Baby Belly Photo 3

Alright blog fans, I've been putting this off long enough:

It's been almost 8 full weeks since I dared to focus on the enormous size of my stomach long enough to take a picture of it and post it for all to see.

Looking at the photo I just snapped its hard to see what I was complaining about the last time, because in the last 2 months things have certainly expanded exponentially. Heck, last time I was even my wearing regular (albeit baggy) normal person jeans just without doing up the button. (I'm afraid to even try them now.) I guess that is a lesson I've learned here, not to whine too much, because until this baby-growing journey is over, it is only likely to keep getting worse.

(My poor husband.)

Anyway, to further drive my point home I am first posting a picture taken during the first few weeks of my pregnancy in mid-November. Let's just call it my before photo... (Please notice that I was certainly by no means of the word "skinny" before and my tummy was NEVER flat. In retrospect, oh how I long to see that cute little pot belly of mine again. I just wonder if I ever will....)

6 weeks-ish:


Alright, and this next one is me a few minutes ago. ("Mooooo, moooooo!") For some extra torture I measured the great bulge and it came out to be 40 inches all the way around! ("Ladies and Gentleman... SHAMU!!!")

30 weeks:



Awesome.

(Damn my husband and his family of HUGE babies!!!!!)

And the best part.....?

10 MORE weeks to go.

Beware of Drawsting Pants

In the interest of NOT using my blog as a forum to complain and whine ALL the time I have a short "funny" story for all of you:

To fully understand this story you most understand one thing. I drink a LOT of water. And by a lot I mean probably close to or even more than a gallon a day. Lately I go through my water bottle 4 or 5 times in one day. And all that water is on top of at least one glass of orange juice, some milk and at least one soda (decaffeinated of course) or lemon aide. I drink all this water for some very basic reasons.

1. I teach music which means not only do I talk all day, but I also sing A LOT.
2. Lately, my core body temperature seems to hover around 115 degrees.
3. I like water!

Naturally, all that liquid means I need to use the bathroom constantly and when I need to go, I REALLY need to go. Like, immediately and approximately every 45 minutes.

(45 minutes incidentally is the length of my classes so that works out well.)

Then yesterday something horrible happened. As I was waddling off to the restroom before dinner I tugged the little drawstring wrong on my maternity pants and accidentally created a big old knot. A big old, humongous knot that I could not undo to get my pants down. A big old, humongous knot that I couldn't even SEE as it was on the waist of my pants BELOW my big old baby bump. A big old humongous knot that had me trapped in my pants...

....and I really had to go!!!

Luckily Matt was home and only teased me a little before coming to my rescue, telling me to stop jumping up and down (as if that were possible) and undoing the knot himself.

My hero.

I'm not sure I've ever been so relieved to get my pants down and um, relieve myself.

Which leads me back to a conclusion I made very, very early in this pregnancy:

Single mothers, or who those who go through this thing alone, really deserve a medal because there is just no way I could do this alone.

Prenatal "Female Dog" Phase

Apparently, I have entered the "Bitchy" stage of this pregnancy. (Har har and yea yea yea, many of you would argue I've been bitchy about this since the beginning, but shut up because it has gotten so much worse these last few weeks.)

First, I noticed that I started getting really irritated answering the approximately 60 zillion questions a day about my broken foot:

"How did it happen?"
"Why don't you have a cast?"
"Could the fall have been related to your pregnancy?"
"Oh my gosh!!!! Is the baby okay?"
(which leads to my personal favorite)
"...you know, you really have to be careful when your pregnant. Falling down could hurt the baby!!"

Yes, that's right. Because I did it on purpose and I didn't know that falling could be dangerous to my unborn child. And, for the record.... if I wasn't pregnant, and I could actually see my feet, I WOULDN'T have fallen down!!!

Combine that barrage of questions with the usual baby-bump curiosity, unwanted concern and all that advice and I started to get ubber annoyed and grouchy.

Then, adding to the grumpy, I have started to feel this almost constant dull, but aching pain... you know, "beneath" the baby. I think it might just be the funny, broken foot, induced "gimpy walk" causing me to pull a muscle or something or it might be normal pregnancy pains, but the fact is I don't know and it hurts... you know... down there. Its been buggin' me! After a few days of the ouchy I gathered up the courage to ask a few mothers about it and they assured me the pain and pressure is totally normal at this stage of a pregnancy. While this is very assuring, I still feel like somebody left a 15 pound bowling ball on the inside of pelvis and I'm worried I might already be substantially dilated.

WHAT IF MY BABY FALLS OUT?????

Yes, I know that is a crazy thought. DOZENS of mothers have reminded me that if the baby could just fall out there wouldn't be horror stories everywhere about the delivery room. Still, I find myself keeping my legs crossed whenever possible.

To make matters worse, my "prenatal narcolepsy" is back with a vengeance. Man how I wish I could sleep ALL the time. And, man do I ever doze off every time I have 5 minutes of idle time. Basically, this just means I am feeling tired all the time again.

And if you know me at all you know: a tired me, tends to be a very cranky me.

(Man am I ever going to be a pleasant new mommy come summer.....)

And okay... there's one more thing that's been bugging me... and its all those people who claim they "LOVED" being pregnant. Please don't get me wrong I love that I am pregnant, and I love that I'm going to have a child as a result of it, but let me just tell you that I'd love it all so much more if I could be done with the pregnancy part and just get on with the Mommy part.

Here are some particular gems I've heard on this front and my grouchy thoughts regarding them:

"Don't you just love being pregnant....

...you get to have hands on experience helping God create an actual miracle."
(eyes roll) well, yes it is a miracle that soon there is going to be an entire new person on the planet that Matt and I made, but I'm just not sure watching my figure transform into a gigantic jelly bean is really that amazing. Besides, God performs miracles everyday, sometimes you just have to remind yourself to notice them.

...its so neat feeling the baby kick!!"
again, yes you're right, its very cool feeling the movements inside of me, but have you forgotten about how much they sometimes hurt? Not to mention the direct assaults on my bladder that leave me really concerned that I may just pee all over the floor one of these times.

...you can eat WHATEVER you want!!!!"
(This is my personal favorite.) Okay well, first of all, prior to being pregnant I pretty much DID eat whatever I wanted. However, this baby means I had to give up sushi, and alcohol and Caffeine and all sorts of foods that I like. If, as you claim, it were true that I could eat whatever I want now, then today for lunch I probably would have had about 5 sushi rolls on top of a large chocolate cake with butter cream frosting and washed it all down with a case of Diet Pepsi. Since that would be very, very bad, clearly this means I can NOT eat WHATEVER I WANT. And besides, I would actually like to fit back in to my regular clothes at some point after the birth of this baby so why would I go about eating like a pig? Trust me, I'm gaining more than enough weight as it is.

A Grand Opening

Yesterday, as I was finishing up my post about "8 Things" Matt came home and he was all kinds of excited. He wouldn't give me any details he just asked me if I was hungry and then told me to put my shoes on and come with him because he had a surprise for me.

In his hand he had a printout of map quest directions to a mysterious address down in Santee (another Suburb of San Diego which is probably about 15 miles from us.) So, off we drove, chatting happily about our days, the strange rainy-ish weather and the beautiful scenery of the rural parts of San Diego county through which we were riding. I wondered for awhile where on Earth Matt was taking me, but he wouldn't tell, and before long we were arriving in Santee and he was telling me to keep a look out for some place "fun."

He spotted his own surprise before me and said "Do you see what I see?"

And when I looked up, there, on the side of the road before me all big, and shiny, and new was a....

Sonic!!!

:)

If you don't know about Sonic, well, I'm sorry for you but then again I come from Ohio which never had Sonic either (although apparently they do now.) Anyway, its a drive-in, fast-food hamburger place that's just, well, AWESOME! Except the thing is, I can't even really tell you why its so awesome. They have good burgers, good hot dogs, yummy fries, GREAT ice cream sundaes, DELICIOUS flavored slushes and, my personal favorite....

Tater tots.

yummmmmmmmmmy tater tots!

Also, for some unknown reason Sonic has really funny commercials, featuring their yummy food. Annoyingly, these commercials play on our San Diego television stations all the time despite the fact that the food isn't actually available here.

Until now.

I was very excited.

Matt quickly filled me in that one of the guys on the ship with him lives in Santee and had seen the restaurant open last weekend. I still have no idea WHY the heck they were talking about it, but upon hearing the news, Matt had looked up the address and started planning on taking me there for dinner.

Unfortunately...

As we approached the driveway we noticed cones blocking the entrance and a small sign with an arrow pointing around the corner that said "Sonic customers, Please proceed to Staging Area" Matt and I were a bit confused. The restaurant looked busy, but nothing that we couldn't wait out. However, we couldn't get in, so we were forced to head around the corner.

A few hundred feet up the road we saw the actual a "staging area." The small side street was coned off to traffic in the direction approaching the restaurant and 2 lines of cars at least 15 deep each sat waiting to be allowed to pull into the parking lot. A few employees mingled amongst the cars presumably answering people's questions about the wait time.

Matt and I started to giggle. Seriously? I mean, sure... we had just driven 15 miles to get there, but there was no way we were about to wait in that line of cars for, for, tater tots!

We drove away, feeling a little sad and wondering how long until the novelty would wear off and we'd actually be able to eat there.

Then we got a little lost trying to find our way back to the highway and ended up going WAAAAAAAY out of our way to head back towards home. As the minutes ticked by and my tummy started growling, I kept reminding Matt that maybe if we'd just stayed and waited in the line we'd have gotten to eat already.

(I don't think Matt appreciated that very much.)

In the end we ended up at Souplantation because it seems to be our new default restaurant these days. Baby needs vegetables after all.

So anyway, maybe, just maybe, in about 2 or 3 weeks I can have me some Sonic!

Tag.... I'm it.

I'm so excited! Lori, over at Livin' in a Fishbowl tagged me for a meme.

(Why do they call them "memes"?)

Anyway, I haven't had anything to write about for a few days, so this is just the excuse I needed. :)

8 Things I am Looking Forward to:
Getting rid of the ugly blue orthopedic shoe
Meeting my child!!!!!
Experiencing the whole labor/delivery thing and finding out how "bad" it really is
Finally being a mom and having an actual family of my own
Matt's next paycheck (the first one with his new raise)
Getting settled in Monterey and finally setting up the baby's room
Finishing up this school year
Dinner tonight

8 Things I Did Yesterday:
Took a shower
Missed my spring vacation/went back to work
Taught elementary kids some really silly songs and dances
Explained to several dozen people what happened to my foot
Took a nap on the couch with my dog after work
Went to Discount Tire Co. with Matt to get a screw taken out of his tire
Watched Matt throw a ball around the backyard for Brutus
Stayed up much later then I meant to

8 Things I Wish I Could do:
Be a morning person
Work out every day
NOT move to Monterey
Live in this house next year and still be able to stay home with the baby
Still work at Sea World part time
Find a church that Matt and I really click with
Have time to make music for fun and not just for work
Have children without losing my waistline, possibly forever

8 Shows I Enjoy:
General Hospital
One Tree Hill
House
The Biggest Loser
Lost
Grey's Anatomy
Desperate Housewives
John and Kate +8

Ridiculousness

Several months ago there was one of the most random episodes of South Park ever which featured a plot line about the government chasing out all the South American Pan Pipe groups that hang out at touristy areas which resulted in an attack by some "horrible" monsters. For the "monsters" the South Park guys inter cut live footage of really large guinea pigs of all things. First the guinea pigs were just normal, and then they started appearing in random little outfits. Here's a picture montage I found below after a quick google search:



So then this morning I was sitting here munching on my breakfast and doing the rounds checking all my humorous favorite blogs and I was surprised by what I found over at Cute Overload. If you don't feel like following the links, apparently there was a recent news story about a swarm of bees at the white house and they thought that was as good a time as any to feature some random adorable photos of different animals in costumes. Including, as seen on South Park, the Guinea Bee:



Now this seemed sort of odd to me. I guess I'd figured the South Park guys had made their own costumes for the rodents to wear during the show, but now here was one of the same costumes popping up some place else entirely. A quick web search took me to this website which actually SPECIALIZES in the little outfits.

My favorites, (all of which appeared on South Park) include the Guinea Bunny:



The Guinea-sauraus-Rex:



And, OF COURSE, the Guinea Pirate:




Now....

Forgive me here, because I'm not trying to be judgemental....

But this is ridiculous! I like cute furry (and even sometimes not-so-furry) animals as much as anyone. In my time I've had pet gerbils and hamsters and fish and parakeets and cats and dogs, but I've never purchased clothing for ANY of them. Granted, my dog has a rain coat but I only bought it for him to annoy my husband and he's only worn the thing like, twice. And as much as I might disagree with the practice, I can at least understand the draw of dressing up a dog. Dog's are portable, they tend to go places with you, and for some, it might be fun to show off their little outfits. But we're talking about guinea pigs here people, GUINEA PIGS!

What do guinea pigs even do? (Besides sleep and poop and wiggle their little noses and occasionally make funny noises I mean.) Who on Earth came up with this? Who on Earth (besides the South Park guys) would actually buy these?

Furthermore, WHAT ON EARTH am I going to do in 5-6 years when my own kid wants a Guinea Pig????

It's a weird, weird world we live in.....

Amazing

Today is looking to be a VERY exciting day. Matt has to work overnight and I'm on my last pair of underpants that actually fit (yes, I've become so pregnant that I did indeed have to go buy some bigger pairs,) so an enormous pile of laundry awaits me. We were so busy having fun and breaking my foot this past weekend, that I skipped my normal Sunday night laundry routine and now the pile is absolutely gi-normous.

Plus, the sun is hiding today. So sad.

Before I get around to all that laundry I wanted to take a moment to share with the world something amazing that my husband has been doing lately. I am not sure exactly how long this particular phenomenon has been going on, but the longer it goes on, the more I realize that I just might be the luckiest woman in the world.

Don't get me wrong, I always know that I am pretty lucky. Matt is amazing. To begin with, he loves me. I have no idea why, and I often tell him this, but he does. On top of the loving me, he actually puts up with me. AND, on top of that he manages to spoil me too. Case and point, we DID go to the Wild Animal Park this past weekend, and because I wanted pasta for dinner last night, he DID take me to Buca de Beppo. AND he dropped me off at the door so I wouldn't have to hobble very far. Granted, he was fake limping along behind me as we were leaving the restaurant to make fun of me, but you have to take the good with the bad.

Anyway, back to the point about my amazing husband. I've mentioned before that he cooks dinner nearly every single night. It has long been a compromise in our house that whom ever does NOT cook has to do the dishes which means the chore really ought to fall on me. However, since I've been pregnant, my dish doing habits have gotten very bad. I am normally exhausted at the end of the day and feel like I can barely move. What this means, is that at on any given evening there is very likely to be a big pile of dirty dishes in the sink when we go to bed which is gross, I know.

However, lately when I wake up in the morning, I continually find that my wonderful husband has cleaned up the mess himself before he left for work. :)

He is just the best thing ever.

It's funny to me that he is actually worried about becoming a parent. If he's anywhere near as good a dad as he is a husband, our children will be some of the luckiest in the world.

The Saga of my Foot, con't

To begin with, if you're wondering what happened to my foot, start by reading the previous post which gives the details of how Matt pushed me down the hill at the Wild Animal Park....

Yesterday I spent the entire day on the sofa with my gimpy foot propped up under various types of frozen vegetables (the broccoli worked best, but I think that because we didn't have corn.) Highlights of my day included taking a shower, which I did sitting in the bottom of the tub... a great plan except for the part where I barely have the upper body strength to get myself in and out of the tub without the use of both feet, and a nearly 3 hour conversation on the phone with my wonderful friend Allison. At some point in there I was over the hobbling and I was ready to go to the doctor, so I'd called Matt and whined to him for awhile. He said that he'd take me to the ER when he got home.

Around 5:00 he arrived and did his own "expert" examination of my foot. He unwrapped it, poked and peered at it and told me to wiggle my toes while saying "The Captain told me once he rolled his ankle and it hurt the side of his foot like yours and it wasn't his ankle hurting at all, I think you're fine."
I found this to be incredibly annoying because here is a rough translation of what he was really saying: "I had a really long day at work and the last thing I want to do this evening is sit in an emergency room and wait for somebody to tell you you may or may not be fine. Suck it up and eventually you'll heal one way or another."

Naturally I got pretty irritated. I reminded him that he'd told me he'd take me, or else I would have just gone there and hopped there myself without him. I also reminded him that the ability to walk is rather an important part of my current job and that walking without an awkward limp will sure make motherhood a great deal easier.

So, we were off. Once we got to Balboa I checked in amongst the enormous crowd in the waiting room while he parked the car and then found me a wheelchair to wait in. While we waited I called our friend Kristin who is surgical resident at the hospital. I call her and leave a message on her phone whenever I am down there, just in case she has some free time and is able to come say hi. So far I've never seen her. Surgeons apparently don't have a great deal of free time.

A few minutes later, while I played a game on my cell phone Matt entertained himself by taking a picture of me sitting in my chair and texted it to Kristin with a message that apparently said "Come to the ER." What he didn't know is that Kristin can not get picture texts on her phone.

Surprisingly, about 15 minutes later, (we were still waiting of course) Kristin walked in to the waiting room and sort of demanded "What are you doing here?" Matt and I both looked up, shocked not only to see her at all but also to find that she was in her Dress Blues Uniform. We told her about my fall and my hurt foot and then asked about her very official outfit. She told us she had been at the Funeral all day (I immediately started to feel guilty for calling/texting her at all) for a Nurse who was killed last week in Afghanistan. Kristin had apparently gone to medical school with the Nurse's husband and of course had worked with her in the hospital before she'd been deployed.

Apparently Kristin had been driving back to the hospital to drop off some friends after the funeral when she'd received Matt's text. She hadn't yet checked her voicemail and Matt's text had made her worry that I was in premature labor or something so she'd come right over. (There I was, feeling guilty some more....)

Since she was there, she decided to look at my foot. She reminded me that she's a Surgeon and definitely not an expert on such matters but poked and prodded some before deciding that I definitely did need x-rays. Kristin disappeared behind the ER doors for awhile to see how long the wait was going to be and she didn't like what they told her (it might have been around 4 hours) so she ordered the x-rays for me herself and came back to walk us up to radiology.

Radiology was a completely empty so the techs took me right back, buried me and the baby under multiple lead shields (which were so heavy I couldn't move) while a suddenly very Doctorly Kristin waited and looked at the films as they popped up on the screen. She looked at them and said she didn't see anything, but that she also wanted to check with the radiologist so she disappeared down the hall again. Matt and I sat in the waiting room and felt bad for bothering her some more, but also really lucky that we weren't still waiting in the line at the ER.

Eventually Kristin came back and said the radiologist wanted more pictures. She said he saw something that could be something, or it could be nothing and they weren't sure. I was reburied under the lead shields again while the x-ray techs tried to convince my leg and ankle to maneuver my foot into the angles they needed and the baby kicked wildly in my tummy against the weight of the lead smooshing down on us. Once the second set of pictures were taken, Kristin disappeared again.

She came back with the same prognosis as before, that it was probably not a break and to continue to keep it wrapped, iced and elevated and that it should start to improve over the next few days. With that, we headed back to the ER to return my wheelchair and Kristin went to say "Hey" to her friends in the Cast room before she left. When she returned this time she said she'd talked to an Ortho Doctor who'd taken a look and decided there was, after all, a very small fracture and that I needed one of those ugly hard bottom blue shoes for the next month or so.

At least its not a cast.

I honestly can't believe the whole trip. After the hospital we went for dinner at Kristin's house. (We really wanted to buy her dinner to show our gratitude, but she wanted to eat the food she had at home.) When we returned to our own house about 9:30it occurred to us that if we had waited the entire estimated 4 hours we might just be getting in to see the docs. Kristin was a lifesaver! I mean, duh, she's a doctor of course she's a lifesaver, but MAN did she ever do us a SOLID! I find it funny that she consulted so many Doctor's about my case to be sure that she was getting a good diagnosis, despite the fact that it was her day off. I can only imagine what she told them all each time she walked in, dressed all fancy, and asked them to look at my xrays. She's a really, really good friend, an excellent doctor and I thank God that I know her. :)

Anyway, this wouldn't be complete without photos so, I'll leave you with my ugly new shoe....
That's NOT hot.

Personally, I'm a big fan of the fact that it is designed to be worn on either foot so that no matter which foot you put it on, it looks like you have your shoe on the wrong foot.

Another friend of mine suggests that I decorate it and glam it up, like Claire Huxtable did on that old episode of the Cosby show when she had to wear one for a fancy, formal event. Anyone own a bedazzler??

The Weekend

As I may have mentioned, I am happy to be on two weeks of blissful, relaxing spring vacation from school. After having spent the better part of last week forcing myself to be productive and accomplish stuff around the house I was determined to get out and enjoy America's finest city with my husband.

Matt had to work overnight on Friday but he was home just after 8 am on Saturday morning complete with a dozen donuts to appease his hungry, uh, unborn baby. After two donuts I was vibrating and started bugging him to do something. I really wanted to go to the zoo or the Wild Animal park and Matt really didn't. He reminded me that both parks are full of some very steep hills and he didn't think I'd be interested in walking up and down them all day. He (yes he) "compromised" and decided we should take Brutus down to Balboa Park, something we hadn't done since Brutus was still a puppy right before Matt left on deployment last year.

The trip was interesting because we didn't know that Balboa park was taken over by a massive Science Festival this weekend. The crowds were insane so we explored for awhile, shopped the artist's village and finally headed home after only a couple hours. The doggie was getting a little overwhelmed by the massive number of people, the lines for food were psychotic and my cute new shoes were giving me MASSIVE blisters on my pinkie toes. (ew/ouch!)

Sunday morning I woke up to another beautiful San Diego day and immediately started in on Matt again about the zoo. He was drowning himself in his usual pot of coffee and playing video games so I got online and looked up the latest prices on admission to the Zoo or Wild Animal Park. I discovered that with his active duty Military ID Matt's admission to either park was free and as his dependant mine was discounted. I also discovered that the Wild Animal Park had a 3 week old Baby Elephant on top of all their other fabulous and amazing elephants... so finally, my begging wore down Matt and he agreed we could go.

Upon our arrival I decided I'd let Matt kind of lead us through the park because if I did we'd head straight for the elephants and see nothing else all day. We saw the new baby cheetah in the nursery and some random birds and things and then some primates and the Lions before going on the big tram ride to see the large African Safari type areas that make up the bulk of the Park's attractions. Our tram driver and tour guide was rather ridiculous and sort of mumbled his way through the ride so Matt and I made our own jokes and entertained ourselves taking massive amounts of pictures.

First, we got a cute little shot of a "Rhino-saur" as Matt calls them.



Matt also took this lovely shot of a wild flower covered hill side.



We got a great view of the giraffes.



And some, antlered animal enjoying his lunch.



Near the end of the tour there was this great herd of about 5 different types of animals. Matt looked at me whimsically and asked "So, where do the Deer and the Antelope play?"



People around us sort of giggled, and the lady in front of him made some remark about what a little cut up he was. Meanwhile, I straight up lost it. Something about being pregnant always gives me the giggles and once I start, it doesn't stop till tears are streaming down my face and I can barely breath. It's this whole big thing.

Anyway, after the train tour journey, we headed off up the hill towards the tigers and some other animals and eventually, my beloved elephants. Matt kept himself entertained with the camera some more while I trudged slowly up the hill.



We finally reached the tiger overlook and were happy to get a few quick glimpses of the three tiger cubs and their mother before continuing up the hill. As we walked Matt noticed and pointed out some horse or goat like animal far away at the top of a hill. I looked up and then promptly fell down. I guess I stepped on the edge of the path and turned my ankle a little and went right down. I landed on the outside of my left foot and leg and with my right leg turned in but magically didn't spill my slushy. Matt sort of looked at me confused and asked if I was okay. My foot hurt pretty bad, but I was so embarrassed that I hopped right up and tried to shake it off as I limped behind Matt the last 50 yards or so to the elephants.

Oh those adorable elephants!


However, while we watched them I started to cry. I was embarrassed that I'd fallen down, my right knee and foot were bleeding and my left foot was starting to swell funny and I couldn't really put my weight on it. I was also crying because I wasn't enjoying the elephants like I wanted to and felt like I had ruined our day at the park AND on top of everything else I was proving Matt right. Apparently I couldn't handle all the hills. Plus, you know, I'm pregnant and the hormones were starting to get the better of me.

Matt sort of stared at me for awhile, the way men do when they don't know why their wife is crying. Finally he just went ahead and asked the obvious question "Why are you crying?" I responded by crying harder and wiping my tears on his shirt before blubbering about how I was feeling. He went and found a volunteer worker to call the park's medical services to come help me out. While we waited for them to arrive he passed the time by, go figure, taking pictures of my injuries.

First my very mature looking scrapped knee...



and foot...



and finally my bum foot, which at this point was only swelling a little on the outside and hadn't yet started to change colors.



As you can see, I've circled the funny bump area for you, since you all probably aren't familiar with what my feet normally look like. Come to think of it, you probably don't care either way, so I'll move on....

The EMTs and the park rangers came to get us. I rode back to the front of the park with the EMT guy and Matt went with the park rangers. The rangers took down my name and number presumably so there would be some record of the accident when or if I try to sue the park and the EMT iced down my foot before wrapping it in an ace bandage. He seemed sure that my hurt foot was actually a sprained ankle due to my wearing flip flops. I tried to explain that they had good support (they're Clarks) and that I had to wear them because I still had the massive blisters on my pinkie toes from the day before. Nobody listened to me though.



The rangers asked us if we were going to head back out into the park, but since I couldn't walk Matt and I decided to call it a day. :( Another park ranger drove us to our car and we headed home. Matt still seemed pretty sure that I'd just sprained my ankle, but I wasn't so sure. My ankle, felt and still feels fine. It moves freely and all that. My foot on the other hand has a big hard bump sticking out the side and can't hold my weight. Last night it swelled nicely to the point where each of my toes looked liked Vienna sausages and a lovely greenish bruise has covered the the top and side of my foot.

I'm really hesitant to go to the doctor or ER because Matt seems to think this is no big deal, the EMT guy seemed sure it is just a sprain (not that he in anyway examined my foot aside from wrapping it,) I don't want x-rays to hurt my baby, I really don't want a cast or crutches and, of course, I REALLY REALLY hate going to the doctor, especially when there is a chance they are going to tell me there is nothing they or I can do besides wait for it to heal.

Matt says to keep on icing it and keeping it elevated, and if it hasn't improved when he comes home he'll take me to the hospital. *Sigh*

I'll keep you posted.

Matt's Promotion

Matt originally enlisted in the Navy in August of 1993. He served nearly 2 years as an engineer before getting selected for an ROTC scholarship and getting out of the Navy to attend college at Ohio State. After his graduation in December of 1999 he received his commission as an Ensign and began his Officer career. Somewhere around December of 2001 he was automatically promoted to Lieutenant Junior Grade and then in January 2004 he was promoted to full Lieutenant.

Apparently for Officers, as long as you are competent at doing your job and you keep your nose clean the promotion rate to Lieutenant is almost 100%. At that point the promotion process slows down and it becomes more difficult to climb the ladder. For this reason, in addition to fairly sizable raise, we were quite pleased when this past summer he was selected for Lieutenant Commander.

According to his seniority Matt was to be promoted on April 1, 2009. This became excessively amusing to anyone who knows my crack-up husband as it was April Fools Day. So, rather than make a prank of it, he decided to wait to reaffirm his oath and take the promotion until the 2nd. This also meant the the ship would be in port and I'd be able to attend and put his new, shiny, oak leaf collar insignia on for him.

Here he is trying not to mess up the oath while I look enormously pregnant in the background.



Me, removing his Lieutenant bars and putting on his new leaf.



Showing off his new collar device.



Signing the official paperwork.


(Also, this is an interesting photo as it appears that the Captain has an extra hand. In reality the XO has his hand in there but the rest of him is blocked by Matt.)

Just us (although this is a pretty horrible picture....)