you can't have your cake and eat it too

Unless you've been living under a rock, you've heard of the recent Chilean miner rescue.  Now, I have to admit, my husband is the news junkie in the family, and my interest in the news typically only peaks when something big, dramatic and emotional happens....like this Chilean miner rescue.  Ok...and when it involves scandal.  What can I say?  Years of living in LA rubbed off on me--I enjoy trashy news. :)

Anyhoo...about a month ago, I heard that one of the miners' wives, who was at the vigil, heard another woman calling out her husband's name and crying.  Basically--she asked, "Who the heck are you?" and the woman revealed that she was his longtime mistress. 

Drama.  So, of course, although I was already praying and hoping those poor miners would be rescued...this story just made it Days of Our Lives juicy!  (Yes, I watch that show.  Don't judge.  It's a sentimental thing--I used to watch it with my non-English speaking Grandma when I was growing up.)

But I digress.  Initially, both women were reported to have said they would stand their vigil and wait for him.  I was like--"WHAAAAA?" and told Tom that, if I were his wife, I'd wait and push him back down the hole.  (I know....not very Christ-like....sorry, but I'm keepin' it real.)

Well...apparently, Chilean miner #21, Yonni Barrios, asked for both women to wait for him on the platform during his rescue, and his wife decided..."Heck no!" and didn't show...and the footage of his rescue shows him kissing and hugging his mistress.  Boo.

That image made me really sad.  I mean, you would hope that this idiot would have some clarity being down in a mine for 69 days, and be sad that he could cause his wife of 28 years pain.  That his near death experience would make him want to be faithful to her.  But he wanted to keep both?  Idiot.  His wife was a lot more gracious than I would've been--she actually said she was glad he was alive.  At best, I would've given a "no comment."

Sigh.

It makes me love my hubby more.  'Cause when he tells me that he would never even think of cheating on me, I believe him.  Call me a fool...and I know...a lot of men cheat on their wives.  But I do know this...my husband has integrity and is a good, honest man. 

And I'm his lucky wife.  Who just told him I'd push him down a hole if I caught him cheating on me.  Just sayin'.  HAHAHA.

labored breathing

We had our first birthing class tonight.  It was an interesting experience, especially because I'm starting to become really fearful about labor and delivery.

I learned a few things, though.

1. If the relaxation breathing during labor is anything like what we practiced tonight, I will be cracking up hysterically, because my husband cannot seem to be serious about anything.  (I think we annoyed our very serious post-partum nurse classmate because I could not stop laughing.  Yes, Nurse Kacie, we are immature.)

2. Tom is a beast and his "tender" massages probably left bruises on my arm, so we're going to have to practice the concept of "gentle."

3. No mirror, thank you.

4. EPIDURAL IS MY FRIEND!

:)

33 weeks: a big ball of hormones

This week your baby weighs a little over 4 pounds (heft a pineapple) and has passed the 17-inch mark. He's rapidly losing that wrinkled, alien look and his skeleton is hardening. The bones in his skull aren't fused together, which allows them to move and slightly overlap, thus making it easier for him to fit through the birth canal. (The pressure on the head during birth is so intense that many babies are born with a conehead-like appearance.) These bones don't entirely fuse until early adulthood, so they can grow as his brain and other tissue expands during infancy and childhood.

To celebrate today's milestone, we took our hospital tour today.  Even though I've been pregnant for 33 weeks, it was totally surreal. 

When we were in the labor and delivery room and the nurse was talking about what happens during and right after birth, she said that our baby is going to be cold, and the lights are going to be bright, so that daddy should walk over to the area where he's being cleaned and talk to him to soothe him because he'll recognize his voice.  Then she explained how he'll be alert in the first hour after, so I should feel free to unwrap him and put him directly on my skin, so that we can bond.  I started tearing up and had to do everything in my power to not cry a big fat ugly cry--'cause if I let myself, I think I could've ended up on the floor wailing.  Seriously. 

Oh geez--how embarrassing would that have been?

I cannot believe we're actually going to have a baby.  It's something I just took for granted before we met the nasty infertility monster, but the fact that, after 4 years of hoping and praying, we could be holding our son in a mere month and a half just blows me away. 

And this little one...the one that I've had all to myself for the past 33 weeks...I'm going to have to share him with this big, bright, sometimes cold world.  I don't know how I feel about that--happy and sad...excited and scared...ready and totally, absolutely, most certainly, not ready.

Ok...I'm gonna go have that big ugly cry now.

P.S.  Mommy resisted and saved the cupcake for Appah.  Isn't she so nice? :)

pop quiz

It's Friday!!!  Time for a pop quiz! 

I'll be nice and make it multiple choice, so you don't have to think too hard. :)

Question: What is pictured below?

A. A red velvet cupcake from Red Velvet.

B. What is left after Tina had her own red velvet cupcake.

C. The red velvet cupcake that Tina bought for Tom.

D. The red velvet cupcake that Tina is now thinking about eating.

E. The red velvet cupcake that Grant is asking Tina to eat.  Seriously, he's tugging on the umbilical cord. 

F. All of the above.

Considering Tom rarely reads this blog without my prompting...I suppose I could get away with eating it and he would never know better. 

And it would be for his son, after all.

And in the off-chance that he reads this post, it would just be a great lesson in how much we need to sacrifice for the sake of our children.

So.very.tempting.

simply sweet

My parents are pretty darn cute.  Whenever I say something like this to them, their Korean ideas about respecting elders and such kick in, and they say, "Cute?  How can you call your parents cute???"  I think it's disrespectful or something, but I can't help it.  They are cute.

I called my mom yesterday and the phone call kept breaking up.  I asked what she was doing, and she said, "Oh, we're just driving around."  Now...my parents split their time in San Diego and Phoenix because, while our their residence is in SD, their businesses are in the Phoenix area, where I was born and raised (yes...there are Koreans in Arizona!).  So, naturally, I assumed that they were on one of their drives to/from SD or Phx.  My mom explained, however, that they had a pretty bad day at one of their businesses the day before, so they decided to run away and go on a drive to Prescott.

For those of you who aren't from Arizona, Prescott is about a 2 hour drive from Phoenix.  And for those of you who aren't in my immediate family, this is what my parents would do on a whim while we were growing up.  After a long hard day at work, my parents would come home on random occasions and say, "Everybody get in the car, we're going on a drive!"  And sure enough, the sibs and I, and sometimes our grandparents, would jump into our huge huge conversion-sized van with a bed in the back, and off we'd go!

Sometimes the drive would be to the outskirts of Phoenix.  Sometimes we'd go and see snow in Flagstaff (yes, it snows in Arizona!).  Sometimes we'd drive to California. 

And once we reached whatever destination my dad chose, we'd get out, stretch our legs, maybe eat something, and drive right back.

This was fun...until I hit the magical age of "this-is-so-annoying-because-I'm-a-teenager-and-I-am-too-cool-for-this."  (This stage is the reason why Tom is afraid of having daughters, by the way.)  But even when I felt the need to be an obnoxious brat, it was fun because we were together.  We always sang songs...usually in 3 or 4 part harmony...and usually something in Korean that our parents taught us. 

I'm pretty sure most of those songs were the types of songs adults sang while totally drunk...but no matter...it was fun.

I always assumed that we kiddies were invited on all of the excursions that my parents took, but a few years ago, my dad told me that they sometimes would wait until we were in bed (our grandparents lived with us, so they weren't leaving us alone!!!), and then jump in the car, drive to the Grand Canyon (which was about 4 hours away), watch the sunrise, and then drive back before we knew they were gone. 

That image makes me so happy.  That, and the image of my dad courting my mom when they were in Korea--he had very little money, so for their dates, he'd bring her oranges, and they'd ride the city bus all around the city until it was time to go home.  He said it was his way to show her the city.  Hahahaha.

There are a lot of things that I'm grateful to my parents for--and probably more than anything, I'm grateful for the way they showed us how important it is to spend time with each other, with no agenda or purpose but to experience life together.  I admit that I can get really caught up in this culture where it seems so important to have the latest and greatest "things" and forget how to just live simply. 

But then I think about my parents, and how they are at their happiest...driving to nowhere in particular, but loving every minute because they are together...and that, my friends, fills my heart with so much love that I might explode.  And these people, right here, are basically my universe:

Lest you think, however, that I am not still that obnoxious teenage brat, at the end of our conversation, my mom asked me if I needed anything, and I said, "Oh, yeah...can you bring me, I mean, Grant a Le Creuset dutch oven in a pretty color when you come?"  (My parents own a kitchenware store.)  She was like, "Whaaaaa?" and basically called me a brat.  :)

32 weeks: bouncin' along

By now, your baby weighs 3.75 pounds (pick up a large jicama) and is about 16.7 inches long, taking up a lot of space in your uterus. You're gaining about a pound a week and roughly half of that goes right to your baby. In fact, he'll gain a third to half of his birth weight during the next 7 weeks as he fattens up for survival outside the womb. He now has toenails, fingernails, and real hair (or at least respectable peach fuzz). His skin is becoming soft and smooth as he plumps up in preparation for birth.

Hello friends!  We had our 32 week check-up yesterday and everything seems to be going well.  Frankly, up until this point, I think that these visits have been kind of useless...they weigh me, take my blood pressure, make me give a urine sample, ask me how things are going, I say "fine" and then they say, "okay, come back in x weeks."  I think I could do most of that on my own.  Oh well...I guess I am just saying that because, aside from our little early scares, things have been pretty uneventful so far.

Anyway, because there are 6 OBs at the practice I go to, they could all potentially deliver G, so I have to meet all of them.  I met Dr. W. yesterday and she saw me walking down the hall before she came into the room, and when she came in, she said, "Wow--you look so happy!  You were just bouncin' along!"

What can I say?  I am happy.  I don't know why, but I've gotten that reaction lately. I guess people expect a huge huge huge pregnant lady to be miserable, uncomfortable and hormonal.  It's not that I'm not uncomfortable.  I am.  It is tough lugging around extra weight and having a little person kicking you in the ribs.  And it's not that I'm not hormonal.  I am.  Just ask Tom. :)

But miserable?  No.  I've said it before, and I will say it again--I love being pregnant.  I wish I could do it 5 or 6 more times (to Tom's dismay...hahaha).

Calm down, folks.  We're not going to do it 5 or 6 more times. 

Heck, I'm afraid we're not going to be able to do it even once more.

But that's why I'm loving every minute of this pregnancy--even during my most uncomfortable and hormonal days--it may be our only shot to enjoy this miracle.

And, because I remember what miserable felt like.  And this...is not miserable.

Ok--I'll stop, before this post starts spiraling downward into a Debbie-downer post (wah-wah), and I will end with a happy thought: Since G now has fingernails and hair, I did what any responsible mother would do on such a momentous week...I got a pedicure and my hair done.  Heehee. :)

my favorite things

Have you heard?  In honor of the 45th anniversary of The Sound of Music film, Oprah reunited the cast of the film as well as the real Von Trapp family singers for her October 29 show.  OH HAPPY DAY!  This is my favorite musical of all time!!!!!!!! 

Oh, Christopher Plummer--there are so few men that mom and I both drooled over, and you are one of them.  They don't make 'em like you anymore.  You had me at "Edelweiss."

And here's a factoid about me that you all don't really need to know...but I was Mother Abbess in our high school production.  I cringe when I think about my actual performance, but it was so fun to be in it!  And, although Mother Abbess didn't get to sing it in the film version, she (I) got to sing the song My Favorite Things in the stage version! 

Oh wait, I forgot to say, it's OCTOBER!  Holy moly!  I can now officially say that I'm due next month.  Whoa.  And just so that doesn't seem totally out of the blue, I can tell you that October is one of my favorite things, because it is when fall weather kicks into high gear.

So, in honor of October and The Sound of Music, here are few of my favorite things (in no particular order...some serious, and some just plain silly):

• fall, and all things fall--including the foliage, brisk, cool air, and pumpkin anything;
• and while we're in the seasons mode, the holidays--specifically, Christmas!--and Christmas music at any time of the year;
• sisters;
• the quietness that descends after the first snowfall;
• grant's "good morning!" kicks;
• good conversation over good food with family and friends
• staying in on a rainy day and listening to the sound of the raindrops beating on my window;
• pedicures (which reminds me...I need one, stat!);
• pretending like I'm in a music video while I'm walking down the street;
• sleeping in late with my hubby;
• puppies!!!!;
• historical, majestic buildings;
• ellipses....;
• hearing my mom sing "The Lord's Prayer" and "The Holy City"; and,
• mindless, predictable chick flicks and lit, and sports movies.

Hmm...interesting list (to me, anyway).  In no way is it complete, but I didn't want to bore you anymore.  What are a few of your favorite things?

Happy October!!! :)