How to not be a total douche bag, Lesson 1

Movie theater etiquette:

In a movie theater, there are several rules to be followed to ensure an enjoyable experience for everyone.  I know, it's weird to think that those people in chairs next to you ALSO paid to see the same movie you're seeing, but it's true.  Here are some rules to follow at the movie theater:

1. Chew with your mouths closed.

I know, this is a hard one for those of you who grew up in homes with sloppy parents that didn't have manners themselves.  We're old enough to know that once food goes in, your mouth shouldn't open again until you have swallowed.  No one else wants to see or hear the popcorn, nachos, pickles, candy, etc...that you have purchased for 80% markup at the concession counter.  I'm not saying that you can't eat!  Heaven forbid, I know that some of you must have your movie snack.  I'm just simply saying that I don't want to hear every crunch and slurp coming from your mouth.

This is what you look like to me.

2. Don't talk on your cell phone.

Yes, this should be a given, since you're at the movie theater.  Some of you have forgotten this simple rule though!  The movie theater has these handy things called doors from whence you can enter and exit at your leisure if you need to take a phone call.  Phones also come with this handy feature called "silent" or "vibrate" so that you can still receive calls, but you don't disrupt the theater.  I know that you might think that answering your phone during a movie is actually important and you're simply above everyone else, but you're not.  Kindly leave or I might take your phone and chuck it at the wall.

3. Don't have audible conversations about things other than the actual movie.

The status of your lawn care, what you fed the baby, or what you're doing AFTER the movie aren't subjects that the rest of the theater needs to know about.  In fact, we don't really care at all.  Your life is mundane, and I didn't pay $8 to listen to you talk about your life.  No one else really cares about it either.  You are unimportant and so are your conversations once the movie has started in the eyes of those around you.  Shhhh.

4. Keep your feet off the seat in front of you if it is in use.

It would be lovely if all theaters were like Fork and Screen and had plush recliners to sit in.  Unfortunately, that is not how 90% of theaters are, so you should do the following options with your legs:  cross them, place both feet firmly on the ground, sit cross legged.  Do not put your feet on the seat in front of you if someone is in it, do not kick it, do not wiggle it with your feet.  Just leave the person in front of you alone.  It's not a massage chair, and they are uncomfortable enough as is without having your feet/legs violently shaking them.

(Do you really need a visual?)

5. If you must bring a child, please control him/her.

That would include following the rules above as well as making sure your child doesn't throw candy or throw fits.  Your precious snowflake is not more important than the storyline.  No one paid money to listen to a tantrum, and you shouldn't subject people to your child's whims.  It makes him/her look like a brat, and it makes you look like a shitty parent.  (Remember, there are doors for you to use at your leisure!)

Thank you.

Phew.

Ben and I put the crib together today...took about 3 hours, but we did it!  (Ok, ok, he did most of the work, but I was definitely helpful!)

The nursery is NOT set up how I want it yet, but I was DYING to get the bedding on it.  I also wanted to wash all the clothes and blankets we had to get them stored away in drawers and not piled up everywhere.  

Side view of the crib with diaper holder.

Awww, crib buddies!

Hard workin' man.

Front of the crib.  I LOVE the design!

Inside of the crib!

Dresser/Changer.  The blanket on top is the one my mom made.

So that's what we've got so far.  The rest of the room is still a complete disaster, but I'm slowly but surely getting it put away.

23 weeks on Tuesday.  I've been baking a lot, and had my cute apron on!

I made BBQ chicken packets the other day for dinner.  Trying to come up with new meals for us to eat instead of the same old thing.  They turned out great.  Here's a picture:

Chicken was smothered in Oklahoma Joe's BBQ sauce, pineapple, and corn.  

That's all for now, I need to go finish up the laundry...although it's hard to get up with a fluffy cat keeping you warm...

Today.Was.AWESOME.

Why today was AMAZING:

1. Ben woke me up at 7am to tell me that he had made STAFF SGT!  He worked hard for this, and I'm super proud.  I was extremely exhausted, but peeled myself out of bed while he was moving around the house (after all, he got off work at 2am and was up already...).  I suggested we go out for breakfast, so we headed out for IHOP.  (After my shower, of course.  I went to bed with wet hair and I looked like a mad scientist crossed with this guy:

2. We went to Walmart to get stuff for Ben's favorite meal: lasagna.  Yes, I make if from scratch.  Yes, you can be envious.  So while we were there, I got some good news of my own.  No, I'm sorry, I can't tell you yet.  Soon enough though.  It was enough to send both Ben and I over the edge of happiness!

3. I baked a ton of oatmeal raisin and peanut butter chocolate chunk cookies for Ben to take to work with him.  (PS. he should be home any minute because he only has to work a couple hours tonight!)

4. The nursery furniture arrived today!  The delivery guy was really nice and had a New England accent.  Not thick and obnoxious (like Jersey accents), but subtle and fun.  Reminded me of my sister and my family in CT and MA.  

I WANT TO SET IT UP RIGHT NOW.

So that's about it, but I'm pretty stoked about this entire day.

Furniture will be here TOMORROW!

...however...the desk and dresser are STILL in the nursery, so we can't set it up yet.  Lame.

There are plenty of dudes Ben works with, they should just come over tomorrow and move that out!

In other news, I saw my belly move while Baby Ward was kicking last night.  It was pretty rad/weird.  Ben suggested the name Ariel again.  As much as I like The Little Mermaid and what the name means (Lioness of God), I just don't think it fits her.  I can't really explain WHY I feel like that already, but I do.  It just doesn't fit. And I don't think Ariel Jean sounds as good as Gwendolyn Jean or Zoe Jean.

For non-baby news:
I made a complaint about my experience at the movie theater here in town, and I was sent 4 free passes for any movie anytime!  When Ben and I had looked at movie times online, the movie was shown to have a 3pm start time.  When we got to the theater at 2:30ish, the 2 people working the ticket counter were having a conversation and were messing up on other people's orders ahead of us.  When it was my turn, I said, "2 for Crazy Stupid Love at 3, please."  She looked at me and said, "What movie?"  Ben repeated it, and she finally understood what we were saying.  She then ran my card and as she's handing me the ticket stubs, she says, "And that's at 4:30, not 3."  I said, "Oh, online it said 3."  She replied snottily, "NO.  Harry Potter is at 3."  and then just dismissed me.  I was slightly irritated.   Before that, we had gone out to lunch at Jaliscos in town, and had the WORST waitress.  Firstly, she was confused by "chicken taco salad".  She didn't actually know what I wanted.  I had to break it down for her.  Our food came out before our drinks did.  We had to ask for our drinks 3 times and for more chips and salsa 2 or 3 times.  We also had to ask for the chili sauce that is supposed to come with the burritos.  To make matters worse, she was scarcely around, so we had to wait to ask.  This was just the last irritation.
ANYWAY.
I got a really nice email from the manager and she mailed them out promptly.  Very nice.

Still waiting to hear from either school that I interviewed at.  There was a freeze put on the positions, but apparently that was lifted today and the approvals should have gone out today.  Yeah, we'll see.  I will call tomorrow if I haven't heard anything by noonish.  I don't want to be a bother, but I do want to start preparing my classroom (best case scenario) or decide if I want to sub or be an EA this year.  Ugh.

And, my love for Matt Damon grew after watching this video.

I've been working on trying to get the nursery sort of cleaned out to get ready for the crib and dresser/changer.  They should be delivered anytime between tomorrow and Thursday!  I'm at a standstill right now though because we need to get someone over to help Ben move a couple big pieces of furniture out of the nursery and into the garage.

As soon as I get the furniture set up, I can figure out what size paintings I need to do as well as where I want to put it.  Right now, I'm stuck.  The furniture delivery people should be calling me back soon to set up a time to deliver.

I did get one thing put up in the nursery!

I'm wanting to bake, but if I do, I send it to work with Ben.  Usually, that wouldn't be a problem, but there are some people on his shift now that I'm not totally fond of...and I don't want them to enjoy homemade goodies.  I'm sure that makes me sound like a jerk, but I don't really care.  I've got pineapple upside down cake I could make as well as pecan bars.  

I'm ready for fall weather.  

I'm ready for fall baking.

I'm ready for fall clothes.

I'm also ready to find out whether or not I'm going to get a full time teaching position.  There's a freeze right  now on telling people if they've been hired.  Basically, the district is trying to figure out if they can just transfer people around and make classrooms fuller rather than have to hire new teachers. I know that some of my friends in the district are stressing out because they have WAY too many kids in the classroom to be effective for each student.  It's sad, but that's what happens when the district goes broke and the state has no money to help...and there are wasted jobs in higher up areas of the district.  Eh.  Oh well.  

This week's menu:

I'm trying to be good and come up with more than the normal stuff we always have for dinner, so here's what I've come up with:
(Keep in mind, Ben is a picky eater, and this actually proves to be a difficult task)

Monday: Ground turkey meatloaf with baked potatoes.

Tuesday: BBQ chicken packets (chicken baked in foil with BBQ sauce, pineapple, and onion) served with brown rice.

Wednesday: Ben's chili with cornbread

Thursday:  Jambalaya served over white rice

Friday: Leftover jambalaya

Saturday: If we don't go out, jalapeno stuffed chicken breasts served with broccoli.

Sunday: Breakfast

Hopefully everything turns out well.  I also have stuff to make nacho chicken bake, tacos (but we have those ALL the time), and quesadillas.

Yeah, I know I didn't give any kind of real description of the baby shower in the last post, but I've been at a loss for words lately.  Weird, because usually I have something to say about everything.

I'll start by giving my review on a documentary that Ben and I watched the night before last.

It's called, Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father.  It was probably one of the most heartbreaking documentaries I've ever seen.  I would put this in my top 3 favorite documentaries of all time.  I will not spoil anything for any of you because I want everyone to see this.  By telling you anything besides my feelings and the plot line, I know that it will ruin some of the emotions that you will feel.
The documentary is about a custody battle between Andrew Bagby's parents and the woman who is Andrew's suspected killer.  The battle is over Zachary Bagby.  Please watch it.  I actually had trouble sleeping after watching it because it effected me so much.  I was so moved, I sent an email to the maker of the documentary.

I had a strange dream last night.  It began in a elementary school friend's old home.  (I haven't thought about this place in YEARS).  Me, Ben, Landon, Beth, Amber Larcom, and Falco were there.  We were having some kind of party or get together.  Amber and Falco both had hand, foot, and mouth disease.  (In real life, Amber's son has this and I had seen it on facebook).  Both of them kept trying to cough on me or drink from my drink so that I would be infected too.  I kept trying to explain to them that I was pregnant and it could hurt the baby and to leave me alone.  Beth and Amber left.  Soon after that, we had to make a trip to the swimming center to watch Paula's (elementary school friend) brother perform in a swim meet.  On the way there, Ben told me he'd talk to Falco about leaving me alone.  I couldn't understand why he was trying to do that to me.  Also on the way there, it was dark and there was a great arch in the sky, looked kind of like a power line (but way bigger) and was lit up.  As we got closer to the swim center, the huge arch disappeared, and I was told that it was just smaller power lines with birds on them.  It didn't make sense.  We got to the swim center, and then the dream changed.  I probably shifted in my sleep or rolled over and it began another dream.  This time, I was with Ben's family at an amusement park and we were planning on going on this water ride (that is ALWAYS featured in my dreams about amusement parks) and we were going to make normal faces when the picture was taken.  Nicole (Landon's ex gf) was there and was making everyone late by doing her hair.  We rode the water ride and then Ben decided he was hungry.  He went into one of the restaurants at the park and ordered a meal that was $10, but only came with 3 chicken strips.
That's when I woke up.

And there you have it.