I painted my toenails blue

(I couldn't think of a title, so that up there is just a little extra factoid for you.)

Last week was a pretty good one in VonD-land.  At home we got some electrical work done that allowed us to rearrange our living room to make it more open and easier to move around in (and gives us more room for the mountain of baby stuff we'll eventually be buried under).  I'm finally getting used to the new layout, but Hubs and Atticus loved it from the beginning.  Atticus in particular was so excited he didn't know what to do with himself.  I think he particularly enjoyed the shadows cast by the new can lights in the ceiling, which gave him a newfound appreciation for his own shadow, which he chased incessantly for the first couple of days.  

Work was pretty good as well.  I managed to get some hours at my job with the DJ, and not only did I finally pin down this couple for a day-of wedding coordinating gig in April (the one my SIL is doing for me), but I met with them yesterday and the job turned into a full service planning gig!  Very exciting and brings in a lot more money.  This week I also start my second part-time job working at the online company.  Keep your fingers crossed for me that things continue to go well work-wise.  Luckily I seem to be finding little opportunities to make money all the time - babysitting, working with a friend who's a caterer, whatever comes up!  So I'm trying not to worry too much and just trust that everything will be okay.

And, naturally, the joys of pregnancy continue this week.  My current dilemmas are as follows: 

1. My faceful (more like upper-torso-front-and-backful) of acne.  Like a good girl I switched out my awesome face wash that contains salicylic acid and kept my zits perfectly manageable for a safer one that's supposed to just get rid of oil.  I figured, the excess oil is what's making me break out everywhere so this will probably work, right?  Wrong!  My skin is drier, all right, but now it's just dry and pimple-laden.  What's a gal to do?  My forehead is bumpy like sandpaper and it's spreading south and making me sad.

2. Daily heartburn.  I try to eat (somewhat) healthily, really I do.  I buy fruits and vegetables and lots of times I actually remember to eat them.  But every night around 7:00 the heartburn hits whether I've just eaten or I'm getting hungry for dinner.  Tums Smoothies are my friends.

3. Intestinal distress.  If it's not constipation it's gas, and if it's neither of those it's what I affectionately call "mud butt."  All of which range from uncomfortable to painful.  I spent no less than 30 minutes in the bathroom at my friend's birthday party on Saturday because my tummy was so upset.  Granted, it was probably revolting against the jalapeno poppers I had with lunch the day before, followed by the leftover Chinese food covered in Red Rooster sauce I had for dinner.  Baby likes spicy food!!  How am I supposed to deny baby her spicy food??

That's all for the dilemmas, now for the joys:

1. Newfound confidence.  This seems like a strange one to me.  I don't know if it's the hormones or what, but for the past few weeks I've been feeling like a much stronger person.  The anxiety that has followed me around like a dark cloud for the past 2 or 3 years has almost disappeared, and I actually feel good.  I don't really know how to describe it but I love it.  I'm not so afraid to make mistakes, or of what people might think of me if I say something they disagree with or don't like.  And like the money thing - I'm just not as worried as I most definitely would have been six (or even two or three) months ago.  Hopefully this side effect sticks around for, like, ever.

2. Bumpin'.  Okay so just about as soon as I said that I'm not showing, I noticed that I'm pretty much showing.  Maybe strangers can't necessarily tell, but my friends and family can.  So that's pretty cool.  And weird.  I was hoping I'd be like those pregnant women who are all like, "I never felt so sexy in my whole life as I did when I was pregnant!"  But I'm not.  I think it's awesome that I'm starting to show, but I'm also still getting used to the changes in my waistline, and I have zero libido so nothing makes me feel sexy at all, much less changes to my waistline that I'm still getting used to.

3. Sex!!  No, not the sexy kind of sex.  I'm pretty sure I just mentioned that I have zero libido.  What I mean is we get to find out the sex of the baby in just one week!  And that means I get to start figuring out how to decorate her room!  (I maintain that she is a girl, even though I also maintain that I will be equally happy to find out he is a boy.  It's just that she feels like a girl to me.)  We'll see which of my split personalities is right on this one next week.  Hopefully she (or he) doesn't get shy and hide the goods!

Now I need to get moving.  I have many terribly important tasks to accomplish today from getting started on a wedding planner proposal for my clients (!) to grocery shopping (-_-) to baking pumpkin spice muffins (:)).  Happy Monday!