Someone thinks he's pretty darn perfect

In the goody box my mom sent me yesterday, in addition to the food (I'm already through one bag of York Peppermint Patties by the way...sigh), there was a pregnancy journal.  You are supposed to fill the journal out throughout pregnancy to remember how you were feeling etc.  The journal has the items that you would expect to be in there...a place to put the ultrasound picture, keep track of your cravings, monitor your weight gain (yeah as if I want to remember that...that space is staying blank).

There is one section however that asks us to list the traits from me and Barry that we hope the baby doesn't get and a section where we list the traits we hope the baby does get.  I started filling them out starting with the traits we hope that the baby does get.  Barry was first.  His passable traits to name a few included his sense of humor, outgoing personality and  fast metabolism.  I struggled with mine, but Barry was able to help out.  My passable traits included my eyes, creativity and skin.

Next were the traits we didn't want to pass on to the baby.  Piece of cake.  I started rolling those bad boys out for me...because, we always see the bad stuff in ourselves, right?  Mine included my crooked teeth (which are now fixed thanks to years of braces), terrible eyesight (which thankfully can be fixed with my contact lenses...otherwise...whoa...can't see anything) and my shy personality.  Please note that there were only 3 spaces to fill in the traits otherwise the list could have gone on and on...and, I wouldn't have even had to really think about them.  I guess I could list all my other traits I didn't want passed on to the baby here, but why depress myself.

Now, it's Barry's turn to list all the bad traits about himself he doesn't want passed on to the baby.  Most people have no problem identifying their bad traits, as you can see from me above.  Well, apparently Barry is the exception.  He STRUGGLED to think of bad things about himself.  The conversation went a little something like this:

Me:  "Okay, now what bad things about yourself do you hope the baby doesn't get?"
Barry:  Silence.
Me:  I mute the television (Family Guy was on and getting his attention during Family Guy is, well, very difficult to say the least).  "Hello, so what bad things about yourself do you hope the baby doesn't get?"
Barry: "Oh, right...okay.  Hmm...let me see here.  Oooo...hmmm.  That's a good question."
Me: Rolling my eyes. "Seriously?"
Barry:  "What?"
Me:  "You can't think of anything bad about yourself at all?"
Barry: "Hmm...well.  Let me think."
Me:  I stare at him sarcastically.
Barry: Laughing."What? I guess I'm pretty perfect then."
Me:  "Oh, please." Throwing up in my mouth a little.

Let's hope the baby gets Barry's self-confidence.

American Survival Box

My American survival kit arrived today!  It includes York Peppermint Patties, Chocolate Cook and Serve Pudding, and Peaches and Cream Oatmeal.  Sadly, Taco Bell wouldn't quite ship well, so it was minus that little treat.  Here's my spread (Never mind the poor picture quality.  It was taken with my cell phone and my camera lens is cracked because I can't have nice things.):

Now, the next picture is quite sad.  You see, these two here were SO excited as I was opening the box, I'm sure they thought there was something inside for them.  However, once they realized there wasn't, this was the scene before me...disappointed city here:

The newest Olympic gymnast is...

Nearly 18 weeks along now in this pregnancy and I felt the baby's first movement/kick/punch yesterday.  Plus, I think he (I'm pretty sure it's a boy, even though we don't know 100% yet) was working on gymnastics moves or Zumba moves more likely.

This evening Barry and I were lying on the sofa and the munchkin decided to work on his somersaults yet again. This time Barry was able to feel him and it totally freaked him out!  He even said he wouldn't be able to sleep tonight because it was so weird.  I suppose it is weird...to have this thing moving around inside of you.  But, I think Barry has something like this envisioned when he felt it tumbling around:



Thankfully, most of the food aversions have gone away.  Well except for curry, anything deep-fried, black bean sauce, anything made with Chinese five spice and any type of potato...yeah, still can't tolerate that.  And, with the aversions leaving so have several of my cravings...including the delicious Italian salad dressing I couldn't get enough of if you remember this post.  I am however having an unusual interest in gobbling up any type of lemon-flavored muffin or cake which is bizarre because I'm not a lover of lemon-flavored desserts normally.  I'm also having a deep and meaningful relationship with Jello Cook 'n Serve Chocolate pudding, although I can't get it in Ireland.  Lucky for me, my mom mailed me a whole bunch of the stuff yesterday so with any luck, it'll be here next week...then look out...you may not see me for a couple of days.  Hmm...just had a thought there...what about mixing in a lemon-flavored muffin into the Jello pudding?  That could be quite delicious!

The earth moves and a baby name game

Well, I missed it!  The great earthquake of 2011!  Damn!  It wouldn't be such a big deal if I were say from California, but being from West Virginia...well, we don't really get earthquakes there.  So, the fact that there was an earthquake in Virginia with tremors being felt in West Virginia is a pretty big deal...at least I think so anyway.  Turns out that the office building I used to work in was evacuated!  Oh, how exciting that would have been...woulda been good craic, eh?  (That's a bit of my Irish slang there).

Since it was such big news, there are already "In memory of the great quake" jokes and photographs floating around.  In fact, Barry emailed me one today which made me spit a little on my computer screen from laughing.  Here it is:

No, we'll never forget.  The pain that lawn chair must have faced when it was so  violently shaken to the ground.

Moving on to other earth shattering problems...picking a name for the baby!  I know we still have five months to come up with something, but at the rate we're going it will bloody well take five months!  Barry likes very normal names...think John, James, Thomas, Jane, etc.  I like something with a little flash to it, of course.  Don't get me wrong, I don't want a cooky, over-the-top celebrity name.  But, something that stands out a little bit would be nice.

So, since we're faced with this teeny dilemma, I went and bought one of those baby name books.  The one that has 40,001 baby names in it.  I guess the extra "1" really makes all the difference because 40,000 names wouldn't have been enough to look through.

Well, let me just say, after browsing through this book about 39,000 of the names are just pure shit.  They are.  I'm not talking about the ones that are foreign names, but the ones that are just purely made up. Let me share a few with you.  Here are the names and the attached definition given by the book.

Limo-- (invented) from the word limousine; sporty.  (Because we all want to name our baby after something that teenage girls lose their virginity in on prom night, right?)

Karbie--(American) energetic.  (Well, I guess you'd have to be energetic with that name because your baby will spend plenty of time running from bullies on the playground.  Oh and it makes me think of Arby's and then I start craving a roast beef sandwich.  Did I mention I'm starving?)

J-Nyl--(American) flirtatious.  (Um, What?)

Jacquet (invented)--form of Jackett. (Jackett?)

Barcie--(American) sassy.  (Makes me wanna Barfie...hehe).

Alright, that's all I'll share for now since as I mentioned there are about 39,000 of them.

If there are any Barcies, Jacquets, J-Nyls, Karbies or Limos reading this, please don't be offended and I'm sure they are lovely names on you.

Photo Wotos

Not too much going on around here...just the usual--Barry doesn't wanna find out the sex of the baby and I do so I can at least figure out what colors to buy!  Pink or Blue?

Anyway, here are some photos of a little road trip Barry and I took to Moville, Greencastle and Shroove.

A seal swimming around Greencastle Harbor.  I was tempted to throw a beach ball in the water to see if he'd bounce it off his nose, but I was fresh outta beach balls.

Ruins in Greencastle.  Perhaps the old Green Castle?

Me at a beach in Shroove.  I know it looks warm, but it was FREEZING that day!

A lighthouse in Shroove me thinks.

Dunno where this is.

American Invasion

Last week was a busy, busy week.  My friend Kimberly and her fiance Brian were in visiting!  Their first trip to Ireland and my first official American visitors.  I met them in Dublin on Monday where we stayed a few nights before going on to Galway, Athlone, Connemara National Park, Knock, Sligo, Donegal (Slieve League cliffs, Donegal Town and Killybegs), Giant's Causeway, Mussendon Temple, the Rope Bridge and of course back to Derry.  This was also my first time driving around most of the country...which, I so rocked.  I'm such a pro at this opposite side driving now.  Maybe I'll start my own driving school?

They weren't greeted by the best weather since it rained ALL week except for a few hours when we were driving the Causeway Coastal Route but we carried on, soaking wet.  My good hair days were non-existent last week.

Oh, and Fish and Chips are dead.  I imagine being stared at 24/7 by a cat didn't help their life span any.

We took more than 400 pics between us, but I won't torture you with all of them.  So, here's a select few.

Me and Kimberly outside Dublin Castle.  This was taken shortly after she walked out in front of traffic and nearly caused a bike rider to fly over his handlebars hahahahhaha. In her defense, it's hard to remember to look right first before crossing a street when you're American and used to looking the other way first.  It took me a while to get the hang of it!

Kimberly and Brian at Trinity College after taking a peek at the Book of Kells.  Have to give 'em props as they jumped straight off the airplane and went right in to touring.  I would have needed a day of sleep first.

Taken outside Auchnanore Castle outside of  Galway.

Kimberly and Brian outside Kylemore Abbey.

And there's me outside Kylemore Abbey.  Barry wasn't able to join us until we got to Derry.

Barry and Brian taking in Mussendon Temple.

Here we are at Giant's Causeway!

Barry and I in front of the rope bridge.  "It's too bad the bridge was closed, otherwise I so would have done that!" Barry says.  Um uh huh Barry sure.  He no likey heights at all.

We got lucky and saw a rainbow.  Although, no pot of gold unfortunately.

And here they are on the bus back to Dublin before I broke down in tears.  I'm all alone again...sigh.

Fish and Chips

Barry and I went to the carnival/fair last night.  Even though I can't really ride anything because I'm pregnant, we still had fun playing the games.  In particular, the hook a duck game.  Really folks, it couldn't have got any easier than this.  Basically you reach a stick into a pool full of plastic ducks and hook it through the large wire hoop extending out of the duck's head.  Since we successfully hooked a duck each (we so got skillz, word), we were each awarded these lovely prizes:

Naturally, we wondered what we were going to do with our new fish given that we have two cats.  So, we left the fair to go discover what exactly was going to happen.

Fox was psyched and confused at the same time.

Fox couldn't stop staring.

"How do I get you?" Fox asks the fish.

"I'm quite certain you are delicious." Fox says.

Before you ask, yes that is a glass salad bowl the fish are in.  It was sort of all we had to work with given we weren't planning on becoming goldfish parents.  They will have a more suitable home once we go the pet store.

Charlie could have cared less about the fish.  He was too busy doing this:

I could have popped a fish in his mouth and he wouldn't have cared.

Obviously, we couldn't leave the fish in a place where Fox would be able to get to them, so we decided we'd have to put them on top of the wardrobe and do it while he wasn't looking, which we did.  About ten minutes later, Fox's nose starting going in to overdrive until he sniffed out the new location of his new siblings!  Luckily, they are still alive as he hasn't figured out how to get on top of the wardrobe yet.  Not sure how long it will last.  Oh, and I think we've settled on naming the new pets Fish and Chips.

Since I'm talking about cats, I'll share another story.  Most people, upon telling them that I have cats, look at me as if I have three heads.  I've not run in to many people here that actually like cats.  So anyway, last night, Barry and I had Fox outside on the sidewalk.  Barry was holding him so he couldn't run.  A car pulled up and the man inside shouts out while pointing to Fox, "Where did ye get that? How much do ye want fir it?"  Barry of course says that Fox isn't for sale.  The guys continues, "Ah, come on.  I want it ti give ti me two dogs.  Huskies."  I'm not certain at this point if it's a joke.  Long story short. Turns out it wasn't. The guy seriously wanted to BUY my cat to throw to his dogs to tear to pieces!  I was disgusted!  Why would someone think of something so cruel for an innocent animal?  It actually makes me quite sad to know that this is likely not the first time the guy has thought about offering up a cat to his dogs.  Scumbag. Poor kitties.  Anyway, on that appalling note, I'll leave you for now.