Cathy the Librarian

They (yes the mysterious they) say that in order to get pregnant, you need to get relaxed and comfortable and not think about getting pregnant. I was pretty messed up after the miscarriage and afraid I wouldn’t be able to get pregnant. The girly cruise couldn’t have come at a more perfect time. I was stressed and really in need of vacation. By the time I got back, I really missed my little family, but I was relaxed.

It didn’t take too long before I found out that I was pregnant!! I had a little trouble early on so I’ve already had an ultrasound and everything looks good. On the 28th I’m supposed to have the special ultrasound where I find out the gender. I know its “controversial”, but I want to find out if its a girl or boy. I have a girl name picked, but no boy name, partly because I’m determined that its a girl. If not, I’ll love having three men in my house, but a girl would be nice. If its a girl, I want to call her Lyla Jane. It turns out that one of the librarians of MCLS has the same name. And while I really like her, I actually chose the name because Lyla was my great-grandma’s name and Jane was my previous choir director.

I’ve been really tired this pregnancy, I can’t remember anything, the small of my back has been hurting, I can’t (or shouldn’t) pick up Jack (and his 40 lbs of little guy) anymore, I’ve been pretty queezy recently and certain foods have been putting me off.  All these things remind me that I’m still pregnant, so even though I’m uncomfortable, I’m still pregnant.

Jack’s really excited about being a big brother soon. I think he’d really like to help out and take care of the new baby. He’s started going up to little babies when we see them and he gets really hyper and happy… although its probably a little too much for the babies. We’ll have to work on that some. Needless to say, I think he’ll like being a big brother.

On Wednesday, I’ll be 19 weeks pregnant, almost halfway there!

Jeeze, its almost midnight, three hours past my bedtime! 🙂

Yes. I’m still alive. Barely, but I’m here. Jeff has been threatening to get rid of my blog. Finally (as you can see) his pestering paid off. Its just other people do so much better than I, so I read other blogs, like Adrienne’s, Libba’s, Samantha’s and of course, the librarians at “A Librarian’s Guide to Etiquette“. I also have to keep up on my Lumines playing on my PSP and all the kids and teens books I’m reading. Its funny, Jeff was saying that he sometimes wishes I wasn’t a Youth Services Librarian, because then I would read adult (tee hee) books.

Anyway, what’s been going on in my life? I’ll give you the brief bits and then try and go into details into other posts. Here’s the bits:

1. March 5th I found out that I was eight weeks pregnant! Wheee! I’m due on October 15th.
2. May 28th I have the ultrasound. I’d really like a girl, because I have a girl name in mind, but any child of mine will be wonderful. 🙂
3. March 30th Jack had his third birthday
4. April 5th we had our third annual Teen Book Festival
5. April 18th I turned 29 … god, my last year in the twenties.
6. April 24th – May 4th the family and I went to Disney World.
7. I managed to do all my summer reading planning right before and after the Disney vacation.

Looking at this I’ve got about four blog posts I need to put together. Of course, if I posted as things were happening, I wouldn’t have to do this, but I’m like a cat. Easily distracted.

Onto the in depth posts… now that its 11 pm? Jeeze. Past my bedtime. Pregnancy has done that to me. I’m ready to go to bed at 9:30 pm nowadays. But because I love Jeff and he’s being a pest, I’ll post about one of them. 🙂

I’m looking for a crocodile cake design for Jack’s third (gulp) birthday, and I came across this recipe for carrot cake from the Crocodile Cafe. On the left is all the nutritional facts. OMG. You consume all but 93 of your daily recommended calories in this cake! Check it out here. Its ridiculous! Its CARROTS. Well and 5 eggs, a POUND of cream cheese and 1/2 cup of butter. But still! 1907 calories in one piece of cake? … I guess its probably not that unusual though, is it? Gah. Makes me wish I couldn’t read… well maybe not, but it makes me wish I could burn off calories as fast as the hubby.

CARROTS!!! They’re good for you!?!?!

In less than six days Jack is turning THREE! I can’t believe so much time has gone by! He’s gotten so big! He’s turned into quite the little man. Full of ideas and stories. I must say I’ve grown quite attached to him. 🙂 I honestly can’t imagine what I would do without him. Sure I’d have tons of free time, but no little hugs and kisses, no stories at bedtime, no poopy diapers, no screaming and crying, no having to practice tons of patience. I love being a mom, and I love my little guy!
Happy almost birthday!

First, let me tell you, it was wonderful! We flew down to Miami a day early to spend a little time site seeing. It was nice not to have to race from the airport to the port for the cruise ship. There was a cute little touristy area quite near our hotel (good choice Tammy!). It was mostly shopping and dining (surprise surprise) but we also went on a “famous people” boat tour, which was nice. Who knows if there were actually famous people living in the houses. Somehow I doubt it, but the view was nice and the tour guide was really funny. The houses were all beautiful, but there are a lot of beautiful houses in Florida, especially along the water.

We actually started our stay in Miami with some lovely Pina Coladas:

My first purchase was a really cool purse that is actually a giant zipper!

Then we went to Bubba Gump, and I had another great drink, suggested by our server and absolutely DE-LISH!

Then we went back to the hotel and crashed.

After a lovely night, (although I don’t think Annette liked sharing a bed with me 🙂 ) we went to the port to get on our cruise. Our cruise ship was the Majesty of the Seas, which was lovely.

I had a small, but comfortable bed… with my zip-it purse on it 🙂

A teeny bathroom:

With a shower that is almost impossible to shave in:

I was slightly afraid that I was going to be queasy, but the only time I felt anything was when I got off the cruise ship, and thought that the ground was still moving. Unfortunately, the other girls in the group weren’t so lucky. One of the girls tried to go to sleep in order to get rid of the queasiness, a second one got really sick and the third one got really drunk and then sick.

I want to warn anyone taking a cruise right now. Think you’ve spent a lot of money on airfare, the cruise and the cocktail dresses or tuxes they want you to have for the dinners? When that’s not where they want it to end. There’s a casino on board as well as some shops, but that’s not the worst part. The ship had two people who’s soul job was to get us all pumped up and wanting to buy special “cards” for discounts at certain stores. What they don’t mention is that many of the stores you can use your card at are WAY expensive. Plus, if your in the Bahamas, should you be spending all your time shopping? (Yes I just said that Jeff. Close your mouth.)

The first stop was Nassau. Talk about tourist trap. Lots of shopping, lots of people wanting to braid your hair… whatever, it was bright and colorful.

We walked around for a little while, and then we went to Atlantis in Paradise Island, Bahamas. I would have even liked to spend the whole trip here. It was GORGEOUS! The water theme really worked, as it was along the beach. There was a really neat marine habitat area. One thing I suggest? Get a really nice digital SLR and don’t use your flash to take pictures. This is a marine habitat area with lots of windows. My friends had their point and shoot cameras, and they couldn’t get almost any shots. I also saw other people using their flash, and one of two things happened:

1. the flash reflected back off the window, ruining the picture
2. the flash was visible from the other side of the aquarium windows, ruining the picture for someone else.

I used my husband’s (although since the trip, its now mine) DSLR, and didn’t use the flash. The pictures were still sometimes a little dark, but I think I still got some really nice ones.

My friend took this one:

Here’s my friends surrounded by lobsters:

Here’s my friends scoping the fishes:

And one more, a eel shot that’s pretty neat:

It really was lovely. I think we all hated to leave. It was practically an island paradise! Barrumpbump.

Next day was CocoCay. This is an island that is owned by Royal Caribbean cruises, so the only people allowed on the island have been approved by Royal Caribbean.

I tried to take more pictures, but there was too much relaxing and swimming to do. Plus there was a lovely barbecue provided by Royal Caribbean. I did manage to get a couple of pictures. Here’s one of our ship:

I BESEECH YOU! Wear LOTS of sunblock! I wore what I thought was quite a bit, but I still got quite burned. The sun just must be closer to the earth there than it is in Rochester NY. 🙂

Once it got a little too hot for us, we went back to the ship and went swimming in the pool on the ship. Why didn’t it occur to me that the water would be salt water? I don’t know but it was a new experience for me. Don’t get much salt water swimming in landlocked (great lakes not included) Rochester. After a nice shower, I treated myself to a lovely massage. Never had one? I couldn’t suggest it more highly! Even with the sunburn, it was delightful. She was a British woman and we had a nice conversation about British TV comedies and books (once she found out I was a librarian). By the end, I was nicely relaxed and ready for more relaxation.

The last stop was Key West, Florida. More wandering around and shopping.

There was a cool bar with bras stapled to the ceiling:

And a bar for people who like watching Caillou:

And a bar for people with Big ‘Uns!

There were LOTS of bars. And lots of chickens too!

Each night on the ship, we would get a little dressed up and go to a sit down dinner. Each night, had the same wait staff, so luckily they were very nice and friendly! They would help us decide what to eat, and if we couldn’t decide between two, they sometimes brought us both!

Here’s a picture of the two of them:

And here we are with them…

Oh! I almost forgot! Each night we would get a cool towel animal on our beds!

I had a great time, and I couldn’t have gone with any more wonderful people (Jeff and Jack excluded!). We all got along great and can’t wait to do it again! I was definitely sad for it to be over, and I miss not getting to spend so much time with them. 🙁 I guess we’ll have to start planning our new trip!

I don’t know how those librarians do it. They look at me with their big doey eyes and tell me what a good thing I’ll be doing for the less fortunate librarians of the world. And I’m suckered in every time. This time I didn’t even actually see them. They emailed me soothing emails and told me that I would be doing a wonderful thing for librarians around New York State. I’m only a member of New York Library Association and not American Library Association, since ALA dues are so expensive, so I’m assuming that ALA wouldn’t ask me to do anything… yet.

Anywho. I was still slightly on the fence, although quickly being guided (to the dark side some might say), when one of the other librarians who joined the committee emailed me in a very convincing manner that swayed my decision. Darn you and your hypnotic ways Lisa! I’m glad I don’t work at Webster, because I’m sure that she’d convince me to do all sorts of things all the time. 🙂

Unfortunately, I’m only one person, so I won’t be able to take on this committee and stay on the Teen Book Festival committee as well. Two intense committees at once? That is a sure sign for divorce. So that means that I will have to go on hiatus from TBF for a while. I’m sure that I will still volunteer for the day of, but that’s about it.

Starting in March, planning begins for the NYLA conference in Geneva… now I have to figure out if this is the Spring YSS conference, or the Fall NYLA conference, of which I’ll be helping plan the YSS part. I’m still in shock, and trying to figure out how I’ve gotten noticed… I may be too much of a Chatty Cathy, but oh well, I can’t help it.

I’ve also got this thought in the back of my head that I’m giving a presentation at one of the conferences with some other librarians about programming for Tweens, but I can’t remember when or if it was just a figment of my imagination… we’ll see. I’ve actually been offering programs for kids in 4-8 grade for about a month now, but no one has been showing up. Its probably time to do <shutter> class visits. I am such a baby. I don’t know why the idea of class visits freak me out, but I just don’t know if I can handle them.

—-Couple of days later—-

Okay I looked it up. I was asked to help give a presentation at NYLA this October, but I haven’t heard anything else, so maybe they’ve forgotten me. I’m helping to plan the Spring 2009 YSS conference in Geneva. I can handle that. 🙂

In my possession as we speak! I got to Toys R Us at 9 am to wait in line for an hour. There had been people waiting since SEVEN AM! I don’t know why people do this. They may be crazy. I thought I was crazy waiting for an hour.
It was snowing and blowing and FREEZING! My goodness was it freezing. But I got in there. I was Wii 26 of 35. I also got Wii Play (with the extra wiimote) a nunchuk, and the charging station. After that I was warm enough to leave the store. Only to get out of the store and realize that I couldn’t see a foot in front of my face. Yuck.
I had somewhat of a cold late last week, but today I’ve felt horrible. Absolutely awful. Those patrons better appreciate how much I’ve suffered. Ah, who am I kidding? They’ll be mad that I didn’t get the right wii games.
Next week: a trek back to Toys R Us for Guitar Hero III.
Just so you guys know, even though we play a lot of games and watch Anime, I do encourage the youth to read too. Sure I do! Manga and the Halo series. Oh and thanks to Bob, my new favorite: Scott Pilgrim.

Both Jeff and Jack have the flu. Jeff got it a couple of days ago… hmm he’s been out since Wednesday. And Jack started feeling not so good this morning. Luckily, I had the presence of mind to take Jack to the doctor’s “open hours” this morning, and I told her how Jeff has the flu. At the time, Jack only had a sinus infection, and wasn’t showing signs of the flu, but she gave me a prescription for some flu medicine. We went to “Cookie Wegmans”, filled the prescription, got our cookie and went home. We all went upstairs to take a nap together.
A little later, I wake to Jack crying a little, then he starts coughing and yuck, brings cookie wegmans up all over the bed, his clothes and my shirt. I get him naked to cool him off, but even after a couple of minutes, he has a temperature of 102. We give him a bath and it goes down, but up it comes again (luckily not food) so I decide to fill the medicine. They didn’t have it at the first place I went to, and the man who helped me said that I could wait until Monday. MONDAY! My son has a fever! There was no way that I was going to wait. So I had to go across town, because two Wegmans nearby didn’t have anything… that’s scary. Lots of little kids in Rochester with the flu. Poor things. Of course, all I had on my mind was that I needed to get back to my little man. 🙁 Then I get to the Wegmans across town, and I wait FORTY MINUTES, so that they can open a box, crack open a bottle, put it in some machine that shakes the medicine really good, put it back in the box and hand it to me. Hello people, my (almost) three year old son has a FEVER! I want to comfort him and cuddle with him!
So I get home, give him the disgusting stuff that he doesn’t want to take and we cuddle up and watch Sense and Sensibility (and play the Cars game on his leapster).
Weekends can be so lovely!

I found out a couple of days ago that a certain store is getting a new shipment of Wiis. So guess who is going to try and get there an hour (hope that will be enough time) early to get one for the library? Yup that would be me. I don’t know what I’m thinking, but I’m hoping that no one else has heard about it… yea right. We’ll see. The worst that could happen is I’ll have to go home wet and empty handed. I’d better not though. I may have to take down some little old lady buying a Wii!

According to Phil, we have six more weeks to endure. Not that its been a very awful winter or anything. BTW, how could poor Phil she anything let alone his shadow, surrounded by all the masses of crazy people?