Oh babyyy, we've got a lot of catchin' up to do!

Get ready, grab a cup of coffee, put on some elastic waisted pants (oh wait, that would be me, ha!), or cozy up on the couch, because this is gonna be a long post! I've been way too busy for blogging over the past week and a half, so I'll hit all of the highlights (or lowlights, you'll see what I mean...) to get us all nice and caught up!

Week before last:  My manager was with me for 2.5 days, so that pretty much took up all of my time. To sum up that time, here are a few of our conversations/his comments:
(when I first saw him)
Mgr: I lost 5 pounds - you didn't say anything!
Me: Haha, oh sorry, you look great!
Mgr: Yeah, that's ok...I guess everyone looks small to you.

(while eating at O'Charley's for lunch, and I had soup and salad and was moving some of the grilled chicken off of my salad)
Mgr: Is something wrong with the chicken?
Me: No, I just didn't want that much of it. I'm not a huge meat-eater; I could probably get by without it. (then I reach for a roll)
Mgr: Yeah, geez, if you eat a whole loaf of bread with every meal I'm sure you could!

(as my partner and I are talking about a dinner program)
Mgr: Just remember, word to the wise, whatever weight you put on, you've got to get back off.

Wow, thanks bud! I should also mention that whenever I told him I was pregnant, he said, "Well I've never dealt with that stuff before so I don't really know how all that pregnancy shit works...talk to someone in the company who has had a baby."  I should probably also mention that he's 36 and single.

Last week was equally busy with two dinner progams that lasted upwards of 10:30pm (but I got to enjoy yummy meals here and here!), my mother-in-law and the McLaurins (yay Anna) were in town for part of the week for Deedie's surgery (which was successful, thank the Lord!), and the Schonfelds came over for dinner and some much-needed playtime (well, the boys played playstation all day with baby Callahan in the Baby Bjorn, haha) on Thursday night. Callahan is especially stinkin' cute right now and she is all giggly and smiley and ADORABLE! Unfortunately, Friday the 13th was very true to form for me. I had a lunch at office... the first doc and the PA were super nice, then the 2nd doc came up and told me that Moe's was not what he wanted for lunch, he doesn't like Moe's, and even though I called and asked the front office the day before what they wanted to eat for lunch, I should have consulted him, because "which is more important, what the receptionist wants or what the doctor wants?" (literally his words exactly) So he signed for samples and walked right out. Then the last doctor obviously had multiple personalities, b/c she went back and forth between being super nice and yelling things like "enough about that, I don't care about managed care, go to something else!" Crazy people.  I hope my husband and his sweet friends are never stinky, mean, complaining, arrogant doctors to people in their offices.  I don't think they ever will be.  Anyway, back to the story...so after that awful lunch at least there was a light at the end of the tunnel, b/c I was going by Nadeau to pick up this awesome table to go next to the tv/fireplace to hold our vast array of tech-savy equipment  (aka playstation, games, dvds, two stations for surround sound, ugly wires, etc) and it was awesome!! It had been there for a month or so, and I measured it, came home and it was PERFECT (b/c it also has to double as an end table) and gorgeous and I have been waiting a year and a half to find something exactly like this...Nicholas and I had gone the Sunday before to get it, but we discovered the latch was broken, so the girl said the owner would have to fix it. I called back Tuesday and she said he had to drill in a new latch, and that she would call when it was ready. She called Thursday and left a message saying it was ready and they would hold it for 24 hours...so back to Friday, I was mucho excited to go by there and get it! So I walk inside...only to find that A LADY IS BUYING IT RIGHT BEFORE MY EYES!!!!! The stupid girl said the 24 hours ended at noon (THANKS FOR TELLING ME THAT, LADY!) and that this lady had a second hold on it and came right in and bought my perfect table, for the perfect spot, that I discovered was broken in the first place and had been sitting in the store for over a month until I decided to want it!!! Arghhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! So I got back in my car, burst into tears, and cried all the way home. Like a big baby. Nicholas was sweet to remind me that I had a "loving husband and a healthy baby boy," which I was and am super de-duper grateful for, but it didn't help the tears. So in true Miss Ladonne form (we used to go do this after work when one of us was upset about something back when I lived in Clemson), I went to TJ Maxx and looked around until I felt better. Then I went home and took a bath. It didn't help my Friday the 13th that Nicholas was on call, so Harley and I just had a pity party for ourselves (me, b/c of my bad day...her, b/c she's getting ready to get booted as the only ridiculously spoiled baby in the house).  And that was my week, folks.
This past weekend was much better! Nicholas and I had a "Super Saturday" baby class at the hospital for 6 hours on Sat. He was such a trooper, b/c not only was he post-call, but he had to re-live the "anatomy and physiology of pregnancy," which I'm pretty sure that he had pushed far from his brain after his OB/GYN rotation in medical school.  It was pretty funny though, b/c all of the husbands were petrified of the videos (which were not graphic AT ALL) and of passing out/puking in the delivery room b/c of the blood, and then Nicholas was trying not to fall asleep b/c he's like "been there, done that" with the whole baby delivery thing (but again, has placed it far from his memory as he said there was nothing "pleasant" about it).  Touring the maternity floor was really neat, and really scary. Not gonna lie. You should see all the things that those delivery tables do - they pull apart, pop open, have handlebars, all kinds of creepy things like that. Overall, I can't say that we learned anything major we really didn't know, but I got some good ideas of what to pack for the hospital, a visual explanation of why my lower back hurts so freakin' bad, and an idea of what to expect we're back in that hospital for GAMETIME!
Speaking of gametime, Clemson also beat NC State this weekend, woohoo, so if we win this coming weekend (or as long as Boston College loses), we'll be headed to the ACC Championship in Tampa! Go TIGERS!
Sunday was my sweet friend, Kayla's BIRTHDAY! I haven't seen her in SOOOO LONG b/c she and her husband, Brad, live in Birmingham now, but I thought I would share a lovely picture of us from prom in high school - this would be my sophomore/her freshman year. Bahahhahahahahaa!  Happy birthday, K - love you!

I also wanted to add these pictures:

 

 

 

(and yes that's Leah all the way on the left, in those sweet windsuit pants)

 

 Because it has been 13 years today since my sweet Daddy has been here with us. It's hard, because I was 13 years old when he died, so I've officially lived as much of my life without him as I have with him. Not truly though, because I've thought about him every single day since then, and I think I have a lot of his personality traits, and physical traits, too, which makes me feel connected to him. To be honest, it just feels like two different lifetimes in a lot of ways. The things I miss the most about him are his laughter, his smile, his teasing, his outgoing personality and ability to get along with anyone in any situation, and his sweet and loving disposition. I miss that he can't play golf with Nicholas and his dad. I miss that he can't come to Charleston and visit and meet our friends. I miss that my little boy won't be lucky enough to play with him and have the relationship with his grandfather that I got to have with my grandparents. But there's a positive side to that too, because you see my dad was probably the first one to ever meet Baby Mills. And I want to have a "grandfather" name for him so that Mills will still be able to grow up hearing stories about him and knowing him in a way. Leah (who was spending the night with me the night my dad died and hasn't forgotten to send me a card or note on this day every single year for 13 years) sent me a text message this morning that said "grandpa jimmy would be proud," and I think he would be. I think he's looking down from Heaven so very excited and I think he'll get a lot of laughs over the things little Mills will do in the years to come. PaPa, too. I'm sure they're celebrating together.  And speaking of Baby MILLS...

I don't know if you saw that pregnancy ticker at the top of the blog, but it says 49 days.... in the forties, people! That's like nothin'! Holy cow! We're sitting at 33 weeks today, and the baby boy is the symbol of southern hospitality this week

That's right, over 17 inches long and weighing in at close to 4lbs (according to babycenter.com, of course)! Sometimes I think he's shaped more like a pineapple than a human being, too, haha! We're down to the 2 week dr. appts, still waiting on the rocker and bedding to come in for the nursery, still on the hunt for a changing table/dresser, and we've pretty much gotten all of the wall decor/artwork, we've just gotta get it up (which I will need mom and MaMa for, clearly). Geez I think I've been typing for over 30 minutes now...blame the ranting and rambling on the pregnancy brain and hormones.

To sum it up (can you tell I was a communications major and wrote LOTS of papers and feel the need to provide a summary on a blog entry this long), last week was kind of crappy. (oh, and another random thought I forgot...I literally came ONE INCH from getting projectile vomitted on by an old lady in a dr.'s office yesterday...she fell on the floor then got sick, and I jumped over/mangled 3 people to get to the other side of the room before I got covered and then probably would have joined her in the vomit fest...blehhhhhhhhhhhh!) Ok, back to now...last week was kind of crappy, weekends are good, today was a good day, I'll try and keep caught up with the blog, and I'm excited to be at 33 weeks, AND even more excited for January 5 (give or take a few days)!