Funerals, Memories, and The Belly

This weekend was interesting. I had to go to my uncle's funeral in Modesto, CA. It was quite bittersweet. Not just because of his death, but because of Modesto itself. Modesto was a place I spent countless weekends growing up. Both of my great grandmothers lived there. My parents, my brother and I went there all the time, and they were some of the best memories of my life. About 4 years back, my Noni died (one of my great g-mas that was 96 years old when she passed). Then 2 1/2 years ago or so my Gram (the other great g-ma who is now in the neighborhood of 95ish) was moved to Reno so she wasn't living alone. Since then, we hadn't been back to Modesto. It's not the same without staying in the whimsical home of Gram, with all the green trees and grape vines, flowers, wind chimes, pancakes in the mornings, saggy old bed on the porch, hours spent out back by the lemon trees talking... hmm. Well, despite our desire to leave Modesto as a sweet, dear memory, we still have to go back when stuff like this funeral comes up. It just sucks. It's not the same. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express. We drove by my Gram's old house and Noni's old house. They've both been sold and changed. It blows. But whatev. Still good to see family. So, moving on... a few pics to show.

Sarah at 20 weeks! Woot!

Big 'ol belly!!!

Here's the new Catholic church, Saint Stanislaus, that the funeral mass was held at. It was GORGEOUS. Looked just like one of the cathedrals in Italy.

Here are the handsome men I traveled with. On the far left is my little (well, younger) brother TJ, then my dad Tim, then on the right my Uncle Chris. Don't they look sharp? :)

The weekend went down without a hitch for the most part. I was the only female in the group as my brother's girlfriend stayed home, Mom had to work, and my Aunt Jane (Chris' wife) had to stay home with their twin boys (1 1/2 years old). Talk about testosterone city. And my favorite part? Every person within arms reach of me grabbin on the belly and commenting on how big my stomach is and am I sure I'm not having twins and oh my what a big boy this is going to be! I nearly punched 15 people in the face.

Shitty Weekend. Literally.

What a shit weekend.

Well, really, there was some good in there too.

So, it all started on Friday morning. I usually start work at 6am, but when my alarm went off at 4:15am, I wasn't feeling very well, so I decided to snooze and be into work by 8am. I slept in a bit, got in the shower at 6, then gave work a call to let them know I'd be in by 8. Now, every day when I'm getting ready, I watch a movie in the bathroom on the portable DVD player that my husband got me several years ago. I LOVE THIS. It is really one of the highlights of my day. I get to watch whatever I want, and it makes getting ready less boring. Well, last weekend when Marshall (my hubby) had been cleaning out the garage, he was using the DVD player out there. So this Friday morning, I went out to the garage after my shower to go get it, and realized that not only was it not there on the shelf, but our garage door was open as well. Hmm. Well, maybe Marshall left the door open by accident last night, and he had already brought the DVD player back in for me and I just hadn't realized it. Okay. So go back inside, check... no DVD player. Hmm. Back to the garage. Son of a bitch. Not only is the DVD player gone and the garage door open, but now I see that Marshall's big miter saw (whatever the hell a "miter" saw is... to me it's just a bit saw) is also gone from the shelf, the side-door to the backyard from the garage is also open, and the light outside that door is on. (Note: We don't ever leave that light on, because if we do it shines relentlessly into our bedroom, preventing us from sleeping; also, that back door was locked and closed when I fed our dog the night before.) So I run back in to wake up hubby and tell him that I think we were robbed. He jumps out of bed, and then confirms that his air compressor is also missing. Another call to work to let them know I'll be in whenever, since I was robbed and have to figure some shit out. Police come, take a report, give us our case number for our Residential Burglary. Hooray. Now we are out a saw, a portable DVD player, the movie Full Metal Jacket (which was in the DVD player), and an air compressor. None of which we're likely to ever see again. Damnit.

Jump forward a few hours to work. Time for lunch. Girlfriend Erin and I go to Chili's. I order a delicious looking plate of food, which I sort of pick at. I'm not super hungry. Not sure if it's because of my raging sinus infection and bronchitis. Get back to work. Go use the bathroom. Wash my hands. Then rush back into the stall and proceed to barf up my entire lunch and then some. Great. Super. I feel like shit now. Go tell my supervisor that I'm going to take the rest of the day off. One co-worker feels sorry for me, another co-worker looks at me like I'm a pussy with that "of course you're throwing up, you're pregnant" look. Nope, sorry sweetheart, this is not pregnancy-related throwing-up. I've only thrown up 2x while pregnant so far and both times have been a quick little gaggy-up-chuck... NOTHING like this. So I get home. I'm feeling very sorry for myself. Meanwhile, hubby is home installing dead-locks on our recently burglarized home.

Hours pass... I have since camped out either in the bathroom or on the couch, my body completely ridding itself of anything and everything possible. I am convinced that I either have the flu, or a sweet case of food poisoning from God knows what. Even more exciting is that I'm supposed to start my antibiotic horse pill for the crap-tastic bronchitis and sinus infection, which the pharmacist informed me would "upset my stomach" so to "take with food." Ha. Yeah. Right. As if that's a remote possibility at this point. Whatev. I'll just start it tomorrow.

All night and next day, no different. Still miserable. Trying to re-coop with lots of Gatorade. It's now Valentine's Day. We have reservations at a super nice restaurant that I've been looking forward to for 2 weeks. I'll be damned if I'm not going to eat until my heart's content. I'll just deal with the consequences later. So we go, and we have an INCREDIBLE dinner at David's Grill out at the Resort at Red Hawk where we were married this last June. Came home. Absolutely paid the price for eating all those tender sweet lamb chops, rich buttery mushroom risotto, melt-in-your-mouth petite fillet, orgasmic white-chocolate caramel bread pudding... aaaaaah... sooooo totally worth the pain.

Sunday was pretty tentative, but okay. Feeling weak because I'm COMPLETELY DEHYDRATED, but I'm chugging Gatorade like there's no tomorrow. Got a call from Mom. My Uncle died that morning (technically my great uncle, but not much difference to me)... he was an amazing, sweet man. Funeral will probably be next weekend in Modesto, CA. Damn. Get ready in my bathroom with no DVD player. Fuck. Tried to eat pizza. Regretted it. Went to the Reno Boat, RV & Home Show with hubby. Drooled over all the RVs. Went to Barnes & Noble. Got a new pregnancy journal and a board game. Went home. Ate Top Ramen for dinner (Have I mentioned that I really do love Top Ramen?) Then for the rest of the night layed around and played board games in front of a fire with my hubby. It was really nice. :)

So basically, the whole weekend has been a lot of shit mixed in with some pretty good times. It was a good weekend to spend time just Marshall and I. Maybe we sort of knew that with shit going so bad, we just needed each other.

Guy Gear

It's a boy!!!!!

Can't you tell?

Um, yeah. Surprise, surprise... the picture we were given is soooo hard to see. I was so disappointed when this was the picture our Doctor gave us, because when he was doing the ultrasound, it was all so clear! At that appointment, we begged to see if he'd look for us, since we weren't supposed to have another ultrasound until 3/2/09. He gave in, which was so nice of him! He looked and was showing us what's what... "okay, so it's as if your looking up at the baby like you're changing a diaper... the left leg is here, here's the right leg, and in between is what looks to be the junk." Okay, so he didn't call it junk, hehe. He told us not to go painting the room, but that it's a boy. I guess they have to say that? Dunno, but in my official, professional opinion, it was clear as day! My husband pointed out that he takes after his father. Hehe. (Watch it be a girl now, lol.) So we have the "official" diagnostic ultrasounds on 3/2/09, just to confirm what our Doctor told us, but I'd be super surprised to find out that he was wrong. I mean, come on... can a baby va-jay-jay be that big?! If so, yikes.

The Belly

Okay, so here they are... official belly shots! =D At this point I'm almost 19 weeks pregnant. And my belly is GIGANTIC. Supposedly I've only gained 4 lbs (as of my last appt 1 1/2 weeks ago). Apparently my stomach is pulling weight from unknown places (hopefully my ass), because it's feeling like more than 4 lbs! And no, I'm not having twins. In fact, if another person at work jokes about me having twins I might punch them in the face.

The side shot...

And this shows you what I see when I look down, hehe!

All in all, things are looking pretty good. I'm in good spirits, aside from the ass-kicking cold my dear, sweet husband gave me. And of course, with me it turns into a full-blown sinus infection. Ack. But I'm starting to feel better slowly, thank God. As it is, pregnancy has cast away most patience I had to begin with, and being sick is like the straw that broke that camel's back. I was bordering on preg-zilla this last Friday, so hubby is glad that normal Sarah (well, "pregnancy-normal Sarah," which is pretty damn far from "pre-pregnancy-normal Sarah") is back again. Things are pretty peachy as long as nobody pisses me off, hehe...