23 Weeks

It’s been about a month since my last picture update.

I’ve gotten significantly more huge since my last picture - not only my belly, but my ass as well!

I can’t imagine growing any bigger - I still have four months to go! I’m huge! Call me Shamu!

However, this picture is a bit deceiving. My medium sized pregnancy pants were feeling a big snug, so I wore the large ones that Chariya had given to me when going to work (where this picture is taken). Bad idea! I was in such a hurry to leave, I didn’t realize that the pants were REALLY big on me. I was pulling them up all day! So this picture isn’t really representative of how big my ass is right now. Well, just a little.

Happy New Year Everyone!

Tags: Pictures by Yano
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Don’t remember where I got this one, but it was interesting…

Go to your Calendar and find the first entry for each month of 2005. Post the first line of each entry, and that’s your “Year In Review”.

January: Hello 2005!!! With the new year, comes a new layout. [Ahh, how I love doing those layouts…]

February: Since I’ve been working my ass off at work over the last weeks, I haven’t had much time to myself (i.e. surf the internet), so usually I just do it at home. [Referring to how I lost my internet for a night…]

March: I’m so pitiful. [I dunno, I think I start every post with that. But in this case, I was referring to how I run Ten on Tuesday and I never post it on my own site]

April: Has anyone watched the latest ‘Bachelor’? [I did, for the whole season. I’m a loser.]

May: For those of you that enjoyed the original ‘Virtual Bartender’, there’s a new version out, with twice the fun. [Something for the guys]

June: Just wanted to let y’all know that a new round of trivia starts today! Everyone has a clean slate and a chance to be in the top ten for the next month. [Ahh, Trivia, there are some people who are really obsessed over that *cough*RedpacandNoelle*cough*

July: I was discussing the temperature in the office with a coworker, and I asked him if he had T-H-O’s. He had no idea what I was talking about. [Don’t know what it is? Look it up!]

August: I’m off to New York City! [My job is 90% going to crappy places, 10% going to places as cool as NYC.]

September: With all this talk of the company being bought out (again) another question springs to mind. [With my company being sold again, I ponder what’s going to happen to our Chicago office. So far, we’re still here.]

October: I’m traveling for the first time in more than a month. [After a month hiatus, travel starts heating up again]

November: Greetings from Charleston, West Virginia! [My first time in West Virginia]

December: I got back yesterday at midnight from a horrendous trip back home from West Virginia. [How funny, it’s almost like I spent the whole month in WV, but I didn’t]

——————————–

Actually, I wanted to write a ‘real’ year in review as well.

My biggest challenge this year was work - as you may know, in 2004 my company was bought by a competitor, and more than half of our workforce was let go. Fortunately, I was kept on. But there were so many things that I needed to adjust to, it was so different working for a larger company where they had a completely different way of life than what I was used to. From little things to filling in a weekly timesheet (this was electronic where client time was itemized, before it was just a piece of paper where I just put 8s the whole week since overtime didn’t really count) to getting 10x more emails a day, it was a hard adjustment.

Luckily, I had some great coworkers that went through it with me, and even though they didn’t have the same job I did, they were there with me to listen to me complain and whine about how I hate change.

I had a new job title and new duties that had me away from home much more than I was with my previous title. I had to learn things fast and learn a lot on my own. There were times I was in a panic because I didn’t know what to do. But in the end, I was able to find the strength in myself to figure things out on my own and each day give myself a little more confidence in what I was doing. Figuring out a problem that has been stumping you for a long time is the best feeling!

However, my company was once again bought out by an even larger competitor and once again, I have a new job title. The cycle never ends!

Home life has been good for the most part, but with some challenges. Dave and I had been trying to have a baby, but with my travel schedule and his resident schedule, it was hard to make that happen. I also felt bad that I was away all the time, so he was stuck with a majority of the home duties. The rest of my family life has been a whirlwind of emotion. As I’ve said before, nothing will be the same now that my mother, the glue that kept us all together, is gone. Drama after drama happened, using up my already low emotional resources. But in the end, we’re all still here together, we’re all still talking, more or less, and we’re all together for the holidays. But it’s been a challenge keeping everything together.

This has also been the year for life changes, not only for me and Dave (our lives haven’t changed that much yet!) but also for friends. My good friends Jen and Mike came back from a year in China, with a new baby in tow. My cousin Trully had a baby, as did our friends Manny and Rachel. It’s so odd to see this baby boom happen, and to see my friends having babies. It seems just like yesterday we were out at the clubs together getting trashed, dancing on platforms and not remembering anything we did the night before. Now they’re parents and we stay home and play board games and have dinner parties. How life changes!

To tell the truth, though, I really have nothing to complain about. Life is good, and I’m happy. I’m surrounded by people I love and even though that occasional drama comes in, we always deal with it together. I know some people would kill to lead the life I lead and that I’m fortunate to have what I have.

2005 was good.

2006, now THAT’S something that’s going to be interesting, don’t you think?

Tags: Daily by Yano
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Got this from Melanie:

1. What did you do in 2005 that you’d never done before? Got pregnant
2. Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? No, and I’ll make the same ones for next year

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Two friends had babies, and my cousin had a baby. It was quite a baby boom!
4. Did anyone close to you die? My aunt.
5. What countries did you visit? Aruba - which is a beautiful country and virtually crime free, it’s gotten a bad rep lately but the people there are awesome.
6. What would you like to have in 2006 that you lacked in 2005? A baby!
7. What date from 2005 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? The day I had my first ultrasound, and I knew, without question, that I was going to have a baby

8. What was your biggest success? Getting pregnant
9. What was your biggest failure? Hmm, not being able to manage my debt too well, I’m still swimming in credit card debt
10. Did you suffer illness or injury? I stayed away from illness and injury this year, except for that morning sickness thing
11. What was the best thing you bought? A projector for the basement
12. Whose behavior merited celebration? Fatima - she got a job!!!

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? I’m not naming names, but she’s going to have to work really hard for any of us to trust her again. She knows who she is.
14. Where did most of your money go? Mortgage, comics, and I have no idea where else, but it’s going somewhere!
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? The baby! Also, I always get excited about the annual comic book convention. What can I say, I’m a geek!
16. What song(s) will always remind you of 2005? ‘Hollaback Girl’, ‘Gold Digger’
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

i. happier or sadder? Happier!!!

ii. thinner or fatter? 20 lbs fatter!

iii. richer or poorer? Broke, baby!

18. What do you wish you’d done more of? Saving money
19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Doing absolutely nothing constructive with my time

20. How will you be spending Christmas? We spent it with family at Maui’s house
22. Did you fall in love in 2005? I fall in love every day with my husband. Okay, I just threw up a little.
23. How many one-night stands? none
24. What was your favorite TV program? ‘Lost’, and only ‘Lost’, OK fine, ‘My Names is Earl’ gets an honorable mention
25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? No, I still hate the same people. I also hate Bush more and more every day.

26. What was the best book you read? David Sedaris: “Me Talk Pretty One Day”
27. What were your greatest musical discoveries? Jack Johnson, it’s smooth music to chill to
28. What did you want and get? A raise. It was a tiny tiny tiny one, but we hadn’t gotten raises in such a long time it was nice to get
30. What was your favorite film(s) of this year? Batman Begins, Sin City, Garden State, the Chronicles of Narnia, uh, can’t remember any more
31. What did you do on your birthday this year ? Had a birthday party, don’t remember much about it

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Sharing it with my mom.
33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2004? Casual
34. What kept you sane? The internet - it’s my fantasy world that I retreat into
35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and Jessica Alba. Hotness.
36. What political issue stirred you the most? Hurricane Katrina and the the political blame game afterwards

37. Who did you miss? My mom.
38. Who was the best new person you met? Hmm, I don’t think I’ve met many new people this year. I’d have to say one of my clients, Rita. She’s freakin’ awesome and she’s always emailing me about how the pregnancy’s going and her and her coworkers always take me out to awesome places when I’m out there working
39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2005: Things will happen if you keep on working on them.
40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
“Dont cha wish your girlfriend was hot like me
Dont cha wish your girlfriend was a freak like me
Dont cha, dont cha
Dont cha wish your girlfriend was raw like me
Dont cha wish your girlfriend was fun like me
Dont cha, dont cha ”

HA! Just kidding. Right now I’m about as hot as the North Pole. I think I’m starting to get cankles!

Tags: Lists by Yano
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I’ve been planning on posting this picture of my Christmas tree, but I’ve been too lazy to download it off my camera.

It’s fun to get a real tree, all my life we’d had the same plastic tree. But Dave had always loved real trees (his family would sometimes get them). But it’s so hard picking “the tree”, finding a tree that’s big enough, that has enough coverage, that looks even.

Last year, we had a nice tree, but when the time came to throw it away it was so prickly! Dave and I almost cried because the needles hurt so much. This year, we made sure to ask for a non-prickly tree, and we got a balsam fir. So much softer!

We’ve got about 3 years of ornaments that we’ve accumulated, most from Target and K-Mart (I never knew that nice ornaments could be so expensive!) and leftovers from his parents.

I love lights, so I went a little crazy stringing the lights on. There’s a lot. We also managed to put on every single ornament we own on that tree. So the tree looks a bit busy and overcrowded. But hey, it looks good! We may try a different tactic next year, though.

Oh, and we named this tree “Christmas Ballsy”. I have no idea why.

Tags: Pictures by Yano
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Here’s a pic I stole from Melanie, it’s a little out of focus, but I thought it was cute…

Tags: Pictures by Yano
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Whew, I’ve been so tired lately and so busy cleaning up that I haven’t had time to post my post-Christmas recap.

Christmas Eve day was a blur to me, I was baking, cooking, and wrapping at the same time. I needed to get everything done before I went to Dave’s parents’ place for dinner. I didn’t finish wrapping, and decided to come back after dinner and before going to Maui’s for my family Christmas.

Dave’s family celebrates Christmas so differently than we do. It’s pretty much just his family eating dinner together, then opening gifts. This year, my immediate family came along, so there was a bit more to do. We watched a couple hours of TNT’s 24 hour “A Christmas Story” marathon and ate some good food. Sharing Christmas was never something I thought about when I got married. I love spending the holidays with my super extended family, starting off with having a big potluck dinner on Christmas Eve, going to midnight mass together, taking family pictures by the tree, waiting for ‘Santa’ to hand out presents and everyone opening up presents at the same time. But since I’ve gotten married, I’ve had to compromise and do Dave’s thing first, then meet up with the family for the gift giving afterwards. It’s not the same! But hey, Dave’s making the same sacrifice, too, not spending all of Christmas night with his family. It’s not that I don’t enjoy spending the holidays with his family, they’re great people, it’s just that a lot of the magic and tradition which made me love this holiday is gone. *sigh*

After Dave’s parents’, we stopped by home to wrap presents. I knew that my family would all be attending midnight mass (we had attended an earlier mass) that I’d have some time to finish up my stuff. However, when I called my sister, she had said that mass was at 10:30pm, and they would all be coming back soon. I told her to stall them from opening presents until I got there and started wrapping like a maniac.

We finally got all the presents into the car, and I was a bit grumpy after Dave told me that it wouldn’t be a big deal if we missed the present opening. (to which I snapped, “But that IS Christmas to me!”)

We got to Maui’s, and everyone was happy that we were there, they had been waiting for us. We took our family picture, and then Santa went to work handing out the presents.

Now to be under the age of 10 in my family is gold, you know that pretty much every person who walks through the door got you presents. So all the little kids were all giddy with their piles and piles of presents. As you get older, that pile of presents diminishes, to the point where the older kids (I still call my generation kids) sit there at attention, hoping and praying that Santa will call their name. Of course, we’ve all ensured that everyone gets a present - all the cousins do a grab bag every year. But really, once we hit that age, the only presents we could hope for are from our grab bag person, our parents or our siblings.

Present opening time is always the best, because we wait until every present is handed out, then open the presents in a flurry of bows and wrapping paper.

I got some pretty good stuff, ranging from the “Serenity” DVD to Nike baby booties for Yano Jr. to a pasta bowl set to the full Buffy the Vampire Slayer Chosen collection. A pretty good haul this year!

Dave got some great stuff as well, scoring some new snowboarding goggles, an armstrap for his iPod Nano, and a baseball mitt and ball for Yano Jr.

Once the presents were over, it was time to go to the basement and lounge around, watching DVD’s and playing games til dawn. We watched “The Family Guy” and “The Warriors” and played some poker (I lost $5). I could barely stay awake, so I ended up crashing at around 4:30am.

We all slept in the basement, some on the hideaway bed, me on the couch, some people on the floor, some people on chairs. I’m sure it’s an interesting site to see, a bunch of grown people curled up on a floor sleeping!

Christmas day I was in and out of consciousness, half aware of what was going on around me. It was so nice to lounge around and sleep in for a day! We watched more movies, ate more food, and slept some more. It was perfect.

So even though I missed a lot of my favorite parts of Christmas, it was still great to be with family for the holidays.

I’d have pictures, but they’re loaded on my crappy desktop at home…maybe tomorrow!

Hope everyone had a great holiday!

Tags: Daily by Yano
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Here’s my New Years Resolutions list for this year:

1) Clean out my fish tank more often
2) Clean out my closets
3) Sort out my old 35mm pictures
4) Print out pictures and put them in all the empty picture frames we have
5) Submit my expenses and time sheets on time at work
6) Pay more attention to websites that I work on that aren’t mine
7) Get more exercise Stop shopping so much
9) Make CD’s of pictures I’ve taken at weddings and give them to the couples
10) Plant my garden early

After making this list, I checked out my resolution list from last year. Sadly, a lot of the things are the same. I’ve made no progress this year!

1) Answer my phone when people call - No, and I’ve missed a couple important phone calls!
2) Finish at least one photo gallery - Well, I did start a flickr account, so maybe this one counts
3) Submit my expenses on time - Nope!
4) Take more pictures - No, haven’t had the time!
5) Print OUT pictures - Nope!
6) Work out (shut up, people at work)- Nope!
7) Reply to emails - Nope! Manage my Outlook calendar at work - Nope!
9) Clean my fish tank more regularly - As you could see from the list above, nope!
10) Save money - Nope!

I hang my head in shame. I’m going to try harder next year…really, I am!!!

Tags: Weeklies by Yano
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Just a real quick Merry Christmas to you all! Here’s a pic of baby Yano at 22 weeks as a little Christmas gift to you…

Tags: Daily by Yano
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Christmas is always here, and there’s still so much I need to do!!! However, I feel so much more prepared than in previous years, and not as stressed out because this year I’m not hosting our family Christmas party.

But there’s still a lot to do:

- Finish up my holiday cards (Happily, I’ve sent out 95% of them. They are holiday cards because people can expect to get them sometime during the holiday season, that is, before Jan. 1st)

- Make lasagna for the annual Christmas party

- Make sugar cookies for the annual Christmas party. Debating on frosting them or not

- Wrap presents

- Clean out the fish tank

- Buy a couple more presents

Hmm…I think that’s all. The list looks so small, but it feels like its going to be a lot of work!!!

I should get to it! Bye!

Tags: Daily by Yano
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Here’s a fun game to play - see how long you can last:

http://www.iol.ie/~dluby/escape.htm

OK, I’m lying. It isn’t fun. It’s addicting. Addicting until you realize that you’re going to have a heart attack because your heartrate is going so fast because you’re so nervous you’re going to fail.

But that’s kinda fun, isn’t it?

http://www.iol.ie/~dluby/escape.htm

I got up to 21.51 seconds before I realized I was holding my breath the whole time and needed to take a break.

How long can you last?

Tags: Cool Link by Yano
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