Look how awesome our bookshelf looks:

It looks pretty, right? I spent hours organizing it this past week... and I really mean hours and hours. I boxed up all of the books and dvds that we don't need out right now, moved the rest of our books and dvds upstairs to a smaller bookshelf in our room, and moved all of Naomi's children's books and Disney movies to this bookshelf. I spent about an hour setting up the third shelf alone and putting all of Naomi's books and then the chapter books in order by size (tallest to shortest) so that it would look extra pretty. I'm sure Naomi will just pull them all off the shelf in a few days and ruin it, but it looks great for now!!

Also, we put up our Christmas tree last night! I love it... I just want to lay on the couch all day, listening to Christmas music and looking at our tree.

Bring on Christmas!

Thanksgiving is finally over, which means it is officially the Christmas season!!! Yay!

Before I talk more about Christmas, however, here is a picture of my little family on Thanksgiving: (Please pay no attention to my fat pregnancy face!)
Speaking of pregnancy, I only have 2 1/2 weeks left until my due date! Yay! Then hopefully my feet will stop looking like this:
Gross, I know. And they hurt. So hopefully this baby girl decides to make her appearance sooner rather than later!

Now, on to Christmas!

Jacob and I plan on listening to fun Christmas music tonight, putting up our tree, and watching Elf once Naomi goes to bed... photos will follow! I have been in a cleaning frenzy the past week or so to get ready for the holidays and our new little baby, and I finally feel like I have our townhouse ready to finish decorating for Christmas. So hopefully in the next few days, I will get the rest of our decorations put up!

When I got my Christmas decorations out of our closet, I found 4 pages of holiday window clings. I don't usually like window clings--I think they mostly look tacky and stupid. I only had them in the first place to decorate my classroom when I was teaching. But Naomi loves playing by the sliding glass doors in our living room and looking out the windows, so I thought I would put some of the clings on the sliding glass doors for her to play with. She's not very good at putting them back on the windows yet, but she's been having a lot of fun pulling them off!

stupid people piss me off

Stupid Person #1 (actually people, in this case):

I took the car today to Jiffy Lube because we're about 5000 miles overdue for an oil change and tire rotation. So I tell the guy who comes to my window that we need an oil change and our tires rotated--he checks the tires and says yep, we definitely need them rotated. The front tires are wearing down more than the back ones. I also tell the guy that I don't want them to clean the inside of the car, because we had papers everywhere and I didn't want them to throw things out that I may need. (Our car was a mess... but don't judge! I'm 8 1/2 months pregnant and I have a 20-month old. I'm tired and I haven't had the time to clean it). So he says that's fine, and he takes the car.

Fast forward 20 minutes, and I'm paying for the services, talking to a different guy than the one who initially took the car. They didn't charge me for getting the tires rotated, so I asked, and he said they didn't need to be rotated. So I explained that we were way overdue for them to be done and that the first guy said they needed to be rotated. He double checks with yet another guy, who also said that the tires are fine. They said that the tires weren't at full air pressure (or something like that), but they fixed that so now the tires are fine and they don't need to be rotated. So I say fine, whatever, and I pay and leave. Now, I don't know anything about cars, but how would the air pressure change the fact that the front tires were worn down more than the back? I don't understand. So when I get home, I called my family and spoke to my brother and one of his friends who know something about cars. They tell me to get the tires rotated no matter what the idiots at Jiffy Lube say. They recommend Big O Tires. So that is where I went next.

Oh! And when I got into the car to leave Jiffy Lube, I noticed that they cleaned the car and threw out EVERYTHING. Does no one at Jiffy Lube even talk to each other?! Because it seems that the first guy I spoke to didn't tell the others a single thing we talked about. So now I'm just praying that there wasn't a bill or a piece of mail that I needed in the car, because thanks to the idiots at Jiffy Lube, it's gone forever.

Stupid Person #2:

Everything at Big O goes fine. They rotate and balance my tires, and nobody does anything particularly idiotic. Hooray for Big O.

As I am leaving, however, I encounter a stupid man riding a bike. For this story, I refer you to the lovely diagram that I have drawn on paint. My route is shown by the blue line, and the idiot biker is shown by the green. The guy on his bike is sitting on a side road at a stop sign, about to turn onto my road. I pass him and am in line at another stop sign, about to turn right onto a very busy main road. As I am sitting in the traffic, waiting to turn, the biker turns onto my road and comes up beside my car, completely blocking me from making my turn. He is attempting to go straight, across all of the traffic on the main road. I don't know anything about the rules of the road concerning bike traffic, but I don't see how that is correct protocol! I am at the stop sign first, and yet I have to sit there for over 5 minutes waiting for this (insert swear word here) to ride his little bike across the street. There were 5 or 6 openings during this time in which I could have turned right, except that this stupid man on his bike was sitting directly in my way. I wanted to hit him. I wanted to turn right and run him over with my car.

Stupid Person #3:

When I finally get home, I checked the mail. We had a letter from someone regarding my medical insurance. Apparently, I've somehow not been on the plan for pregnant women these past 8 1/2 months, even though I should have been, and it's a pretty big problem. So I've spent a few hours the past week or so trying to get everything cleared up. In the letter, they said that I needed to come in and speak to someone about it all. They set me up an appointment time... for THIS Friday, as in the day after Thanksgiving, at 11:00 am. We will not be here on Friday... we'll be 2 hours away in Kansas City, and there's no way I can make the 11:00 am appointment. But tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and they're closed, and by the time I got the letter, it was already 4:30. I called anyway, but of course there are no real people to talk to, because there is never anyone available to talk to--you have to leave a message and wait for them to return your call. So that's what I did, but the last 2 or 3 times I've called and left messages, they were never returned, so I'm not holding my breath waiting for a response this time, either. So now I will just have to miss my appointment on Friday, and they will be annoyed... but really?! Who sets up an appointment for the day after a major holiday and gives you one day's notice, by letter sent in the mail?! I don't know what they expect me to do.

Stupid Person #4:

As soon as I had made my phone calls and left the message that most likely won't ever be returned, I ran out to do my last errand of the day... running to Walmart for diapers and wipes. In the Walmart parking lot, I turned right to drive up one of the little parking lot lanes. In front of me, there is a white truck just sitting there in the middle of the lane, not pulling into any parking space, and not going forward. He starts to reverse and either doesn't realize I'm there or doesn't care that I'm there, because he doesn't stop. He keeps reversing until I finally have to put my car in reverse and back down the lane. (These are the one way-parking lot lanes, so there is nowhere for me to go). I end up having to reverse the whole way back out of the parking lot lane, back into the main traffic driving in front of Walmart. Somehow, I never even thought to use the horn... I know I should have, but I was just so frustrated at this point that I just didn't think about it. I was so angry! When I finally got back into the parking lot area, I drove around for a minute looking for the truck... I wanted to yell at him or throw a cart into his truck or something (not really!), but he either finally parked or left altogether. So I went inside the store and called my mom and cried. Because that's what pregnant women do. And I'm very pregnant, and I have no patience for stupid people who piss me off.

My day

• Scrubbed bathroom floor & kitchen floor on hands & knees
• Washed bathroom rugs & shower curtain
• Deep cleaned the bathroom
• Cleaned/Organized our bedroom (It was AWFUL)
• Vacuumed entire upstairs minus Naomi's room
• Rearranged our bedroom furniture to make room for new baby
• Unloaded/put away dishes
• Washed kitchen table
• Sanitized kitchen sink
• Went grocery shopping
• Did 2 more loads of laundry
• Hung up/put away 3 loads of Naomi/baby laundry
• Collapsed

Also somewhere in there, I played with Naomi, fed her & myself a few meals, and brushed my teeth. I think this was the most productive day I've had in my entire life.

Excited

I am getting SO excited for Christmas this year! Yes, yes, I know we still have Thanksgiving coming up, and I will enjoy Thanksgiving and eat lots of food... but I LOVE Christmas!!! Last year, Christmas wasn't as fun for me as it usually is, mostly because we were living with Jacob's parents and I didn't have any of my Christmas things and I couldn't decorate my own place. Decorating for Christmas is extremely important to me, as any of my old roommates know, and I'm so excited to be able to decorate our townhouse this year! I even got special permission from the husband (who has a very strict "No Christmas until the day after Thanksgiving" rule) to decorate early! My reasoning for this is that I am huge & pregnant & exhausted & uncomfortable, and I only get more huge & pregnant & exhausted & uncomfortable every hour, so if I don't decorate now while I have a tiny bit of energy, it won't get done... which would be completely unacceptable--we HAVE to have a decorated home for the holidays. So we got all of our decorations out of the closet and whenever I've had a little time & energy, I've been cleaning and then decorating various parts of the house. And it's a good thing I am getting started early, because in the past two weeks, all I've had the energy to do is hang up the stockings and wrap some lights and garland around the banister. I had to buy Naomi and the new baby some ugly, cheap stockings from Walmart because we only had ones for Jacob & me, but they will have to do for now! I even put Naomi's name on her stocking with fabric paint without ruining the stocking! I attempted to put the names on Jacob's and my stockings two years ago when I bought them, and I almost ruined them. Luckily, I got the paint off and then had the art teacher (who I shared a classroom with when I taught special ed) paint our names so that they looked pretty. I'm waiting until after the baby is born to put her name on hers, just in case we change the name last minute, or she ends up being a boy, or something like that.

I wanted to add some lights & garland right above the stockings, but I haven't figured out a way to attach the garland to the wood there without it being noticeable. Any ideas? (I used tape to put the lights & garland on the banister, but it's hidden behind or underneath the banister.)

Also, don't pay attention to the crap on our stairs... Naomi can pretty much reach everything these days, so if there is something I don't want her touching, like our laptop, I put it on the stairs.

I've also started working on Christmas presents already (we're doing homemade gifts this year), which has frustrated Jacob, but he tends to completely forget about the gift aspect of all major holidays. Besides, I don't think he realizes how little time we really have. I'm due about 2 weeks before Christmas, so this baby could arrive anytime around the beginning of December, and once she gets here, we will be too busy and tired to be decorating or trying to figure out Christmas presents. In addition to having a baby, Jacob's finals are the same week as my due date, and before then, we need to get our house completely cleaned and organized and decorated and ready for the new baby. So there is lots to do!

We are having our own little Christmas here in Columbia this year, due to the fact that we'll have a newborn baby who I would like to keep here at home, and I am really, really, really excited about it! Growing up, my parents always tried to do our Christmas day celebration at our own house, and I loved it that way. I've always wanted to do the same once I had my own little family. It will be fun to start our own Christmas traditions and to mix-and-match traditions from both the Romney & Bartholomew sides. I'm also getting ridiculously excited about the food--I LOVE food, and I've been having a blast looking up Christmas recipes and making a menu for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I've already spent hours googling different recipes and bookmarking websites. It's going to be a delicious holiday!