4 of 18

4 days down, 14 to go. That's almost 25% done. I'm only counting work days here...it sounds better, first of all, and second of all I would spend most of my weekends at home anyway. I may be more active - but I'd still be at home. So it's only 18 days that I have to overcome.

I've gotten lots of comments from people saying how great bed rest would be. I've heard comments like "you mean you have an excuse to stay in bed all day?", "do you know how many books you could read in that time?", "in 2 months you will be begging for a day in bed", and "I'd give anything for my doctor to force me to do nothing". My cousin referred to days like this as "relocation days" - moving from the bed to the couch. I assure you all that while it may sound wonderful, the glamour wears off after about 2 days. It is true that in 2 months I will probably be begging for A day in bed. not 18 though. Oh well, I'm done wallowing.

One thing I thought I might be able to accomplish while on this sabbatical from work was blogging. Then I realized that with not much going on in my days, my blogs would be pretty boring. This was what I envisioned a blog would consist of:

Woke up at 7, said bye to Austin. Reagan whined, I went back to sleep. Woke up again at 9, watched Regis and Kelly. Reagan whined, Layla went potty, I drank water. Got tired of TV and started scrapbooking. Reagan whined. I went potty. Layla went potty but really didn't need to and just wanted to play in-and-out. Reagan whined. I whined. Austin came home for lunch. Yippee half a day done. Reagan whined.

However, my day was slightly more exciting than that. I beat 8 levels on Super Mario, watched Regis and Kelly, the Price is Right, and 3 episodes of Desperate Housewives. During the tv episodes I made a really cute birthday card for Brian with my cricut and worked on designing William's birth announcement. The one element that I was able to predict above, though, was Reagan's whining. I think when I go back to work I might set up a tape recorder or something to see if he does that just when I'm here or if he is neurotic enough to make those noises regardless of who is listening.

Have I told you about my cricut yet? I don't think I have, so, here I go - it is WONDERFUL! I had never heard of it before I started working at Western Union, but one of my coworkers has one and a few other coworkers had cricut-envy. I tried it out one time...and it was so fun! It's a die-cut machine that, along with various cartridges, can cut literally almost anything your heart could desire. I told Austin about it awhile back, but the cheapest model was $200 and I don't go out and spend $200 on anything...well, except at Costco occasionally...so I figured I'd never buy one. Not like its a necessity, life goes on right? Austin found it on sale at JoAnn's before Christmas though and he bought it...I was so shocked on Christmas morning! It came with a font/basic shape cartridge so I was able to cut out letters/phrases/shapes...and I did for hours. I made a few pages for William's scrapbook - here's page 1. It is sideways...oops, iPhone...but you get the idea. The space in the middle will be for one of his first pictures

After I had a few days of fun with the cartridge it came with Austin found a Sesame Street cartridge on eBay for $30. Usually they're about $70 or $80 full price, so $30 was a good deal. I had some fun cutting out characters like cookie monster, oscar the grouch, and elmo and I got excited thinking about what I can do for birthday invitations for William, birthday cards, etc. THEN my boss gave me a $40 gift card to JoAnn's for Christmas, and on New Year's Day they had their cartridges on sale for $39.99...so...I got another one! This one will come in handy over the next year or so - it's called "new arrival" and it cuts out all sorts of things related to a new baby. There are some baby shower phrases, bassinets, strollers, rattles, bottles, pregnant moms, "bath time" - all sorts of baby type things. I used that to make William's birth announcement yesterday and I got it designed and have a sample ready to duplicate. I am going to have to send Austin to a craft store to get me some more cardstock in the right colors, then I can get to work cutting and assembling all the announcements - all that will be left is inserting a picture in the envelope and writing his birth details.

So - my day wasn't too bad. I did get bored and stir crazy and wanted to clean my house, but I didn't lay in bed crying out of boredom all day either. So that's a good start. And when else would I have had time to make all these birth announcements? Certainly not once he's born...so I guess sometimes there is a silver lining.

As for today - I've already accomplished the first few tasks...waking up, Regis and kelly, and I'm working on the Price is Right. After that I'm sure it'll be scrapbooking, quilting, or playing Wii. Just waiting on my mom's recipes and Kaila's recipes to arrive so that I can add a little spice to my day by organizing recipe binders...

Be very jealous.