This is the world's largest flower bouquet. Tuesday was my last working day before my maternity leave. On Monday we had a full meeting day with a dinner event - the whole management team was there about 40 people, since our CEO and some of the Corporate officers were in from Milwaukee. I was not sure if I should go, but decided in the end to show up and maybe leave early. It was only right before desert that I figured out the whole thing was actually a going away party for me. Oh my. Our finance VP and our CEO gave speeches for me (we have that habit). I was really caught by surprise. And then I needed to make a speech. People always tell me I am good at it, but I don't think so and also I really hate it. And especially when I am surprised and can't prepare. So I started babbling about the baby and that I will be back in January and how much I enjoyed working with all of them. My colleague said it was ok, but I felt really like hit by a truck. All in all it was a nice surprise though. And did I mention I love flowers?
This came in the mail the other day. It is a package we have to take to the hospital when I will give birth to my baby. It contains all the stuff to collect our cord blood. It will be frozen and saved for 30 years or so. In case the baby will get a disease, we can probably use the stem cells from it to help her. I discussed this with a lot of people, especially the pregnant ones around me. I am really surprised about how few people consider doing something like this. It is true that doctors are at the beginning of a long research path with it, and people are not sure for what it can be used. And if you want to keep it for yourself, it is not cheap either. For us it was not a question though - it is like a kind of insurance you take. You never know if you will need it, but if you don't have it and need it, you will regret. We took a combined option of saving and donating it. Means we pay for it and will keep it for ourselves. At the same time the data are put into a donation database and if somebody needs it, we can decide to give it to the person and will get all our money back. And if you don't want to do it, you can still donate it, otherwise the cord / blood is thrown away after the birth. And they say that there will be no impact on mom and baby, only that the cord is cut a bit earlier. But we will be fine with that if we can save somebody's life. Do you have any experience with it? Would you do it?
Here is what I have been busy with (and by the way, still will be busy with for the next few weeks). The carpet puzzle and everything related to it. This is just an example - wodden stairs that I need to paint around - so I had to cut pieces of felt to cover them, which took litterally a couple of hours. I put one layer of paint on yesterday, but could not motivate me to do the second one today. It's sunday and I need a break.
I have a couple more pictures from Greece and the animals we saw there. Here are just a few. This one is a dragonfly that sat down on our beach chair for about a half hour at least - he pretty much enjoyed sunbathing too.
This is a cicada we spotted one night. Don't get me wrong - I am pretty scared of all those guys that fly around in an "uncontrolled" way (that's how I call it when it is impossible to predict where they will sit next). But I really admire the strange beauty of those little ones.
Here is my new best friend - a nursing pillow I just bought. Although the nursing part is still two months away from now, this thing is releaving my backpain a lot. I would even recommend it if you are not pregnant. Tonight we will attend the second time of our birth prep class - where I will see my future best friends again - the other mum's to be that know nobody and nothing of this "new-baby-world" and that are as eager as me to find some new people to hang out with during the day - as work is no longer number 1 on our lists.
We have these wild strawberries in our garden and there were really a lot of them this year. They are sweeter than any others I ever tasted. Unfortunately they are almost gone - some of the garden animals like them pretty much as well.
How come I can get up at 6 in the morning and work 15 hour days and if I sleep in a bit, I feel my legs are too heavy to walk upstairs? I have been away from my blog for a bit for no special reason - we went to Noah's baptism on saturday, sunday was a real sleepy day and yesterday I visited a friend of mine who just got her baby. Although the girl is still the size she was at her birthday, she seems really tall to me - because I cannot imagine one of this size sitting in my own belly. Hopefully not heavier - hers was about 6 pounds and Nick was 9 when he was born...
I finished this flower necklace which looks pretty simple on the picture but it actually looks quite nice on my neck. I attached the purple plastic flowers and phoenix stones with little wire swirls - I actually don't remember when I last used purchased headpins - those here are too easy to make.
On saturday my sister came by our house and we had a barbecue. It started pouring down as soon as we had the BBQ lit, but it worked out since our garden is more similar to a tangly forest than anything else - I guess we need to cut the trees and bushes - but on saturday it helped protect from the rain. My sister found the necklace a bit too fancy for her to wear - so she asked me to make a more simple one. Good for me, since I really like it and don't need to make another one for me to keep.
In the meantime Knoedel is having another snack. She does not like to be pet, but loves to crawl under our blankets and dig and play tunnel system.
This is a cicada we spotted one night. Don't get me wrong - I am pretty scared of all those guys that fly around in an "uncontrolled" way (that's how I call it when it is impossible to predict where they will sit next). But I really admire the strange beauty of those little ones.
