Champagne sapphire with diamonds.  I drooled a little looking at this.

Tanzanite with diamonds.

Ceylon sapphire with diamonds.

Uh.  Actually, forget those second two and just focus on the first one.  Or this one:

Pearl with diamonds.

Ok.  I’m done for real.
But really, is someone writing this down?

I have a phone interview for a manager trainee position.
I know. That’s crazier!

I’d love a suit job.  I really would.  Ever since I saw Miss Deanna (who is now Mrs. Kieffer) in her sassy pantsuit at a wind ensemble concert, I wished I could pull it off like she can.  And I do.  It took a lot of work.  I’m quite proud.

When I graduated high school, I wanted stuff for the dorm, to start a new life as a … well, a student.  Towels.  A new bet set.  A mini fridge.  But I’m an adult now.

And I want this stuff.  (FYI this is an easy buying guide if you want to get me a grad gift and don’t know what to buy.  I’ll make it super easy.  Check this out.)

• A nice bag big enough for all my work things. (Example for $59)
• Maybe another big canvas bag for traveling work things. (Example for $45)
• Blazers of all kinds and colors. (Example for $85 but I don’t look good in pink.)
• A nice portfolio. (Couldn’t find an example I liked that wasn’t outrageously expensive.)
• And of course, I am female, in case you’ve forgotten, and females like jewelry for every occasion.  (This girl in particular likes yoga-inspired jewelry and stones that have meaning.)
• And if you’re feeling particularly generous (or if you would like to make a contribution towards this item) I’m also in the market for an iMac with wireless mouse&keyboard and lots and lots of hard drive space.  (Example, refurbished 21.5 inch screen, 4gb RAM, 1tb disk space.)

Party’s at the end of May.  My sister’s graduating too, so she’ll want the towels and a microwave.
Congratulations to my fellow graduates.  Don’t let the diploma fool you: there is still much work to be done.

I’ve decided that I want pearls.  But it must be white (with silver overtones) and round and still have diamond sidestones or else it won’t count as an engagement ring … just a nice gift.  Here are some pictures of rings that I like.  Let’s make this as obvious as possible: My favorites are 1 and 5.  I’m a size 5 (I think.)

1

2
3
4
5

Thoughts, concerns, encouragements, and other comments are always welcome. :)

I am an extremely lucky person.
My pregnancy didn’t even start getting unbearable until the last week, and thankfully, I was out of school and out of work for Thanksgiving break.  And it wasn’t even completely unbearable physically.  I was just a little sore.  Mostly, I was just tired of being pregnant.  I wanted my waistline back and to be able to sleep on my stomach again.  I wanted to be able to put on my own socks and shoes without contorting my body into some weird yoga pose.  I wanted to be able to hold my little boy in my arms instead of my pelvic cavity.  His hiccups were getting pretty annoying.

I got a little anxious and I felt selfish and whiny and the worst thing I did was keep that to myself.  My boyfriend is amazing, and I know exactly what he would have said if only I had told him how I was feeling.  He would have made me feel 150% better, but I pretty much avoided telling him the majority of my feelings during my entire pregnancy because I didn’t want him to think I was being selfish.  I didn’t want to get on his nerves.  So if there’s anything you take away from this story, just know the people who love you won’t think you’re a bad person when you don’t feel like your old size 3 self, no matter what your crazy size 8 self makes you tell him.

My due date came and went, and my not-so-scheduled induction date was still kind of up in the air since my doctor is quite popular and everyone wants their baby in time for the holidays.  I had regular contractions but nothing that ever made me want to load up the car and head to the hospital.  I tried walking around the block every day and eating spicy food once in a while, but it felt like nothing changed and I only got more impatient and frustrated.

On Monday afternoon (11/30), while I was trying to finish a term paper on Thomas Hobbes and King Charles II, I received a call from my doctor’s office telling me to come in to the hospital the next morning at 5:30 am for my induction!  I was so excited and nervous that I pretty much gave up on that paper (still haven’t turned it in) and I couldn’t even bring myself to focus on Facebook, let alone trying to get things ready for the next morning.

I went to bed at halftime during the Monday night football game, knowing I’d need all the energy I could get for the next day and also to enjoy my last full night of sleep before our little one arrived.  I was woken up at 2:30am by another phone call from the hospital saying that there wasn’t a room ready for me and that I just needed to wait for another phone call.

Easier said than done.  Pregnant ladies tend to get a little cranky when they’re not allowed to eat, but I tried to stay asleep as long as I could instead of getting up to think about food.  My mom kept coming in telling me I should call the hospital to see if they had a room ready, which seemed counter-productive to me since all they would tell me was to wait for them to call me. But I called anyway around 10am to ask if I was allowed to eat and they said no. :(

About an hour and a half later, they called back and said they were ready for me, so Andy and I packed up the car and drove to the hospital.  The events that followed would make more sense in bullets:

• 12:00pm Arrived at the hospital and began paperwork.
• 1:30pm Settled into the room. (2cm dilated, 75% effaced.)
• 2:30pm Started on the smallest dose of Pitocin to induce contractions.  Met with the anesthesiologist to talk about the epidural but I still wasn’t sure if I needed it.
• 2:45pm My doctor arrived to break my water.   She also told me that I could ask for the epidural whenever I wanted, but she recommended that I wait until I was 4-6cm dilated.  (2.8cm dilated, 75% effaced.)
• ?:??pm My nurse told me that my doctor was across the hall doing an emergency c-section and that when she was done, she’d come check my progress.  I was slightly uncomfortable by then and was probably wondering about that epidural, but I wanted to wait for my doctor to tell me how dilated I was.  She never showed up.  Another one of her patients gave birth (screaming bloody murder down the hall).  My nurse gave me 1mg of some narcotic to help with the pain, but it didn’t work.
• 6:30ishpm My contractions made my body start pushing.  I honestly thought I just had to poop since it had only been 4 hours and they told me I’d probably be in labor for at least 12-24.  I asked Andy to call my nurse and the receptionist chimed in mid-contraction so I didn’t say anything.  She sent the nearest nurse into my room to check me and – surprise! -  I was 10cm dilated.  Too late for that epidural.  Too late for anything.

I labored for 4 hours and pushed for 10 minutes, and our little Luke Anothony was born at 6:46pm, 8 lbs. 21 inches. :)

1. What 5 items are on your holiday wish list this year?
My post-pregnancy essentials: Coffee, Mountain Dew, a pair of flat mid-calf boots, new glasses, and a healthy baby boy!

2. What is your favorite handmade gift you have received?
One Christmas while I was in high school, my mom made me a blanket with my name and title and school emblem on it to take on the band bus during marching season.  I still have it and use it when I visit high school games as alumni.

3. What handmade gift have you always wanted to tackle?
I’ve always wanted to learn how to knit, but I don’t think that’s going to happen anytime soon.

4. What was the best Christmas gift you received as a child?
I remember getting my first bike without training wheels from Santa.  It was huge (to me, at least) and it made me feel like a grown-up.

5. What items are on your kid’s wish list this year?
Probably just boobs.  He’ll be nursing.  But I know who’s getting a hot rod bouncer. ;)

6. What is your favorite holiday food?
Mom always makes a big tub of sugar cookies shaped like Christmas trees and wreaths and whatnot, and those are great because they’ll be around before after and during Christmas.

7. What will you be hand-crafting for the holidays?
Birth announcements (!!!) and some things for my little Luke.

8. What is your favorite holiday movie?
It’s a Wonderful Life. Hands down.

9. Favorite holiday song?
It changes every year, and I can’t decide until Christmas Eve.

10. Favorite holiday pastime?
Staying in our pajamas until dinner.  When else can you do that?!

Tribute to Michael Jackson

Walt Disney

]]> http://missmandilou.wordpress.com/2009/10/22/jackolanterns-of-2009/feed/ 0 mandilou michaeljackson Walt Disney http://missmandilou.wordpress.com/2009/10/14/kids-woot/ http://missmandilou.wordpress.com/2009/10/14/kids-woot/#comments Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:19:03 +0000 Mandi http://missmandilou.wordpress.com/?p=286 ]]> If you are not in the practice of visiting woot.com on a daily basis, you need to start.  Like right now.  Here, I’ll even make it easier : click here.

I recently bought this Acu-Rite Wireless Digital Cooking and Barbeque Thermometer for $12.99.  The thing retails for $20.99 – $28.57.

But what’s even more amazing is their most recent development, kids.woot.com.  Papa just bought us a diaper backpack for about 20 bucks that retails on Amazon for $102!!!

In case you’re already a fan of woot! and I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know, you should also check out BabySteals.  It’s kind of a woot!-type deal-a-day for babies and mommies.  (Also check out the secret archive at babysteals.com/archive where, unlike woot, you can buy leftover goodies from past steals.)

Happy wooting. :)

Today, it was announced that the Kindle 2 is taking another price cut.  Forty bucks.  And I want it back.
(I just realized I said $60 in my e-mail to Amazon customer service.  Oops.)
(And yesterday I said the first price cut was $100 and it was really $60.  Oops x2.)

The following story is from Market Watch.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Amazon.com Inc. cut the price of its Kindle electronic-book reader for the second time this year, as competition continues to grow in the fledgling e-book space.

Late Tuesday night, Amazon /quotes/comstock/15*!amzn/quotes/nls/amzn (AMZN 93.11, +2.20, +2.42%) announced that it cut the price of the Kindle by $40 to $259. The move comes just three months after the company slashed the price tag of the device by $60 — equating a total price reduction of 28% during that period. See full story.

“In our view, the price cut is Amazon’s response not only to economies of scale but also to growing competition,” Sandeep Aggarwal of Collins Stewart wrote in a note to clients Wednesday morning.

The company also announced that it would sell an international version of the device — one that can purchase and download books in more than 100 countries. Previous versions of the Kindle could only be bought and used on wireless networks inside the U.S.

In a statement, the company said the international version of the Kindle will sell for $279 and will be available for shipping on Oct. 19.

The price cut and new international version are likely part of Amazon’s efforts to get in front of the growing competition in the e-reader market. Sony Corp. /quotes/comstock/13*!sne/quotes/nls/sne (SNE 28.00, +0.37, +1.34%) has updated its line of e-reader devices, with at least one model priced at $199 — lower than the Kindle.

Also over the next few months, new devices from Netherlands-based iRex and U.S. startup Plastic Logic are set to hit the market.

Shares of Amazon were up 2.6% at $93.27 in early trading Wednesday.

The company does not disclose sales figures for the Kindle, but analysts believe the company has sold more than 1 million units since its original debut in the fall of 2007.

The Kindle allows readers to buy and download books through a wireless connection and read them on the screen. More than 350,000 books — plus magazine and newspaper subscriptions — are available at Amazon’s Kindle store.

One drawback for rivals has been their inability to match the number of new titles that are purchasable through Amazon. Yet they say they are working with publishers and other booksellers, including book-seller Barnes & Noble, to match Amazon’s offering.

Dan Gallagher is MarketWatch’s technology editor, based in San Francisco.

This is pretty poopy…

My list was very good.  I’m closing the book now (ha irony) and I won’t spend any more money on myself.  Probably ever.
But here’s the list of last things I wanted to do (for myself) before Luke arrives, including a short description of whether or not each item was completed:

1. Get a short haircut. Done.  It’s not the most manageable of haircuts since I can’t put it up into a ponytail anymore, but I like it because I can just shake water off it and walk out of the house if I wanted.  Headbands will be a godsend in the coming year, I’m sure.  Perhaps by the end of November, it’ll be long enough for a pony tail and bobby pins.
2. Sign up for a yoga studio membership. Done.  I regularly attend classes at the Southern Star Yoga Center here in Oxford.  It’s small and humble and I absolutely love it.  I’m a little bitter that they’re planning a yoga retreat a week before my due date.  I don’t think I’ll be attending, which is why I had to take the retreat off my list. I’m sure my time will come.  Luke has to move out eventually, and — lucky me! — I won’t be too old to still do some of these things I’ve wanted to do since middle school.
3. Buy a Kindle. Done, as of this hour.  I imagine it’ll save a lot of space in our little 2br condo, too, because now I can get rid of some dead-tree books and download the Kindle edition.  I don’t think I  have many more text books in my future, but if I do, maybe there will be Kindle editions so I don’t have to carry them all over the place.  I think it’s a good investment, and if you don’t … well … keep that to yourself.
4. Travel overseas. Done.  Although this was on the “last things to do before I get married” list, I think it applies more here.  I went to China the summer after my junior year of high school and it was incredible.  Of course, it was a band function, so we didn’t get the freedom to just get lost in the culture like I wanted, but I got dangerously close and I’m satisfied.  Too bad I wasted parts of that trip chasing after a boy, huh?
5. Learn how to drive a car with manual transmission. Kind of done.  I dated a guy who tried to teach me, but it didn’t work out so well.  My brain knows what to do, but my coordination won’t cooperate.  I’m sure it just takes practice, but now, I don’t want to ruin Andy’s clutch.  I’ll let him handle the driving in that vehicle.  After all, it is the 21st century; I have my own car, and when that fails, I’m pretty enough to find other means of transportation.  Sad, but true.
6. Write at least one book. Kind of done as well.  I nearly had a book of poetry and soliloquies published when I was in high school, then I almost finished a short story collection when I started college, but nothing really fell through, and that’s ok.  Maybe my first book will be autobiographical, resulting from my unique pregnancy story?  Who knows.  You’ll see my name one day though.
   And I’ll definitely publish Kindle editions.
7. Learn a programming language. Ha!  Yeah right.

That’s all I can remember off the top of my head.  I think I did pretty well.

Moms, did you have a list of last things?  Moms-to-be, what do you want to do before your little one arrives?
Luke, I’m almost ready for you.  Hang tight buddy.

The first person (or persons) to come to my house and paint this dresser will receive one meal (prepared by myself) and one batch of your very own Oreo balls.  All supplies provided, some conditions may apply.

Love,
Mandi

p.s. If you knew anything about my Oreo balls, you‘d be paying me to come over and paint this dresser.  For reals.