One-liners, gender, and other thoughts

I feel like because I've been facebooking more than blogging recently, I can no longer write more than one or two lines at a time. Ideas pop into my head for stuff I want to write, but it's never much. For instance:

"The best thing about being pregnant after losing 120 lbs: no stretch marks thanks to all the extra skin!"

I don't have anything beyond that, just one line. Ah well.

In other news, we have our mid-pregnancy ultrasound scheduled for next week, and we may have the option of finding out the baby's gender. I'll admit that I'm curious, although the only real difference it makes to me is knowing which list of names I should concentrate on, and whether I should keep or get rid of the stash of baby girl clothes I've accumulated over the years or have my sister retrieve Jacob's baby clothes from her attic. But it seems like everyone around me is in a frenzy, needing to know right now what gender I'm having. I must get asked by the same people at least 3 or 4 times each week. It almost makes me NOT want to find out...

It's been a while...

Almost a year since I posted anything here. Wow. And so much has changed since my last post!

Total weight loss to date is approximately 120 lbs. I still have about 30 more lbs I want to lose, but that will actually have to wait a while because I am pregnant.

Yes, it's true... after more than eight years of trying to get pregnant, then not trying, then trying to adopt, then not trying to adopt, then trying to get pregnant yet again, not getting pregnant, making peace with the idea of never having another biological child, and completing most of the paperwork necessary in order to pursue a domestic infant adoption, surprise! Without even trying, it happened. Weird.

It's been really difficult to wrap my head around. While I'm definitely happy to be having another child, it isn't the way I planned and so I've had to process a lot of different, conflicting emotions surrounding the whole thing. I have so many unanswerable questions in my brain all the time. Such as, why did my body decide to work NOW but not for the past 8+ years? (Even longer if you count the time I spent in infertility treatment for my first pregnancy). And, what about all the really hard work I did and money we spent on the adoption? Do we just discard that now?

As I've been driving myself slowly insane with all the wondering and questions, it has occurred to me that I process things best through writing. And so it's back to my blog I go, to try and sort through my thoughts in print rather than allow them to cloud my mind. I thought about starting a brand-new blog, since the things I'm dealing with now are vastly different than what I've blogged about in the past, but I don't know if I'll go that route or not. For now, I'm back here, and so far, it feels good :)

Offline for a bit

So once again I'll be failing to update this blog, but this time it's because I'm going to be without internet access for a bit. My computer bit the dust on Wednesday night. (I'm typing this on Becca's computer -- she was gracious enough to lend it to me for a few hours! Thanks again, Bec!) I'm hoping to be able to retrieve the data (essentially, my whole life is on that machine) and maybe even get it fixed, but it will at least be a few weeks until everything is up and running again.

Hope it's sooner rather than later!

Is blogging dead?

I keep reading that people aren't blogging like they used to, that Facebook has taken the place of blogging, that people are sick of reading bloggers' self-centered egocentric slop. Is it true? Is blogging dead? I know I haven't kept up with mine like I intend, but I still read others' blogs regularly (though I don't comment as much as I used to). I do notice that some people I read aren't posting as often, and many aren't posting at all.

Thoughts?

Cleared for takeoff

Today I had my post-op appointment with my doctor, and everything looks good. I can resume normal activities. Though, I still think it may be another week or so before I do any serious kickboxing or ab crunches.

After the tree episode last week (my street looks just *bizarre*, btw... I can't find my house) I got a bit sidetracked, but today I'm giving out blog awards! Yes!

(Look at that, I finally figured out how to post a picture in the middle of the blog. Go me!)

And the awards go to....

1) Lover of Dolphins, or "Jax", as I call her, is one of my favorite online friends, a fellow homeschooling mom and a kindred spirit. Like me, she is passionate about the things that matter to her, and she has held my hand through many of life's ups and downs over the years.

2) What is it? Anna is a woman I admire for so many reasons. She's an amazing mom, she has her hand in many different creative endeavors and she seems to really enjoy life -- something I aspire to!

3) Beauty Secrets Unveiled Lisa is a fountain of information on natural health and home remedies. I was once suffering with a sinus infection for the better part of a month, and she taught me some really useful ways of getting rid of the congestion without needing prescription or even OTC meds. I'm really learning a lot from this blog!

4) Discursiveness Anne is one of my oldest online friends -- I've known her for over ten years -- she's a great writer and she really needs to blog more ;)

Voilà! Les blogs excellents! ;)

Never mind...

... I toyed with it a bit. It doesn't look like I originally had it, but it'll do.

Help!

Blogspot is messing up my header now... grr! What do I do?

Blogging

My first post on my brand-new blog! I thought it appropriate to blog about, well, blogging.

Seems like everyone has a blog these days; some of us -- like me, now! -- have more than one. So, first a question: why do we blog? What is it that appeals to us about keeping a journal online?
For me, blogging has always been about having a place to express myself, explore my thoughts, and communicate about what's going on in my life. I've never been one to keep a diary or a private journal. I've started dozens of them, but somehow it never seemed like there was a point to writing if I was the only one who would ever read it.

When I was in elementary school, in the dark ages before the internet, my friends and I wrote letters to one another. We used pretty stationary or notecards with pictures of kittens or rainbows, and we poured our hearts out to one another in pink and purple ink. In high school, my close friends and I shared a notebook which we would pass back and forth to one another between classes. In addition to writing notes to one another, we also kept lists of favorite things and pasted clippings from magazines.

I've always felt more at ease expressing myself through writing than through talking. Perhaps it's the ability to correct my mistakes as I go along, or the desire to review what I've written before I finalize it. I think it's also the chance to make sure that I can say what I need to say without worrying being interrupted. In conversation, I have a tendency to let others dominate, but in writing, I get to "let it all out" on my own terms. I think this is one of the main reasons why I've always been one to write notes/emails/text messages when I have something to say rather than call someone on the phone or show up at their door.

With this new blog, my desire is to create a place to share my thoughts, and also to get into the habit of writing as often as I should. I'm hoping to gain enough regular readers that I can attract some advertisers. The more personal stuff will remain at the MySpace blog I've kept for almost 4 years now, accessible to friends and family.

So, welcome to the new blog! Take a look around, make yourself comfy, and tell me what you think.