The Baby Name Foam Board Choosing Index

As some of you may know, Mitch and I like to make major decisions using a variety of elimination systems.  Taking a cue from the Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) and the Dick Vital Bald Dome Choosing Index (VBDCI), we originally devised the LSFBCI, or the Law School Foam Board Choosing Index.  We took two foam boards and wrote the pros of cons of every law school Mitch applied to.  Everything was color-coded, and there were such categories as "close to family", "cost", and "Indian mascot".  (Is it no surprise that we ended up at Florida State?  I think not.)  Whenever Mitch was rejected from a law school (which only happened a few times), we happily wrote obscenities across that specific school.  I know, mature.  Our friend Dr. Martin also helped us decide law schools by seeding the law schools a la March Madness style, then finding the winner.  Ironically, Florida State won that pool as well.  

In light of our impending bundle of joy, we have had to create the same choosing index for our baby's name, appropriately titled The Baby Name Foam Board Choosing Index (BNFBCI).  We have four columns - two for girls, two for boys.  Each gender has their own column for first and middle names and is color-coded for boys and girls.  

It is our hope that using this system will give us the best name for our baby.  Here are a few names we rejected from the board:

Boys:  

• Thor (knocked out because our child will not have flowing locks and a hammer when coming out of the womb), 
• Klaus and Helmut (too German) 
• Marquis and Nathan (had a bad experience with these names!) 
• Gomer (too Andy Griffith)
• Ziggy (doesn't good with our last name) 
• Moses (Boston's immediate suggestion)
• Qusay.  Do we need a reason?  
  

Girls:  

• Sophia (our former #1 seed knocked out in the first round due to popularity) 
• Harmony, Melody, Cadence (Mitch thought these were great names for triplets) 
• Adriana and Fabiola (yeech)
• Gina (see movie "Forty Year Old Virgin" for pronunciation) 
• Chastity (too much of a risk in case she becomes a stripper)

I invite the readers of Fifty Below Zero to help us in this quest by volunteering any baby names you find interesting.  Please don't just suggest your own name (General).  

My To-Do List

• Finish homework for my stupid Multicultural Education class.  Seriously, it is completely shitty.  Not only do I have to read a lot of crap, but then I have to answer questions about it AND then read other people's answers AND post ideas to their answers on the discussion board.  Good thing I'll be certified next year to teach.  
• Start paper for my stupid Multicultural Ed class.  5-10 pages about my cultural upbringing, and it can't be a narrative.  I'm supposed to THINK and ANALYZE.  I didn't sign up for that - I've worked really hard to suppress a lot of that stuff!
• Make some phone calls regarding my private lessons.  Intended to do that tonight, won't get done until tomorrow.  Woops.
• Pay the bills.  I think I've procrastinated enough on that. 
• Get caught up on the LARGE pile of grading at school.  Why do I even assign homework?  
• Write my end-of-trimester tests.  I hate being a "first-year" teacher all over again.
• Practice piano for solo & ensemble contest.  I've got a couple that need some serious work.  
• Get rid of my cold.  Pronto.  I'm about sick of all the snot.  
• Get caught up on the laundry and the cleaning.  Thankfully, Mitch pitched in yesterday.
• Find a snack so that my heartburn stops.  Maybe that Nachos Bellgrande after my Target run wasn't such a great idea after all.
• Figure out how I'll manage this schedule AND have a baby at the same time.  How anyone does it is completely beyond me.
• Get off the blog and get to work.  :(

Bad News on the Job Front

There was an impromptu faculty meeting this morning in my building regarding the budget issues in the district.  We are $1.2 million away from having a balanced budget, and all schools in the district must make cuts.  The plan for the middle school is to cut 4.5 teaching positions.  The odds aren't good for me.  

Please keep Mitch and I in your thoughts and prayers, as we hope that the worst won't happen, but we're preparing for it.  We're hoping that the stimulus package for education in MN will help to save my job, even if it means not knowing until the summertime.  

Baby Update: Week 15

Baby:  According to "What to Expect", this week the baby is the size of a navel orange.  The eyes are starting to move from the sides of the head to the front of the face (which is just creepy to think about).  Baby is working on coordination - he can wiggle fingers, suck a thumb, practice breathing, and can kick!  (Although I can't feel it yet, of course.)

Mom:  This week my belly has exploded.  If I'm wearing something form-fitting, it is quite obvious that I am pregnant.  This poses a problem because no one at work knows that I'm pregnant yet, but thankfully, this is the week I'll make the big announcement.  I did some major shopping today for new maternity clothes (thanks, Audrey!) at GapMaternity.  I'm completely amazed at how well maternity clothes fit.  Why don't normal clothes fit as well?  I'm also getting more and more energy every day, although it's been sucked out the last couple of days because I've been sick.  

Dad:  Mitch gave me his cold.  Ugh.  But, he's making up for it by taking good care of me and making me Mac & Cheese as we speak.  He's been looking at cribs, and found one at Pottery Barn Kids that he loves, but I've been looking for a less expensive one online....

Reflecting on my Twenties

Tomorrow is the big day.  The Big 3-0.  The day I've been dreading for months.  The day I (not so) secretly wish would never come.  I know it's not "old".  But I still have a little bit of trouble with it, mostly since I can vividly remember my mom's own 30th birthday.  We were just coming out of church when the car holding my giggling aunts started honking, directing our attention to our now-decorated-in-black-balloons-and-streamers car, and my mom taking off in a full sprint in her heels to try to gnaw the balloons off with her teeth.  I stood holding Kate's hand thinking, "Man, my mom is OLD!"  And now here we are.  Tomorrow.  Closing out my twenties.  Entering the next decade of life.  

As I was getting ready this morning, I decided that it wasn't so bad as I've been making it out in my mind to be.  And so I started reflecting on all of the things that I've done in my twenties - and it's been a lot.

• I've lived in three different states and moved (including college) eight times.  I've also bought two houses.  
• I was engaged, planned a wedding, and got married.  
• I've taught in three different schools, covering all areas of music.
• I finished both my bachelor's and master's degrees.
• I'm now expecting our first child.  
• I've become an expert party planner, thanks to Dad's birthday and Katie's wedding.
• I've become a stronger individual, more confident in myself.  

Then I started thinking about the birthdays in my twenties.  And I laughed.  Most of them, I can remember, especially the college ones.  

• For my 20th birthday, the Mrs. dutifully took me out on the town in Chambana with several other friends.  She proceeded to get me completely intoxicated.  I lost my ID that night, almost fell in the Boneyard creek and had a pretty severe hangover the next day.  I'm not sure if I ever thanked you for that, Mrs.  :)
• My 21st birthday was much more tame than my 20th.  Mitch and I (we had just started dating) spent the night out in Champaign, and I believed we spent the evening at Legend's.  My parents came down the next day, got to meet Mitch for the first time, and then we went and bought my first case of beer.  Memories....
• My 22nd birthday was spent at a pep band game in Peoria.  Student teaching really cramped my birthday style.
• Mitch and I were living in Glendale Heights for my 23rd birthday, and I think we went out to eat, which was quite a treat that year, since we were dirt-poor.  I also think we got pretty sick after dinner, because we had eaten too much.
• We celebrated my 24th birthday at MCHS - Cin had made me a cardstock crown (it pays to have an art teacher as a friend!), which I wore around all day.  It was awesome.
• I can't remember if it was my 24th or 25th birthday, but we had a band concert that day.  #1 Rush Fan had brought me a bottle of "Red Truck" wine (he had a red truck that we would take to lunch; he called it his "Bitchmobile" because usually it was filled with other female coworkers) and completely embarrassed me during the concert.  He and my mom had plotted together and they created these posters of old pictures of me growing up.  Tragic.  The crowd loved it.  THEN Zan got the entire audience to sing.  Totally embarrassing.  It was completely sweet and thoughtful, though.  
• I don't remember my 26th birthday.  Must not have been very exciting. 
• My 27th birthday might have been my favorite so far.  I had the day off school, and I spent the entire day in my pajamas watching a Law & Order marathon.  It was glorious.  (Thanks, Mitch, for reminding me.  How could I have forgotten THAT!) 
• My 28th birthday was spent working....again.  Conference band festival, all day and all night.  Fun.
• I don't think we did anything too crazy for my 29th birthday - but I do remember that Mitch got me these super-awesome green rubber boots.  I love those things.  

Tomorrow will be a low-key event.  Work, then home to take a nap, then out to dinner with Mitch's folks for steak.  It was my only request.  I might just take a grape juice box to pour into my wine glass at dinner.  It's all about presentation, people.  

I will admit, I'm sad to leave my twenties - they were good years, most of them.  I'm afraid that I have to be a "real" adult now that I'll be 30, something that I just still can't believe I am.  I'm REALLY not looking forward to the harassing phone calls that will begin from my family at 6:00am tomorrow morning.  But I am looking forward to the birth of our baby in my thirties, and financial stability (someday), and making fun of my sisters when they turn 30.  

Please don't call too early tomorrow, people.  Tina needs her beauty sleep to keep those wrinkles from coming.  

Our Most Unexpected Trip

As I'm sure you're all aware (since we saw many readers of the blog!), Mitch and I spent the weekend in Chicago instead of our intended destination of Marco Island, FL.  Originally, my parents had given us tickets to spend the weekend with them to celebrate my upcoming birthday and have the entire family together, as Winnie and Sarah live down there, and my parents, Katie and Boston were vacationing.  The plans had been made and were quickly destroyed when those damn United people decided to overbook the plane and bumped us.  Surprisingly, Mitch handled the entire situation incredibly well (although my pregnancy hormones were RAGING something terrible), and we resigned ourselves to the fact that we would not be in FL this weekend.  The airline put us up Friday night, and we went to the hotel and regrouped for the weekend, calling friends and hoping no one had plans for the long weekend.  

Because our luggage made it to Ft. Myers (of course), the only things that Mitch and I had were our the clothes on our backs and our carry-ons, which included a purse, two bags filled with magazines and books, and our beach bag.  I used my beach cover-up as pajamas, while Mitch decided that he would enjoy his swim trunks even though we weren't in Florida.

Hot.  

The next morning, we got up early, rented a car, and drove to Elk Grove to start making the rounds to see our friends.  We started with Fred and Wilma, went to breakfast, and spent the morning being entertained by Pebbles.

It was so great to see them!  We then headed south to Oswego to make a stop at Target for underwear and socks and to visit TubaLady and Rachel and spend Valentine's Day with them.  

They were so incredibly generous to let us use their laundry and shower (our luggage still hadn't showed up yet), and we had a blast lounging with them, laughing and talking.  We did a very romantic Valentine's Day dinner at Giordano's pizza, which was INCREDIBLE (it's all about the food right now).  After a competitive game of Phase 10 (Mitch won), we retired to our hotel in Oswego for the night.  (And our luggage was still nowhere to be found).

Sunday was a big day- OUR LUGGAGE ARRIVED!  It was so nice to have our stuff - clean clothes (not that we could wear any of the warm-weather stuff we had packed), my makeup and Mitch's razor.  We got ready and headed into the City to visit more of our friends.

Pooh-Bear and Piglet live in the Lakeview neighborhood, and we haven't seen them in a long time, so it was great to catch up with them.  Pooh-Bear and Mitch used to work together at Raddon years ago, and have kept in touch.  We had lunch at a delicious pub (I got fish and chips - yummy!), and watched the Illini beat Indiana.  

After spending a few hours in Chicago, we were too tired to really get out and do any shopping (I know, we're wimps), so we just went to Cin & Tom's to relax and get ready for the next meal and social time.  The four of us met Zan and The Mrs. at La Mex, my all-time favorite Mexican restaurant.  I had been craving flautas for at least a month, and they tasted SO good, once they finally made it to the table.  (Of course the waiter messed up my order and got everyone else's correct - oh well.)  It was so much fun to catch up with everyone and listen to them tell kid stories - soon we'll be able to contribute.  

This morning we went back to O'Hare to come home (and of course our flight was delayed about an hour - par for the course for the weekend), and we then spent the rest of the afternoon napping.  Unfortunately, Mitch spent the weekend with a cold, which got progressively worse as the weekend wore on.  He's feeling pretty bad today.  I'm hoping to not catch it.  

Although it certainly wasn't the relaxing weekend we were anticipating with my family (and we were SO SAD not to have seen everyone), we made the best of it and enjoyed spending so much time with our friends.  The silver lining?  United gave us two free round-trip tickets for anywhere in the continental US.  Can you say "spring break"?  Hello, warm weather in April!

Slight Change of Plans

Instead of flying to sunny and warm Marco Island for the weekend, we are staying in cold and windy Chicago due to getting bumped off an oversold flight.

Hopefully our luggage shows up later today so we can...get out the shorts and flip flops? Looks like we'll need to do some shopping!

Quotable quotes from last night:

Big Poke: "Those free tickets you got are mine."

The Mrs: "Grama said you are stranded in Chicago!"

Mitch: "I want two free tickets plus money."

Gate agent: "We don't negotiate, but here's two free tickets, a hotel voucher, and meal vouchers. Thanks for not being an ass about this." (Mitch, quite surprisingly, was not an ass)

Tina: "I've never needed a drink so bad in my life!"

I'm Annoyed

I'm annoyed when my piano students don't show up for their lessons.  

I'm annoyed when my multicultural education class online chat doesn't start until 9pm on Wednesdays, when I'm tired and want to go to bed.

I'm even more annoyed that the chat is at the same time as the new Law & Order episodes on NBC.  

I'm annoyed that we don't have cable so that I can watch Law & Order whenever I want.  

I'm annoyed that I always get heartburn at night.

I'm annoyed that I ate dinner so early that I'm now hungry when I want to go to bed.  

I'm annoyed that it's not Friday yet.  

I'm annoyed that I have to pee AGAIN.  

I'm annoyed.  I guess I'll just go to bed before Mitch becomes annoyed with me.  

Beautiful....

What is beautiful?  A sunset on the ocean, a child's laugh, fall leaves, a big bowl of ice cream, the mountains, a sale at Macy's.....

What is not beautiful?  Minnesota when it thaws out.  Ew.  

Baby Update: Week 14

Mom, Dad, and Baby made it through the first trimester!  Bring on Trimester 2!

Baby:  According to "What to Expect", the baby is the size of a clenched fist.  This week, the baby is developing hair, from on top of the head to eyebrow to lanugo (the fuzzy covering to keep baby warm).  No wonder I had bad heartburn this week!  The baby is also starting to practice lung function by "breathing" in amniotic fluid.  

Mom:  This week I'm going to brag about how uneventful, for the most part, my trimester one mood swings really were.  I stayed pretty even-keel throughout the first three months, with very few outbursts or tears.  I had no weird cravings (unless you count creamy comfort foods as weird) and didn't make Mitch run to the store at 10:00pm to get ice cream (although he offered).  Mitch will also tell you that my mood swings were kept in check.

While my morning sickness has been virtually nonexistent, the heartburn has kicked in this week, mostly because I have difficulty laying off the garlic and onions.  Tomatoes might also be causing some of the problems.  I only had one headache this week, which is an improvement from last week, and can make it through the day without a nap.  This week I am also committed to working out at least three times this week before we head to Florida for the long weekend. 

Yesterday was the first day I began shopping for maternity wear, as some of my work pants are really starting to be uncomfortable, and most of them have hook-style closures, making the rubber-band trick difficult to do.  I bought a pair of black pants and a pair of jeans, both at Gap.  I fear that I may never wear a real pair of pants again - SO comfortable!! 

Dad:  Mitch has been offering advice on how to avoid the belly rub, as I'm not too keen on it, and I know that Katie has big plans this weekend to rub it.  We have a Karate-Kid-style approach to keeping intruders of my personal space at bay.  And if that doesn't help, I'll have no trouble punching Katie in the face.  I hope she's read this.  I'm not kidding.

Mitch was great at Babies R Us yesterday!  At no point did he feel overwhelmed or scared, and I am thoroughly impressed with that.  For someone who wasn't sure he ever wanted kids, he sure has climbed aboard the baby bandwagon.  

I think we both realized yesterday, though, that there is a TON of stuff you can buy for kids.  What do we REALLY need?  What brands of stroller and carseat are best?  Cloth or disposable diapers?  What the hell is a Boppy, anyway?  Do new babies need toys?  Help us, people!

A little light browsing today

Could Tina BE any more excited?

Heat Wave

Today when I went to work it was 15 degrees outside.  Felt like a heat wave.  Now it's 33 and HOT.  I might go without a coat for the rest of the day.

Who knew that these temps would feel so warm after two-month freeze?

Did Their Brains Freeze?

When the temp is -10, why do so many people walk from the parking lot to the building with no hat or gloves on? It's a fairly long walk too - about 300+ steps.

If Heartburn is an Indicator of Baby Hair....

....this baby might come out looking like a monkey.

Baby Update: Week 13

Baby:  According to "What to Expect When You're Not Expecting", baby is the size of a peach now - about three inches long.  (S/he is getting so big!)  The baby's head is taking up about half of his body right now, but eventually will even out to normal body proportions (I hope).  The baby's intestines will begin to make their way from the umbilical cord to the belly, and the vocal cords are starting to develop this week.  

Mom:  This week I started to gain some more energy back, which was great.  However, I've noticed that I can make it through the day, but by the evening I am exhausted and am in bed sleeping before 10:00.  Same thing for the weekend - early to bed, early to rise.  I'm really not feeling sick anymore, which is even better - just a little upset stomach at nighttime.  My headaches have picked up in frequency though, so I'm watching those carefully.  

Dad:  Nothing groundbreaking on the home front for Mitch this week.  He has taken to rubbing my (just starting to expand) belly, which was weird at first, but now is OK.  (He's the only one with permission, though!)  He's continuing to coming up with random inappropriate names for the baby and keeping me entertained and comfortable.

This is the last week of the first trimester - one down, two to do!  I can hardly believe that I'm a third of the way there!