Yay, I am so happy that Den has the day off today. He has Fridays off until the next semester starts at the other college that he teaches at. Plus, he doesn’t have to work so fervently on his thesis, until he gets his major revisions back. I think it is raining, but I am not positive.

My computer doesn’t face a window, and I don’t really feel like getting up to check. I woke up around 4:30 this morning because Brennan kept crying in his sleep. At one point, he was grabbing for my chest, and I really felt bad for him, so I let him bf. He sucked, but of course, there isn’t any milk there, since I stopped that when he was 22 months. I think he was just really upset or something because he kept crying at least 4 times. After he stopped sucking and turned around, I laid there for about 20 minutes, and then decided that I couldn’t get back to sleep.

I was thinking about my original idea for the 20 Valentine cards that I have to make for Brennan’s class. Of course, I don’t have to make any cards. I could just buy those cheap looking cards that you can buy at the store, but this gives me an opportunity to make something nice. Plus, I have never made that many cards before, so it give me a chance to improve my stamping abilities. I am finding that I am still having a hard time getting an even image of my stamp. And another thing, I can never get the image quite centered on the paper. I sort of blame that on the fact that I don’t stamp enough. I decided not to go with my original idea. I was going to emboss wood hearts with red, white, and pink embossing powder and sprinkle it with silver glitter. And then affix them on tags made from handmade paper. Last week I embossed 5 of them and it took me forever. I figured at that rate, it would take me past March to finish all 20 cards. So anyways, I changed my idea and decided to go with something a little simpler. I should be done in a couple of days or maybe earlier.

For some reason, I keep thinking about buying a new camera. I do love my Nikon 5700, but it is a bit big, and somewhat frustrating to use. I really had fun with my old Canon Digital Elph, PowerShot S100, but it is so outdated and both batteries just die instantly. It was so easy to use and tiny. I found myself looking at digital camera reviews this morning. The Nikon takes beautiful pictures, but there are some many great compact cameras out there. Plus, it is inconvenient to carry the big camera around. I would still love to use it for take close ups and portraits, or I can sale it and use the money to purchase a new camera. Also, my birthday is coming up in a couple of months, so I can wish for a new one.

I have to do some more reading today and ponder an answer for our discussion question this week: In what ways are or were libraries microcosms of larger society?

Happy weekend!

I couldn’t come up with a better title. First off, I really haven’t had time to do anything blog related. I also started my Library Science class this week, so I am having to trying to get into the habit to wake up a couple hours before Brennan so I can read and study and as well as when he naps. Mostly, we have to read about 6-8 different articles per week and then have a discussion and then several major papers throughout the semester. So far, I am a bit overwhelmed because I have to get myself organized and to get into this sort of mindframe. I am looking forward to reading this one particular article; it’s about the damage that was done to Iraq’s Museums, Libraries, and Archaoelogical sites during the U.S. led wars on Iraq. I am currently in the middle of reading this other article written by Vannevar Bush, in 1945 about how science and technology was after the Cold War. All the advancements that was going on at that time. Things like photography, this machine, called the Voder (some person would strike it keys and it emitted recognizable speech) that was introduced at the World Fair, the possibilites of microfilm. Like the possibility of processing the Brittanica on Microfilm and how cheap it would be. And other things. Like I said it is all so overwhelming right now. I just have to get into the swing of things.

Besides that, I am trying to get crafty stuff done. I did finish thank you cards from Brennan’s b-day party, that I posted on CardsnCrafts. There is also this challenge that we are doing for Valentines. I am going to make 20 cards for Brennan’s class and I have two that I want to make for my man. One will be more classic and the other a little on the weird side. But you will have to check out CardsnCrafts in order to see them. And well Den, you will just have to wait until Valentines Day. BTW, I think a Vegas trip will have to be in order, if I am not going to go to the Big Apple in March. I think it would be great to visit Klaudia and JoJo before I get too big.

Oh last thing, I have decided to turn off comments. I don’t have time to spend dealing with the spammers, so this is the easiest way for me to deal with it. Anyways, I better finish reading my articles.

We celebrated Brennan’s 2nd birthday party with one of his girlfriends, Maddy, at Kid’s Con.cepts on Friday. I think the kids had a lot of fun. There were 7 kids total, which I think was the perfect size. Of course, Brennan was afraid of the cake and the actual singing of Happy Birthday. He mostly recieved clothes, some books, and a few toys. We had pizza and salad, fruit, chicken strips and pasta. They made this most amazing cake. It looked like the graphic and writing on the cake was printed on it. So anyways, the party was a great success.

Saturday was my orientation meeting for my MLIS program. It was a videocast between the two campuses, San Jose and Fullerton. I was surprised with the amount of students that showed up. There must have been at least 70 people at the Fullerton meeting and I am sure a lot more at San Jose, which is where the main campus is. My one class, Informations and Society starts next week. If you are interested, this is the class description:

A class designed to explore the complex social, historical, political, economic, electronic and technological developments that influence the impact of information on society. The mission, values and ethics of information professionals are analyzed also. This course provides a foundation for thinking critically about information professions and the roles of information professionals.

I know it sounds pretty boring, but I am very excited to start the program. Most of it is online, but there are two all day required class meetings, I think in April. I am thinking that I will have to spend about 15 to 20 hours a week to studying because the program is pretty intensive. There would be really no way that I could take 2 or 3 classes. I can’t believe that I am an official student again. Yay!

Earlier today, we went to a birthday party. It was a typical, sunny California day. Brennan basically enjoyed himself. He is basically a loner, but requires that either me or Den be next to him at all times. He isn’t the type of kid to just run everywhere and follow others. I guess he takes after his mom and dad. We aren’t the follower types either. Den is sort of the loner type. I am a little more social than him, but typically likes to be with myself. He ate cupcake for the first time and didn’t freak out this time with the happy birthday song. Okay, he mainly liked the tiny sugar sprinkles on the cupcake, but did end up eating two small ones.

Afterwards, we went to our favorite grocery store, Tra.der Joes because I was mainly craving Ikura (salmon eggs). Now we are just relaxing and enjoying the rest of our Sunday.

So far this 2nd pregnancy is passing by fairly easy. Yesterday was our 12 week appt. (bascially my 2nd appt.) I don’t know if there a title or whatever for the appt., or you just go by the weeks. So I guess I am just calling it by the even weeks. So my main questions to the dr. was basically when my due date was. My cycles tended to be longer than the normal 28 days, but then again they were never consistent. A few were longer and then a couple of months they were closer to the 28 days. I asked her if they generally go by the 28 day cycle? She said yes, unless they know that the cycle was longer. So she ended checking for a heartbeat. And first said hmm, maybe you are 10 weeks, and then she suddenly found the heartbeat. She was saying a bunch a stuff, I think mainly thinking out loud. Brennan was standing on a chair right next to me and hugging me. We were explaining to him that the sound was the heartbeat of the second baby. He seemed a little afraid. Then the dr. said, I think the ultrasound room is open. So we went over there and she did an ultrasound. She then stated that it seemed like the baby was more like 13 week, explaining that even though I had a somewhat longer cycle, that it still seemed like all the measurement were closer to the 28 day cycle. I was looking at the baby. I pointed to this big round blob thing and asked if that was the head. She said no, that the head was on the other side. LOL. But I did see a complete baby in there. Brennan was laying next to me, well actually he was laying on me and hugging me. We were telling him that it was the tv. He started to ask for Elmo. Silly kid. He was definitely a little frightened and was not too convinced that it was a television. He touched my belly and said baby, which he has been doing, since we told him that I was pregnant. He usually does the fart sounds on my belly with his mouth. Perhaps it is his way of communicating. S0 overall everything is looking good and the due date stands at July 25, 2005.

My next appt. will be the afp tests and then the next one after that will be the official ultrasound. I had assumed that the dr. was going to print me a copy of the ultrasound, but she didin’t. I had to ask her if she had a copy, but she said that she only made one copy because she only took pictures of certain parts of the baby. Darn. So I have to wait until March for the official ultrasound.

Oh just in case any of you are wondering why your comments doesn’t go through and you get a “spam word found” message it is because I sometimes have to activate this spam plugin called spam word block. The reason why it says that your comment is spam, is not because it is actually spam, but because I have to start enforcing a string length match that should reduce the effectiveness of the word blocking. Which means in laymens terms that I have to change something in the script or download a newer version, so that it is “less strict”. So basically any word you write, might pick up a spam word, like TITle, etc. You get the picture. I have been slow to boot in fixing this issue. But whenever I activate the plugin, I get no spam whatssoever. So it works for me for now. So I apologize if you have been trying to comment. I love comments, so I miss them, ya know!

We’re back from Hawaii. Overall, it was a wonderful vacation. I took millions of video footage and pictures, but I won’t be able to post them online because I am running out of server space. I will have to resolve that issue as soon as I have time. Anyways, I don’t think you can really have a bad time in Hawaii. I learned also that the locals pronounce it “Ha-vai-ee”. The “w” is pronounced as a “v”, unless it is at the beginning of the word. According to our tour guide Georgie, or “Georgeous” (her nickname) on the Luau, “w” doesn’t sound as pretty as the “v”.

This is a going to be a huge entry because I want to include everything while it is fresh in my mind. It will more rambly, but heck that is how I write. Plus it will soon be a distant memory, so I suppose it is better to get in as much details as possible.

Read the rest of this entry »

I can’t believe Brennan will be turning two on Thursday. No, I guess I can believe that he is. He sure acts like a two year old. But he is the sweetest, most handsome two year old that I know. He is growing way too fast. I can’t list all the words that he says because there are just too many. He is shy, but acts like a clown. He is very friendly once he warms up to the situation that he is in. He has a very loud voice. He loves to hum to his favorite songs and actually tries to sing with the words. He is just a beautiful boy and I can’t pictures life without him.

We ask him do you want a baby? He say yes. Do you want a girl? He doesn’t really say anything. Well sometimes he answers with yes. Do you want a boy? Yes. I ask him to talk to the baby. And then he makes fart sounds on my stomach.

So I guess now the combination birthday party is on. As it turns out it will be with another kid, instead of the other kid that I was talking about earlier. The parent’s don’t want it at Ad.ven.ture City because they feel it is too far away and that they think it will be raining for the rest of this month. So it is either going to be Ad.ven.ture Plex or Kids Con.cepts. I won’t be able to do any of the planning, which is fine with me, since we are going to be gone. I think it will be in the end of this month or maybe at the beginnning of February.

So anyways, Brennan mommy and daddy love you very much. We wish you a wonderful 2nd birthday!