Things have vastly improved! Despite the many warnings I heard from people that their morning sickness lasted literally until they were popping the kid out, I am so thankful to report that I woke up on the morning of the first day of the second trimester feeling like a GD champ. I can look at grilled chicken again! I have energy to do things such as put on pants and open mail! Thinking of participating in the activity that led to the little biscuit baking in the oven in the first place doesn’t make me want to go hide under a bed! I like people again! But only the ones I liked before of course. Don’t get crazy.
It’s a good thing I’m feeling better because work has been a bit of… poopy, poopy, poo time lately. I don’t know if it’s the weather or the depressing Bernie Sanders media blackout or the general wet dog smell that permeates Milwaukee this time of year, but people are kinda being giant buttheads. Luckily for me, I’m a bit of a professional daydreamer and have been spending most of the time when people are acting in a rude manner living up in the special land of my brain where I can basically convince myself of this:
With my appetite and zest for life back I have started playing with liquids again with a vengeance. I’ve officially given up on n/a beer, it’s just not the same, and it tastes like potty. So far, the top contenders in my favorite beverage spot are the following:
I can’t say enough about La Croix waters. First of all, um, delicious! Bubbly, crisp, flavorful, just wonderful. Not to mention the colorful, shiny cans. But best of all, the grapefruit one. Not because it’s fantastic (which it is), but because the french word for grapefruit is apparently pamplemousse. Freaking PAMPLEMOUSSE, dude! What a delightful word. I give full credit for this word to La Croix, not the French language. I sing “pamplemousse” in my head pretty much constantly. The second and third drinks were concocted by one of our bartender friends at our favorite watering hole on the block, good ol’ Puddler’s Hall.
As the second oldest tavern in Milwaukee and the only bar 3 doors down from our house – if you’re looking for a good time, look no further. Located at the intersection of a pothole ridden city street that is only 3 blocks long and a pit that a skunk lays its eggs in every spring – this bar has everything: cold drinks, popcorn, ping-pong, live music, free food during Packer games, pugs, babies crying, sunburnt drifters with soapsuds beards, twinks, and the usual suspects. Which is that thing, where the same 5 people can be found smoking cigarettes outside of the bar at any given time, on any given day. ANYWAY – one day when we were hanging out in there eating popcorn and petting dogs, the bartender whipped me up a dreamsicle – with fresh squeezed orange juice, vanilla bean, simple syrup, and cream shaken over ice. Amazing! And another time, while watching a zombie movie and talking religion with Dana, bartender extraordinaire, she concocted that fruity, pineapple-y magic seen in picture #3. And the final drink that has consistently tickled my fancy is that gross looking green juice. A real winner.
Meanwhile, we’ve been the bushiest beavers around starting to get the old homestead into tiptop shape for wee one’s arrival. We’ve grown accustom to our little maids and their own personal version of cleanliness – the dog cleans the floor of all crumbs and delicious left behind nibblets, and the kitten steals all smallish things that aren’t tied down and hoards them in her little caves around the house, so all in all we have a pretty clean and uncluttered house from about the knees down.
And we figured we had a solid year to spare before a miniature person could start exploring the world that exists higher than a foot off the ground, so we decided to focus our energy on turning the guest room into a nursery.
We wanted to stick with gender neutral colors as much as possible in the nursery, and the guest room happened to be painted gray to begin with, so we decided gray and yellow would do the trick. Some clearance bin banners, pom-poms, homemade crafty bits, and digging out the rocking chair that Abi gave me out of storage… BOOM! – the nugget’s new digs are already coming together:
We hit up the giant Just Between Friends sale at the Expo Center and holy cannoli were our eyes opened to all the crap you can purchase for an infant. Luckily, I came prepared with a list of essentials to keep an eye out for and we tackled the madness like seasoned pros.
For around $50 we scored a bouncer, a sleep swaddle that was still in the package, a travel changing pad kit, blankets, bibs, tons of onesies, and a bunch of those adorable little sleepers with the footies. This sale is a dream for any of you fellow cheapskates out there. A lot of the stuff still had tags on it, and the most expensive outfit we bought cost $2. 
In addition, I’ve been clearancing and Kohl’s cashing and bargain binning and couponing like a boss, and things are coming along swimmingly. With strategic planning and patience, we were able to procure the $200 crib I had my eye on for a cool $70. That being said, I had like $60 worth of Kohl’s cash and rewards points to use towards that purchase… The real lesson here is that we spend a lot of money at Kohl’s. But Kohl’s is also helping fund my sister’s scholarly pursuits so at the end of the day I guess I should just start telling people that I am helping pay for my sister to go to college. One material object purchase at a time.
We also got a Pack-n-Play for next to nothing on Amazon when they had a one day sale. Prime eligible, obvi. We almost murdered each other trying to put it together but they are such handy little things to own. When I was in undergrad I worked with the Milwaukee public health department’s Cribs For Kids program where we helped families access Pack-n-Plays in an attempt to help tackle Milwaukee’s horrible infant mortality problem, which if you don’t know much about you can read about here:
If you’re feeling especially fired up now, may I then suggest this link & perhaps your credit card:
http://city.milwaukee.gov/health/cribs-for-Kids#.VyjLFY32bIU
And that’s my little PSA for the day.
I’ll leave you all with one last little thought. Do you ever wonder if when something happens, it means something bigger? Like something small could be a sign of something greater to come? A sign of something from above, perhaps? I do. If you do too, I ask you this: Inexplicably, after 6-7 years of a stubbornness known only to the hardiest strains of HPV, the 3 plantar warts on my feet that I’ve ignored or occasionally tried to chop out with a pair of scissors just completely and cleanly peeled off one night after a shower. What does this mean!? This must be some sort of witchcraft power I’ve unlocked with my pregnancy hormones. I wonder what else I can do!
the year with no beer 