IS MY BODY BETRAYING ME?!?

Have any of you experienced waves of nausea that vibrate up your body with each step you take?

Toph's Earthbending looks a lot like how my nausea feels

Well that's what I've been experiencing for the past 3 days.
Yesterday was the absolute WORST because while at work my insides instantly decided to go into REVERSE! I BARELY had enough time to run to the bathroom and I didn't have enough time to make it to a stall.

Let's just say I'm lucky they keep a garbage can out in the open...and that there was no one blocking it. And that no one saw that I totally MISSED the garbage and totally spewed exorcist style onto the wall...the shame!

SO EMBARRASSING.

And other than embarrassing, it was unprofessional, unattractive, and just plain unreasonable!

I feel like my body has turned traitor. It's doing outrageous things...like going into instant reverse without warning....getting ridiculously tired from mundane activities...and making certain foods just plain OFFENSIVE.

My husband chopped some green peppers for me to eat the other day and the only way I can describe their smell is...it smelled like those green peppers just wanted trouble! Like the sole purpose of their existence was to offend me.  It sounds RIDICULOUS, but that's how I felt. Like they and all their little peppery green buddies were out to get me, like they were a rude guys who barged in my house, spit on my sofa, and tried to beat me up.
I just really felt offended by their presence, their smell, their entire existence!

So...no green peppers for me. Even thinking about them makes me kind of mad.

Isn't that weird! My body is like....freaking me out!

My boobs are getting bigger. I've gained 2 lbs the last month. I'm still pretty hour-glassy... but soon it'll happen, I didn't even realize it until this week....

I WON'T HAVE AN HOURGLASS FIGURE ANYMORE!

I'LL HAVE A BUMP IN THE MIDDLE! I'LL BE AN APPLE! A LITTLE ROUND APPLE!

THAT'S CUTE AND ALL... BUT I ADORE MY FIGURE. HOW WOMANLY IT IS. HOW SHAPELY AND VOLUPTUOUS!!!!!

I'd just come into my own: realizing that I'm not meant to be 120lbs and starving, but a goddess of sensuality! And now...I'll be a chocolaty cream-puff in 8 months. Probably 6!


And I guess that's ok right?

I'm heading towards another kind of "womanly-ness".

With lush breasts

A ripe stomach full of a love-made life

Glowing skin and long coiling dark curls (I'm hoping, although I've had 3 pimples this past week!)

I guess this is just what happens.

My Sicilian doesn't really understand: Just because Millions of women for Millions of years have been pregnant and given birth, doesn't mean that it's just old hat to me! It's new! And it's not just run of the mill to be nauseaus, and throwup at a moment's notice! No matter how many relatives calmly tell me it is! Does no one sympathize???!!!

I guess I DO want a pity party, I want everyone to put on sad little paper hats, and crowd around me, and cry about how much of a wonderful trooper I am.  Wow! I never knew I was so bratty! At least I still have enough composure to see that.)


(munch munch munch...these ginger chew's really help!)

Oh! I wanted to tell all the other expecting moms...or loved ones of those expecting, or people expecting moms have barfed all over by mistake while trying to reach the toilet:

These ginger chews really help with nausea!

Ginger Chews

I've popped one when I felt the nausea coming on and they really help (totally not affiliated with them and not paid to say this).


Before we bought them, I admit I was a little afraid to eat...projectile vomiting across the room and hitting a wall will do that to a girl. But I've safely been able to nibble here and there (after my notoriously nauseated 11am-12.30pm time)!


Have any of you suffered from nausea...pregnancy related or otherwise? Have any tips?????

On being Pregnant (first trimester)

Hot Milk Lingerie

 (I don't really like this picture that much, but I wanted something and I'm too tired to keep looking!)

Hello There~*~*

So I'm pregnant! with child! carrying! so many wonderful words to describe the miracle that's happening inside me right now.

I still have a hard time believing that I'm pregnant so I often talk to my tiny baby, or make up little songs about what it's probably doing :)



Other than making up songs, I've noticed that I'm tired a lot of the time and I get hungry much more often. But I try to have healthy snacks of almonds, cheese, as well as organic veggies and fruit.

I've also noticed that my BREASTS are REALLY SORE. They usually get sore during my womanly time, but now they're like EXTREMELY TENDER! I also have cramps on and off sometimes, not like during my womanly time, because those are SEVERE, these are more just...on again off again little feelings. 

I'm also enjoying talking to our baby and referring to my Sicilian as "Daddy": saying "I wonder what Daddy will want for dinner" or "I wonder what Daddy is working on right now. I'm very excited for this entire process. Maybe not the birthing so much, seems scary, hard, and very painful. But, I've even started researching trying to have a positive birthing experience, so I'm reading this book:

Learn More

Diary of a Midwife: The Power of Positive Childbearing
One of many by the way.

I'll tell you more about it after I've read more.


Ps. I'm having a hard time finding pictures I like that really illustrate the mood I'm trying to convey, so I think I'm going to start illustrating this blog myself! After searching for so long, I'm tired. Goodnight. Wow, I stayed up till 9.15pm...I think that's a record. I've been conking out at 8 o'clock!

~*Imogen~*

Big News on the Home Front~*~

Pregnancy & Newborn Magazine

~*My Husband and I found out we are expecting our first child!~*

Wow. We just told our families, so it feels a bit more real. But Wow. We've talked about children since we first started dating, more than 8 years ago. We both knew we wanted a lot of children and that we didn't want to be much older when we had our first child....but WOW.

This is such an unexpected blessing...I really don't know what to say.

I just pray that my body is healthy and strong enough to support and carry our child. I hope the Lord will bless us with a healthy baby.

I'm just stunned.

And I'm also stunned at how much more passionate I feel about homesteading. We've only bought organic food since discovering our pregnancy. It feels great to eat things that are good for the baby. I'm tired now, so I'll lay down.

Although our baby is only 4-5 weeks old (by convention) my Sicilian's Aunt suggested we start singing to him/her and reading him/her stories. We're starting tonight!


Are any of my readers out there parents? or parents-to-be?

~*Imogen~*~

Holly & Hef

Watch this clip, and you will see two people who are still in love...

  Holly & Hef

Heff: I've lived in fantasy too long, I don't know what to do....Holly: I love you, but you really hurt me

 (((That's what I think their eyes are saying)))

I admit it: I really enjoyed watching "The Girls Next Door." It was fun, sexy, young, and full of girl debauchery. I just thought it was cute. I loved watching the dynamics between the women, being inspired by their cute outfits, and just joining them on their adventures (to Alaska, Europe, California!)

 I thought the relationship between Holly and Heff was a little fake at times, but at others, it seemed as though they did really love each other.

Watching this snippet made me sad...I hope things work out for them.

I know this is so RANDOM! But I do write about my random thoughts and things I like too. :)

~*~*Imogen~*~*

ps. Big news on the home-front! Hope you're ready!

I like watching my husband shower....

It's blatant voyeurism, and I admit it freely.

He doesn't seem to mind, he actually basks in his nakedness, finding a freedom and a glory that is just impossible when he's fully clothed. Even if I'm not watching him, he takes pleasure in running out of the shower or bedroom, buck-naked and doing some sort of primal "man dance" he's created in order for me to squeal in delight.

I watch him openly...coming into the bathroom while he showers...under the pretense of telling him something that can't wait till he's done. But he just smiles and soaps up slowly and does a careful rendition of his "man-dance" so he doesn't fall and bust his head in our slippery shower.

And I stare and smile, since my husband is quite beautiful, and quite different than me: with his muscular form and his smooth, milk-white skin that is so different than my chestnut brown.  Perhaps, most of all I love his "you're looking at me!" water soaked smile.

I also like watching him covertly...when he doesn't realize I'm there. 
I like hearing him sing...hearing him make up little songs...made up entirely of my name...and I like hearing him beatbox...which is the twitch-like hobby he engages in whenever he's transitioning from one activity to another. It's very cute to hear him, and I wonder: Where did he learn this?

It gives me a secret thrill to peek through the slightly cracked door, that I know he leaves open, hoping I'll take a peek. It's not like Marcel Duchamp's "Etant donne"...with it's suggested violence....even though I did like that piece.  Seeing someone else naked...just isn't the same...it's like porn. Porn has it's place...in adolescence...or when you want something spicy, or when you want to learn more love moves...

But watching my husband shower is intimate beyond words...that I'm allowed in his steam filled bubble, while he's at his most vulnerable...where he's comfortable to just let me in...is very special to me.

Last night he called, in the middle of one of his made up songs: "Why don't you come in? You know I miss you most when I shower...."

I came in and kissed him, then went into the kitchen.

Gotta keep him guessing (wink)

~*~*~Imogen~*~*~

Enchanted Garden: Our Spring 2011

Alright, so I've planned our Enchanted Garden!

It was a bit of hard work and it took a LOT of imagination, but I think it's done. It was also quite fun! Watching my little Chia garden grow, I've learned that it does take a while for things to grow. But maybe that makes you appreciate them all the more. I also bit into an apple we bought from the grocery store...and it tasted like some identifiable medicine...it was promptly chucked into the garden and reaffirmed my desire to have a homestead.

Something that really helped me plan our garden was a resource over at Mother Earth News!

The great people over at motherearthnews.com have developed a garden planner! And let me tell you, it was ever so helpful in conceptualizing our little space! I input the dimensions of our patio....then selected the plants I wanted (after prodding my Sicilian for his input), and presto-changeo, my garden appeared.

The program seems to be a very garden-y excel, but better. It's also full of helpful info, so go ahead and try it out! It's free for 30 days.

Mother Earth News Garden Planner

Here's what my garden looks like, using the Mother Earth News planner:

Mother Earth News Garden Planner

We're planning on having:

Tomatoes
Cucumbers
Green Beans
Strawberries
Raspberries
Peppers
and some Herbs!

I was going to add Mint, but we have enough Mint tea bags to last a year or more....



As you can see, we don't have very much room for our enchanted, so things look a bit cramped.

(Oh! hopefully I'll be able to add a few statues: I'd really love it to be Secret Garden-esque!)

But the garden planner was REALLY helpful because I don't know much about gardening, and when you choose a fruit or vegetable to plant, a little screen pops up and tells you all about that particular plant.

It was QUITE Helpful.

So here's my artist's rendering of what our garden will look like to a passerby:

 

We'll have to use containers since we don't have any actual soil.  My husband built us two wooden containers, so we'll probably use those for something. Then we may but buy some plastic tubs, or go to a couple thrift stores and find things that can be re-purposed. 

I THINK WE'LL RE-PURPOSE THINGS, BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT COOL PEOPLE DO. 

I'm actually thinking of starting some of the plants FROM SEED right now. Things are going really well with my Chia Herb Garden. I'm so happy! So I'm thinking: why not get started! 

But I think I'll hold off a bit. I need to finish re-decorating our flat...

We moved right before our wedding. My husband was then away for a week doing research. We painted the bedroom an erotic dark purple (so we slept in the living room for awhile since it took FOREVER to paint). Then we got married. Then we went to Europe for a couple weeks. Then it was Christmas and we were away visiting. It's just been one thing after another. 

So now we have time enough to finish transitioning from our kind of "college style" to the more elegant gilded shabby chic, genuine European, eccentric library love nest of our dreams. It's taken quite awhile to get my Sicilian to let go of his milkcrate bookshelves and other such stuff. And I'm also downsizing quite a bit. Just throwing out lots of old papers and such. Our home is really coming together, it's just taking FOREVER. But I don't  mind...better to do it right.

I think that's why I won't start from seed right now...need to finish polishing our home's organizational capacity. Plus we grew from seed last year...and I think buying plant-lings will be really fun!

Super tangent....

But there's our garden, in all it's hypothetical glory!

I'm getting to that homestead! One seedling at a time!

*~*~*Imogen~*~*~*

Sprouting Pods!

Cool!

These look kinda gross

Wow

"o my g'ness!"- Shirley Temple

My plants have sprouted!!!!! Or shoots! Or whatever these amorphous lil stalks are called!

They're beautiful! ahem...I'd noticed 2 days ago, that one of the pots had little sprouts coming out of a slimy mass of plant-eggs (seeds) on the top of the chia-soil. They looked WAY GROSS, but boy was I excited! I ran over to them, and opened the blinds a bit, and talked to them a bit, then tried to give them a bit of water, but in my excitement ended up pouring water all over my table...nice....

But today I noticed that ALL THREE POTS have little shoots growing out of them! I'm so happy and so proud! Even though I really didn't do anything, it's the seeds and God and Nature or Nature-God! I'm so happy (smiley face). I feel good because I gave the little seeds and environment in which to grow and I didn't do anything super-wrong so they are thriving.

I keep them each covered in a plastic baggie, as per the suggestion of the Chia Pet authorities. But today, I was so happy and proud of them, I took their baggies off and breathed on them a bit. I hope I didn't have death-breath or anything like that...I hope they won't shrivel up now. They did seem a little out of it when I put the baggies back on. I hope they're ok.....(now I'm thinking of running to check on my little shoots).

We keep the heat kind of low in our flat (68-when we're not home & at night; 70-73 when we're awake and at home). That's as low as I can go, even though my Sicilian Man keeps telling me to turn it down further; he grew up in the northern hemisphere and his father kept the house at 50 during the winter....um...brrrrrr. No way dude. I seriously like cry when he tries to lower it, I'm a bit of a weather wuss...

So anyways, since our heat is low, I get worried about my little guys. This must be what a parent feels like...maybe....probably not.

So there's my Victory Garden! Hooray! I'm really happy! I hope they'll keep thriving.

I'll post my garden plans next!

~*Imogen~*~*