't seem very "random" if we BOTH get called within 6 months and both for large, high profile trials! D ended up sitting at the courthouse for a week doing nothing and then being released. There were literally hundreds in her jury pool.
Honestly, if I wasn't pregnant, I think this would be pretty cool. There is an option where you can contact the courthouse in advance and ask for your duty to be "postponed" but I'm not going to do that. It would be worse to be called back during mat leave when I'm taking care of a newborn.
My plan is to show up, hope I have a really FAT baby belly, and enthusiastically hope they do not want me!

Ummm....

D thinks Sadie will look like this:

This adorable little girl is Nell Burton (Helana Bonham-Carter + Tim Burton).
We'll have to wait and see!!

Our Name!!!

So from now on I'll refer to our little girl as Sadie!
Middle names are in honour of our deceased Maternal Grandmothers.

I feel like I may be jumping the gun a bit announcing the name already but we're positive we're having a girl. On October 6th we'll confirm at our 3d/4d ultrasound (28 weeks).

Our family already knows but we're keeping it a secret from our friends. At first we weren't going to tell anyone but my cousin didn't find out the sex of her baby so we wanted to announce early and call dibs!!

Blogroll

I've finally added a Blogroll!! This seems like "no big deal" but I'd been putting off for so long and have been relying on S. (An Offering of Love) and her awesome blogroll (thank-you) to catch up on all of my favourite blogs!!
Now I'll have no excuse but to "come out" and post more often and let people know I'm reading their blogs on a regular basis.

Any lurkers want to post and share their blogs?

I hope I haven't missed anyone!