Pressure

My waist measured at 30.5" last night.

Clothes
On Saturday, my clogging slacks were too tight, though I managed to wear them through the performance. If I'm going to perform again in two weeks, I'm definitely going to have to do something different for my slacks. The slacks I'm wearing today are also on the tight size--and they are the same brand and a size larger than the slacks I wore on Saturday.

Saturday afternoon and Sunday, I pulled out a pair of slacks that were loaned to me by Lindsay. She wanted to share some of her maternity clothes with me. I was very pleasantly surprised to find a pair of slacks that were actually long enough in the box! (Lindsay is a good 3" or so shorter than me, but she explained on Sunday that there were some clothes in the box from a taller cousin or aunt.) The slacks are designed sit on my hips, which feels odd to me, and they are still a touch on the loose side. The waist band needs to be re-sewn to tack it back down in a number of places. Also, one of the hems at the bottom is very worn out and frayed--whoever wore the pants previously obviously spent time walking on the hem. But Rachel noted that when I wear the slacks they "break once" making them formal length. (A second break would make them casual length. Have I ever had a pair of pants that broke more than once??)

I can tell my pile of "too small" clothes is going to start growing quickly now.

Preparations
Friends have been reminding me that I'm almost half-way through. They are appalled to hear that I've done nothing to prepare yet, including not even registering for baby items. Beta's room is still piled full of boxes and other random items from the move. (But the living room is largely cleared out! Thank you, Jesse!!!)

I think part of my problem is feeling overwhelmed and not knowing where to start. Crib? Changing table? Stroller? Car seat? Paint? Curtains? Sheets? Theme? Clothes (boy or girl?)? Diapers? Bottles? Toys? Blankets? Diaper bag?

And that's only the baby part of my life. At work, I'm still trying to keep the library going with myself as the only full-time person. Others above me would like to know what I plan to do after Beta arrives, so they can be planning for hiring for the library. I'm more worried about making it through this week and this semester.

In clogging, we are coming up on the busy performance season. Since I'm the contact person for our venues, that means I'm getting extra calls and e-mails working out dates and details of performances.

At church, my participation in extra activities has been at a minimum. I help with the nursery once a month, but that generally doesn't require preparation time. I'm also still involved with Awana, but at this point in the year, it is pretty routine and doesn't require a lot of work outside of the time at Awana. Though come May, I'll have to do a lot of double-checking on my records and make sure that all of the Sparks get the right awards at the final ceremony and have their name in the program properly. I'll have to decide whether I want to try to keep working with Awana after the arrival of Beta.

Baby Shower
Rachel has offered to host a baby shower for me. I'm very thankful and appreciative of her support and help in this!! I'm hoping that a shower will be a great motivator for getting me started in preparing for the baby. Unfortunately, at the moment, it means more work for me, as she needs a list of names and addresses for everyone that is to be invited to the shower and it puts something of a deadline on getting a baby registry put together so that people know what we want and need. (Somehow, asking for "everything" just doesn't seem to be very helpful for people shopping.)


Since I'm supposed to be working right now, I'd best get back to that.