the BIG 3-0

unlike most people, i really embraced the arrival of my 30th birthday. i feel like i'm growing and learning so much and as i get older; i am so much more confident about who i am and what i want out of life.

s and i went to tahoe this past weekend with my family to celebrate my birthday. we rented a cabin since we had my nephew with us. since my entire family LOVES to gamble, we just basically did that the entire weekend. of course, we took shifts to watch my nephew. well, my sister and her husband took shifts with my parents, i didn't really volunteer. =)

my biggest concern about being on the gambling floor was the smoking. however, there really wasn't a lot of smokers in tahoe. i think i only walked away from the tables twice when someone started smoking.so overall, it was not an issue although i'm sure the other gamblers were looking at me like i was a sicko who can't even stay away from gambling for 9 months. so baby has been to the casinos twice. the 1st time was when we were in memphis (didn't realize I was going to be pregnant that soon) and now tahoe. the dealers were making fun of me saying that this child will grow up to be gambler. well, what can i say, can't really discourage that since i'm basically one myself!

gas is out of control...

yesterday morning, i got gas at $4.71 a gallon. this morning, i drove by the same gas station and the price had gone up $0.10 to $4.81. then umm...this evening on my way home, it had jumped up another 10 cents to $4.91! holy moly.

so i drive 50 miles a day (roundtrip) and fill up my tank almost every week. i also pay $275 a month for parking. gees --- that's $500 a month. =( however, driving gets my commute time to about 55 minutes a day. if i take bart, it takes 2 1/2 hours round trip but would only cost $236 a month. so i currently spend $25 a day to drive to work versus potentially spending only $12 on bart. so is the extra $13 worth the hour and a half of time that i save???

20 weeks later...half way there!

i can't believe i'm in my 20th week. s and i went to our doctor's appointment today and i gained another 6 pounds. oops...at least i'm consistent right? hahaa. the baby was very active today just as he was last week at our ultrasound appointment. he was kicking his little heart out. =)

s and i bought the bedding for our nursery this past weekend so we can find the right paint color! of course it's not as easy as it sounds. we are currently living in what will be the nursery. we moved out of our bedroom into the spare bedroom to remodel our bathroon / bedroom. s finally finished the bathroom last week (ummm - 6 months past the original date)! now he has to repaint our bedroom and replace all the trim and then have someone come to put in some new carpet. then once we move back into our bedroom, we can start on the nursery!

IT'S A BOY!

s and i had our 19 week ultrasound appointment yesterday. after making sure the baby was healthy and measuring all the important organs and body parts, the technician told us we are having a boy! s, of course, had to ask if that she was 100% sure and then she pointed out his lovely body part.

as we watched the technician check other things, our baby kept us entertained. our baby waved "hi" to us and at a different time gave us a knuckle sandwich. the 3-d picture wasn't very successful because baby was not very cooperative. he had his hand in front of his mouth / nose the entire time. i guess he was a bit camera shy =)

i'm going to treat myself this weekend for surviving the 1st half of my pregnancy...i'm going to bliss spa to get the maternity massage! =) then i think i'll indulge some more and go to coffee bean to get my favorite drink, an english breakfast latte! yummie.