Cold Spaghetti

One wonderful thing about my marriage is that we have been through some incredible stresses and strains. Lay-offs, serious and chronic illness, cross-country moves, ownership of 3 homes, renovations, family dramas, a child, 5 international jobs, a bunch of degrees, and the nation’s most major natural disaster. All in under 6 years. We figure that with our history of working through these things, the current questions we face are no match for our ability to work together. Still, we are pretty stressed out.

Balls we have in the air:
– We have a very long and detailed punch-list of things to do to fix up the house for market.
– We have no current daycare for Will.
– I need to be in NOLA to work on my prospectus (the writing and research of which cannot happen without the daycare situation worked out).
– As of the first week of April, I have weekly appointments with our midwife in Pensacola (3-4 hours drive from New Orleans).
– We are putting our house on the market sometime between April 1st and May 1st.
– We have a friend living with us until classes end in late April.
– Paul needs to continue to work 40 hours a week, each week, while juggling appointments, the no daycare situation, and home repairs.
– Valerie, my committee member based on Lima, will be in-country in mid-May, so this is the perfect time to present the prospectus… which means I have a ticking timeline that I cannot even start to address until we figure out a daycare arrangement.
– The baby is due May 5th.
– We have no firm plans on where we are going after selling the house, what we are doing with our stuff, or generally what we are going to do. (We are leaning towards a maintainence-free condo in a planned community somewhere, but would need to find somewhere very, very affordable since we need to save our pennies for rent in Lima.)

Just writing all of these things down is giving me indigestion. We know we will be okay and start to figure things out and certainly we’re working on it (I’ve got some daycare leads and have been working on house stuff each day) but there are still so many unanswered questions!

Anyone have a really good magic 8 ball???

We’ve arrived in Mobile for a short trip. Tomorrow we have a full day of prenatal visits: a morning appointment with our midwife and an afternoon consultation with the doctor who has to sign off on my medical chart for me to deliver at the Birth Center. Part of the consultation is the “scare session” where he’ll go through all of the terrible things that can happen in a VBAC and in birth in general. We’ve heard he’s a pretty nice guy and totally into midwifery care, so I’m kind of interested in hearing the schpeal. I’m also glad I know the science and the studies and have the knowledge to stift through it in a responsible fashion.

The big part of the day is the second ultrasound. Turns out my placenta is on the front and low — possibly on my scar. This is a Big Deal and needs to be investigated for the birth plan to proceed. We feel pretty good about it not being a problem, but it will be nice once we get the go-ahead.

We enjoyed a great Mardi Gras weekend. We’re both still of mixed minds about the whole affair: we love Mardi Gras and thoroughly enjoyed it; we think it is great that area businesses are reporting over $200 million in revenue; and we are eager to see if the funds actually get put back into the city’s failing infrastructure.

There were some differences this year… shorter parades, less parades, and less days of rolling krewes. On the parade route, there were less port-a-potties (I waited in line at a nearby bar when I had to go today), and the intense street cleaning crews weren’t quite out in the same force as previous years. (They are *impressive* to watch.) Word on the town is that the crowds were much smaller this year, but to us, it seemed full and fine. Then again, we stick to the Uptown festivities where the families hang out — and where it is relatively easy for your kids to get throws, have cook-outs, play frisbee, and enjoy other common Uptown Mardi Gras fun.

We only attended 3 days of parades (I think we saw 7 parades) but still have a ton of loot. This is a close breakdown:

– 12 stuffed toys of various sizes (not including the many we caught but gave away)
– 5 footballs and at least 1 plastic basketball and stuffed baseball
– A stuffed Muses spear and Muses backpack (my new diaper bag) — both were gifts from the Sherry’s
– 5 doubloons
– Special medallion necklaces from Muses, Morpheus, and Zulu
– Two Krewe d’Etat Skulls
– One Zulu Coconut
– One pack of Male Nude Model Playing Cards
– Three super-speciality bead necklaces (one a bit more risque — read about it under the picture of my belly below!)
– Two lanyards
– One music stick
– One light-up Muses star wand (that Will has repeatedly taken apart to the point where it may not work much longer!)
– At least 8 light-up necklaces, charms, and bracelets from the various night parades
– Two pedicure kits (Muses)
– One awesome “high-healed shoe” bracelet from the ladies of Muses
– A t-shirt (size small — so we it gave to Mina, in the pictures below)
– Approximately 28 cups
– A TON of beads!!!

How we entertained Will before the parades began! Once Paul decorated my belly, Will insisted on helping Paul share in the fun. He also decorated his own and gave us markers to help him. We wrote: “If found, please return to Zoo.” For the rest of the day, Will showed everyone his belly to great amusement! 

This year, Zulu featured a group of Africans (I’m not sure if they are actually from the Zulu tribe in South Africa or not, although that would sort of be the point).

Zulu is a crowd favorite! See all those hands in the air? And the roar that goes up when a rider has a coconut in their hands — wow! Zulu is filled with fantastic music of all kinds and great throws. Will got a music wand, stuffed toys (many of which we gave to other kids), some great beads, and medallions. And YES — we got a coconut!!! Because coconuts aren’t usually thrown (you have to be right up on the float to get one), one of the families around us that we befriended got one for me — I’m not sure if a rider designated it for me or not. There were some super-fun families around and they watched out for me and the belly!

Will talking to the huge stuffed tiger we caught from Zulu!

Darth Vader — one of the Zulu floats! 

Me and my belly! Will’s washable markers provided the medium and Paul the artistic hand, following a sketch I made on a napkin. After realizing how thick the standing crowd was, we kept back a bit with our chairs and I stood on our big block cooler. The belly got *a lot* of attention. People asked for photographs and several of the riders on the floats stopped to pick up cameras to photograph me. The local news and CNN affliate also took video of me — although we missed tonight’s news (I was making dinner) and haven’t seen our particular clip in CNN. The belly also attracted some special throws from riders who singled me out: including a huge stuffed tiger (Will was with me for this one so it was really for both of us) and some “risque” items from Zulu… a set of male nude playing cards and a (ahem) phallically-themed bead necklace (which I’m wearing in this picture if you can make it out!) 

Paul: adorned with throws and the Travel Bunny!!!