Back to work!

Hello again from sunny San Diego (yes, I finally made it out of that blasted San Francisco airport and home to B!),

Just a quick post to tell you that as of next week you won't be hearing from me as often. I'll have a job!

After a number of weeks of waiting, something has finally come through with the IPJ! My main job will be to design and plan a 3-day Festival of the Arts to celebrate the 2009 Women PeaceMakers when they come next fall, to replace the annual Women PeaceMakers conference that we no longer have funding for this year (due to this lovely economy). It's a 6 week position (after the Arts Festival they have a few other WPM-related jobs for me), taking me half way through April when I'll probably be very ready for a couple weeks off before the little one arrives.

Speaking of the little one, she's doing very well. She enjoyed Victoria, if her very enthusiastic and nearly constant movement was anything to judge by. Though another explanation would be that she was restless without her dad's soothing touch around (Brent's warm hands seem to have an instant quieting effect on her - I just hope it lasts out of utero too!).

Week: 29, as of today only 74 days to go till EDD!

Size: my belly is still 40cm at its widest, but its roundness is extending upwards now. My weight on the other hand, seems to be jumping by leaps and bounds! Our daughter is now 15 inches long and weighs 2lb 12 oz. (I just wish that accounted for the extra 4lbs I gained in 10 days!).

This week's pregnancy complaint: It's taken a while, but I think I have to say I'm finally starting to feel my size! Getting up and down from the couch or worse, our bed (which is on the floor) has started to require extra effort, and bending over has become a bit uncomfortable. We're not yet at the can't-see-my-toes phase, but I hear it's only a matter of time!

Pregnancy news this week: Brent and I went to a newborn care class on Tuesday night. Little of the information provided was new, but it was good for Brent to try diapering and swaddling and I learned a new sideways football hold that is supposed to do wonders for calming a fussy baby. Though the real highlight came after the class... Brent and I had wolfed down a light dinner before going to the night class and at 9:30pm were feeling peckish. I'd like to blame the impetus on him, but we ended up on a dedicated mission to find an all-night diner. Denny's did not disappoint. We swerved (safely) off the highway at the familiar glowing yellow and red sign, and proceeded to order 2 make-your-own grand slam breakfasts, which allowed us each to polish off pancakes, hashbrowns, 2 eggs and oatmeal for me and a biscuit for B! At 10pm!!! Naturally we had to deal with the regret of looking at the piles of grease- and sugar-(aka fake syrup) covered plates when we were done, but it sure tasted good going down! I am trying to be healthy, but if you can't do that when you're pregnant, when can you? ;-)

For those of you who were asking, I'm happy to report that my glucose tolerance test came back fine, and I learned that I'm not anemic either.

But for now I should run. Brent and I are going to a couple's prenatal yoga class tonight in honor of Valentine's day, and I still have to write and send my own job description to IPJ's Executive Director tonight so that she can get the final approval for my position and I can start work on Tuesday!

I'll just finish with a couple more baby shower photos to tide you over (because as my friend Cat says, it seems weird to post an entry without photos); these are from my friend and photographer extraordinaire, Tegan.

Love,

Jen, Brent and we seem to still be on butternut squashes (which I think they used a few weeks ago as well!)

The Trials and Tribulations of Travel!

Well seeing as I have a very unwanted 3 ¼ hours to kill, I might as well write a blog post. Maybe venting will help me calm down.

It’s 7:15pm and I’m sitting in the San Francisco airport having just missed my flight back to San Diego. I have only ever missed a flight once before and it was in an eerily similar situation on the return journey from my first “homecoming” visit to Victoria from Vermont and my forlorn fiancé, 4 years ago.

Brent and I just experienced an unpleasant déjà-vu as an urgent trip to the bathroom (during which time I paid careful attention to the announcements, waiting for them to even announce that my flight was boarding, let alone give a final call!) resulted in me arriving at my gate at 6:52pm (as I am watch-less I thought I still had around 20min), allegedly 2 minutes after the cut off boarding time!

It seems I wasn’t the only passenger who missed the flight; four other passengers were similarly caught off guard due to the lack of announcements. I guess I should be happy I can still fly tonight at all. Poor Brent will just have to come get me at 11:40pm instead of 8.

Furthermore, missing this flight was adding insult to injury after my arrival in SF. After going to the US citizens and permanent residents’ line, I was informed that there were new procedures for all green card holders. We are now required to give a full set of electronic fingerprints and be photographed upon entry. I complied of course, only to be told there was a “problem” with my fingerprints and I would have to go through a secondary immigration check. Naively, I thought that perhaps my fingers had swelled during pregnancy making the fingerprints harder to recognize. Oh no. To make a long and (once again) humiliating experience brief: basically, due to the fiasco Brent and I went through getting into the US when we first came to SD, I will now have to go through additional questioning every time I enter the US! I was informed that the only way to get the flag that is on my identity (including fingerprints) removed is to file a petition. Which the Homeland Security officer assured me would take a very long time. So, after thinking this mess was finally over, it seems that despite me having permanent residency, I could be denied re-entry to my new home at any time!

Well, not wanting to dwell on this travel debacle any longer, I’ll try and tell you instead about my fabulous 10 days in Victoria. As I may have mentioned before, it was a unique trip “home” in that I was without both a home and the integral presence of my parents. Luckily, many friends and family members were kind enough to open their homes (and beds) to the belly and I (and often, my frequent companion Lindsay too) and to lend the use of their cars, phones, occasional internet, kitchens and most importantly, their time, to yours truly. So despite feeling a bit like a wandering nomad, the people I was able to see made the trip well worth it.

A couple highlights were a trip to Mt. Washington with my brother Sean to hit the X-country trails (of which only 1 blue and a host of black diamond runs were open!) one day, and this Saturday when Linds and Nicky (with a lot of help from Nicky’s mom Madeline and Lindsay’s best friend Hana) threw me a lovely baby shower!

There were a lot of other great times (a pregnancy massage from Kathy, seeing 'Slumdog Millionaire' with Kier & Keenan, walks with Linds & Barclay, a little Rock Band, and a lot of tasty meals with everyone) but for the most part, 10 days rushed by faster than I could imagine. In the bustle of trying to see everyone, I had to reconcile myself with only being able to see most people once or twice, and there were even a few important people who I missed completely :-(

Nevertheless, the trip reminded me that I need to make the effort to make it home more often (though this immigration issue puts a bit of a damper on my enthusiasm). At the moment I’m planning on returning to Victoria with my parents for another visit in August. For now, I’ll have to “make do” with Maui next week!

Well this entry and a few games of spider solitaire seemed to have brought me to 45min before my flight, so I think I’m going to go plunk myself in front of the gate as I don’t think Brent or I could handle another missed flight!

So glad I got to see those of you who I did last week, and hoping to see more of you in person over the coming weeks/months!

Love,

Jen, Brent and our somersaulting butternut squash (more on her another time)