My second to last month end EVER

Wow, I can't believe this month end has been this slow; I've actually had two posts this week and would have had more if I'd had have something interesting to say. The latest that I went home this week was at 7 PM on Wednesday because some person decided to give us a file at the last minute and made us wait for two hours just to get the dang thing. I did not mind all that much, except for the fact that it was "So you think you can dance" night and I did not want to miss it. Fortunately, I got home just as the first performance was finishing up, and it wasn't that great anyways.

Anyhow, during a slow period of work this week, I bidded on my third item on ebay, an Amy Michelle diaper bag. I was approaching the bidding process the same way I had with the items I had won by bidding during the last few moments, but that did not work out quite that well. When I made my maximum bid, it shot back that someone had already outbidded me, and just as I was placing another bid, my internet went down! ARGH! By the time I got everything rebooted and what not, the auction was over. I knew I should have let Trung bid for me at home, where there is little interference. Oh well, maybe the bag and I were not meant to be, after all, I had never actually physically seen the bag. We are planning to go to San Marcos Outlet mall this coming week, so maybe I'll find something better there. If not, I could always try bidding again or get it at ebags.com. Still sucks though...more the fact that I did not get the chance to bid again than the fact that I did not win the auction. *sniff, sniff*

Moving right along...so, Trung and I have been going to the neighborhood pool lately. It's been really nice to get exercise without straining anything. I've noticed that when I don't go walking around the neighborhood or swimming, that I tend to wake up in the middle of the night with a Charlie Horse. Poor Trung did not realize at first that I was whimpering in pain, but now he knows to help massage the cramp away. It's weird, I had never really gotten them before I was pregnant, especially in the middle of the night.

So, um, that about sums up the week...though I did add a Target baby registry yesterday just in case I ran out of Babies "r" us items. This registry is really meant for my work baby shower since Target is located much closer and all but one co-worker is female (and the male is gay), and this registry has all the nursing products. Well, I'm all packed and ready to go to Houston once I get home from work. I plan on getting a pedicure tomorrow morning before the shower, which I've been told to avoid the massaging part cause it could stimulate pre-term labor. So, I better watch myself. :P Stay tuned for my post-shower post and pics!

Newbie successes

Whoo-hoo! I finally sold my TV on Saturday for the requested price on Craigslist. With all the no-shows and fishy e-mails, I never thought I would ever get it sold and was disliking "Craig" more and more every day. But now...Craig and I are tight. :P Also, this weekend I attempted my first bids on ebay. It's quite an exciting process, I think, waiting for the bid to time out and refreshing every second to see if you're still the highest bidder. I actually won my bids on some baby stuff and am anxiously awaiting the arrival of my packages. Ebay, we shall meet again.

Trung also hosted his second LAN party on Saturday. We had a nice showing of eight gamers and a handful of girls who just came to hang out. The "party" began at 2:00 PM and officially ended around 5:30 AM the next morning. I just so happened to not be sleeping too well that weekend and woke up at 5:00 AM when they were still gaming; it was nice to have the company. Nowadays, I am having trouble just getting to sleep, but at least I don't really have to get up (to get water or pee) during the night, though I still do wake up once or twice. Woe is me...I guess my body is preparing me for the baby. Speaking of which, we've officially decided on a middle name: Alyson. So, baby's name is Lydia Alyson Ly; which my friend Sid pointed out is called an alliteration (aka: using the "ly" theme). Pretty cool, huh? *wink, wink*

So, my first baby shower is this weekend in Houston and I'm getting excited. I've got the perfect outfit picked out, though Trung thinks it looks like a potato sack. Well, um, sorry to break the news, but all my dresses are going to look like that, busta. Most of the guests have not seen me since I've started showing, so I'm really looking forward to seeing their reactions.

This month end does not seem to be quite as busy as it was last month, hence the post. Maybe I'll stick around until the baby gets here...um, yeah, NO! I think my last day will be August 18th, a good two weeks before my due date. I'm just counting the days.

Craigslist (Take 2)

Okay, so after none of the potential buyers panned out on my first attempt on Craigslist, I re-posted my entry last night, tweeking it a bit. This morning when I got to work, I had gotten four hits. So, apparently it does help to re-post your entries, so that the post appears back on the top of the list. I e-mailed everyone back, but have yet to get any responses. Oh, I did get a rather fishy e-mail, with the guy residing in Cleveland and wanting to do Paypal. Hmmmmmm.

During lunch, I went to Pakmail to ship a package, send a pre-stamped UPS package (used cartridge), and buy a pad of stamps. Since the Pakmail that I usually go to ran out of stamps, I went to this other one that was closer to work than the post office. So, I get there, and they make me fill out a form for the UPS package. I had never had to fill out any forms at the other Pakmail, much less have to give them some form of identification. I was like, forget it, I was doing HP a favor by bringing the dang cartridge in in the first place (Deanna used to throw them away). Whatever, so I'll take it to the other Pakmail some other day. So now I need stamps. I waited until the purchase to mail my package and the stamps are rung up and I check my receipt. $9.80. Okay, so maybe the package was a couple of bucks. But, nooooo, the stamps cost $9.00 and the package was only 80 cents. Huh? 20 stamps at 39 cents each...uh, $7.80. What da? Stupid Pakmail uped the price. WRONG! It was not that big of a deal, I guess I was just annoyed already with the UPS thing and that they failed to mention the cost of the stamps. Argh. Should have gone to the post office.

Now I'm back at work and bored out of my mind. Oh, and my co-worker informed me yesterday that the changing table will probably be moved to Austin next month. *sigh* I know, I know, patience is a virtue. Um, so I've been watching "So You Think You Can Dance" lately. I love these dancing shows! A guy will probably win...I'm guessing either Travis or Benjy. We'll see!

Preggo Pics

Okay, okay, for those who have been asking for awhile now, here are a couple of pregnant me pictures...finally! I may not look very pregnant in this first picture, but check out the next one. Uh-huh, yeah...so you see the protruding belly now? These aren't professional pictures, mind you. I had just come home from work, handed the camera to Trung and said "can you take a couple pictures of me for my blog?" Okay, so here I am at 29 weeks pregnant, and growing everyday. My co-worker just found out yesterday that she will be induced at 36 weeks due to the baby developing slowly, which kinda freaked me out. Besides being a little bit anemic, I've been having a pretty good pregnancy thus far, so hopefully it will continue that way and I will be able to carry Lydia to the full term.

Since the last post...

Another busy work week has gone, and another work week to come. It has been awfully busy around here lately considering that it has not been month-end; maybe the workload will prompt our corporate office to hire someone else. I doubt it. Another co-worker would be nice because after all, it's just Deanna and I working for the attorney firm here at this Countrywide Retail office and if one of us goes down, the other takes the hit. Argh, makes me want to leave sooner. I just keep telling myself, just two more months, just two more extremely long months. :(

So, Friday was Trung's Mexico team's last day in Texas, so we had yet another poker night and Trung, yet again, took all their dinero. Adios, amigos! Gracias por el dinero! Then on Saturday, my girlfriend Wendy and I had an afternoon out. We had a lovely lunch at Nordstrom's Bistro cafe and did a little bit of shopping at Barton Creek Mall. The rest of the day was spent with Trung, just hanging out and having dinner at Din-ho, a local authentic Chinese restaurant. Sunday was pretty much the same, with pretty much the same people. This time Trung and Wendy's fiance Nick joined us for Chinese breakfast, and then headed out together to play frisbee golf with the other boys. After some grocery shopping and a check-up on my tire alignment (turns out my new tires were over-inflated), I treated the father of my child to hot pot for Father's Day. He had taken me to another hot pot place for Mother's Day, and I thought I would "kick it up a notch" at this new place, but um, yeah, not so much. It's all good, we left stuffed and satisfied. FYI, Clay Pot has more ingredients, but is more of a buffet style, while Mongolian BBQ has fewer ingredients, but is more catering; both are about the same price. We ended the weekend watching an intense NBA Finals game, though I left at Overtime. zzzzzzzz. But go Heat! Dwyane, you're so cute!

Here are some updates on recent blog posts...Craigslist girl never came to look at the TV, but instead decided to buy one and e-mailed me twenty minutes before she was to arrive at my house. GRRRRR. Anyone interested in purchasing a nice 27' Sony Wega Flatscreen TV? So, iron supplements are not horse pills as expected, but are pleasantly the size of Advil tablets (not the gel ones, the regular brown ones). And my co-worker who was supposed to bring her changing table up from Houston this past weekend to give to me? Well, that didn't happen either; apparently, there wasn't enough room to bring all the big stuff, so no changing table until next weekend. Which means...no pic of the baby room til laters. :P

Oh happy day!

Whoo-hoo, the nurse just called with my glucose test results, and everything is fine. My blood is a little bit anemic, however, because frankly, Lydia takes whatever she wants and right now she wants her some iron! It's all good, I just have to pop some horse pills AKA iron supplements daily in addition to my prenatal pills. Well, I will take those pills over insulin shots anyday. Also, tonight hopefully my TV will be sold and afterwards, we're going to pick up our wedding coffeetable book. According to the photographers, it looks great; they even bought one for themselves as a bridal show display. Trung and I are their new model groom and bride. :)

Busy busy busy

Yippee! I finally got more pictures posted; someone really ought to pat me on the back. Trung took the picture on the left on Thursday night, right after we set up the furniture and put the sheets on the bed. We often wonder if Sasha lives with us or if we live with her, need I say more? I took the picture on the right on Sunday night when we finally got everything settled into place and made the bed. Nice, huh? We're really happy with the furniture, except for the chest; the drawers are kinda hard to open and close, but that's fine with me...it's Trung's. :P













So this past weekend was very busy. Trung was working every free minute he got (all in preparation for a product launch in July) and I was out running errands and staying out of his way. I won't bore you with every little thing that I did, but here are some highlights:

Okay, so on Thursday I was searching on Craig's List for a nice changing table to put in the baby room, and I happened to come across a posting for this table, which was exactly what I wanted AND for cheap! By the time I called inquiring about it, however, the lady said she just sold it. WAHHH! That changing table and I were meant to be together. I was so sad, but then I was asking a new co-worker where she got hers, and she ended up offering hers to me since someone gave it to her and she didn't need it anymore. All was well, though her table didn't have drawers and as much counter space as the Craig's List table did.

Hmmm, so this is taking a bit longer to explain than I though, but I've gotten this far, so hear me out. Well, Sunday morning I was on Craig's List again, and what do you know..."my" changing table was for sale again and for the same price! Apparently, the lady who bought it the first time didn't know her father was going to build her one and so she was selling it back. So, of course, I bought it and it's now sitting in the baby room ready to be used...I'll post a pic of the room once I get the "free" changing table. Oh, for those asking why I need two changing tables? Well, I could always just use this one as a drawer/chest for all the baby clothes and stuff, so there!

Highlight number 2 - Later that Sunday, Trung and I attended our first La Maze class, which was pretty informative and did not consist of only "hee hee who whos". We were both very tired from work for Trung and from running errands for me, so we took advantage of the "breathing/relaxation" time. The class lasted two and a half hours, and the instructor's voice would go in high pitch mode every now and then, so we were excited to finally leave when it was over. Hopefully, future classes will be more interesting. At least we already get a break since the class is skipping this upcoming Father's Day weekend.

Highlight number 3 - Monday was my day off; I honestly can't remember the last time I had a day where I did whatever I wanted. I started off the morning with my 28 week glucose test and monthly doctor's appointment. Right now I weigh 135 pounds; it's hard to believe that I'm just going to get bigger and heavier. Let's hope that it's just as easy to lose the weight as is has been to gain it. Then I spent the rest of the day just hanging out and running a few errands. Oh, I also got three inquiries for the purchase of my 27" Wega flat screen television; my first Craig's List post ever! I have someone coming to see it tomorrow night. I truly will miss that TV; I probably had the coolest TV in college. Ah, memories.

Endless nights

Woe is me; I haven't had a good night's sleep since Tuesday night! Wednesday night, the IBM test team from Singapore called our home at 3 AM! Hello, it's called "we live in different time zones!!!" Once Trung got up and logged on to work, the problem was solved within a couple of minutes and they didn't even really need him. Argh, leave us alone already; we're trying to catch up on our sleep before the baby comes. Well, supposedly, these kinds of interruptions come with being in a leadership position, speaking of which, I'm proud to announce...Trung was informed he got a promotion today! I'm so proud of him, Mr. SENIOR IT Specialist. :) He's a keeper now. Oh, and Lydia performed a one "baby" show for Trung before we fell asleep again that night. We can't wait for her to get here, though I'm not looking forward to the labor. :P

Okay, so back to my endless nights...
We got our bedroom set last night and set up almost everything, which took a little while. Trung and I didn't eat dinner until 10 PM and didn't get to bed until around 11:30 PM (we normally sleep around 10:30 PM and get 8 hours of sleep, mind you). It took me quite awhile to finally fall asleep, and then a rustling noise woke me up at 6:15 AM. I figured it was Sasha, my 6 year old cat, messing around again, but I couldn't find her AND the noises continued. I finally found her in the baby crib in the adjoining bedroom. Apparently, before we moved all the furniture around, she couldn't jump into the stand alone crib, but with our old dresser temporarily placed next to the crib, she could jump right in from the dresser. She must have been walking around in it, thus causing the noises, though I found her just laying there, like it was her very own. Sorry, Sasha, the crib is for the baby, but we'll get you a toy. I couldn't fall asleep afterwards, so I just went on-line and sent out some e-mails until 8 AM, and then got ready for work. And now here I am at work, about to fall asleep and I've still got 4 hours left. I'm so glad that this week is almost over; it's been pretty crazy for being non-month end. We've got a pretty busy weekend ahead of us, but at least it'll be fun. Hopefully I can really catch up on my sleep then!

By the way, I finally posted a picture, which can be found in the post "Wild wedding weekend".

Bedroom set

So first thing yesterday morning, my brother-in-law's girlfriend, Maggie, forwarded an e-mail to me from a co-worker who is moving to Cali in a couple of weeks. He had sent pictures of all the furniture he was selling, like antique Chinese furniture and a contemporary bedroom set. Trung and I had been looking into getting a queen-sized bedroom set, but decided not to because we would upgrade to a king-sized bed within the next couple years and it wasn't quite worth the money. Anyhow, so we decide to check out the co-worker's bedroom set anyways, and struck a pretty gosh darn good deal. Let's say, we made him an offer he couldn't refuse. :) So, I'm happy cause now we have a bedroom set: a sleigh bed, two nightstands, and a chest; and Trung's happy cause we got a great deal! All is well in the Ly household.

I guess I was too excited about the set that I could not sleep. I woke up at exactly 2:22 AM, went to the restroom, got a drink of water, and then woke Trung up cause I was bored though Lydia was acknowledging her presence with her constant kicking. I eventually fell asleep on our down comforter on the couch in our bedroom, maybe because I was more comfortable with my back propped up a bit. Who knows, I just hope I can sleep through the night tonight and in the comfort of my bed. Poor Trung, such a good sport. *muah*

Okay, so pics and a better looking blog are soon to come once Trung has time. Those Mexican cohorts are taking up a lot of his time; I'm lucky if he even comes home at night. j/k, but he's really busy. I know I know, I need to learn how to do all the easy techie stuff, but give me a break, I'm pregnant! hee hee

Wild wedding weekend

On Friday, we invited Trung's Mexican cohorts to our house for pizza, chicken wings, and Texas Hold'em (poker, for those less poker savvy). We gave away several freebie rounds, but then decided to bring money into the picture. 5 dollars, no pesos. :) Trung cleaned up nicely, but one of the Mexico dudes got second and walked away with some money, so it was fair...I promise! Well, the guys drank us out of house and home, so let's call it even.

On Saturday, we ate a quick breakfast and headed to good 'ole H-town for my friend Jasper's wedding. We go WAY back; he is my oldest childhood friend...and now he's gone off and gotten himself married. I am so happy for him! And for those fortunate enough to see a pregnant woman boogie, um, let's hope you never have to see that again. :P It's all good, Lydia's still here and she really slept like a baby that night.

On Sunday, we had dim-sum with the newlyweds. On the way to Kim-Son, Trung's mustang started acting up; the radio display kept flickering and the car started jerking. We made it to lunch and actually got the car started afterwards, only to be left stranded in a median on Bellaire five minutes later. The auto repair shop we were trying to turn into was closed, so we cooled off a bit at a Vietnamese restaurant next door. Fortunately, a tow truck stopped next to our car moments later and towed our car to a local mechanic's shop, stopping by AutoZone to pick up a new alternator on the way. All this within an hour's time. We were very lucky because body shops are normally closed on Sundays and the mechanic came in just for us. Thanks, Cecil, Salomon, Pastor Chang, and Mark for all your help!

6 months and going strong

Wow, I can't believe it's June already! Month end was CRAZY at work this time around, which helped me make the decision to start my maternity leave mid-August as opposed to leaving whenever I can't take it any more or when the baby comes. Actually, that may be before mid-August anyways...hmmmmm. Last thing I need is to go into pre-term labor while drawing up loan docs.

Well, my sister-in-law offered to host a baby shower for me and I am delighted! Evites were sent out a couple days ago and we've already got a good group coming. (Well, it's at Todai; how can anyone refuse sushi?) Can't wait to see all the cute little baby clothes. :)

That's about it for now. Lydia has been kicking up a storm inside my belly and getting big. Doh! Gotta post those preggo pics!