My 4 year old comes running into our study earlier this week to inform me of something VERY important.

He wants a PRINTER for Christmas – so he can PRINT.

My sweet innocent digital native child, wants a printer. Something just seems weird about this. Maybe it’s just me.

26 weeks. That is 6 and a half months of pregnancy people! And DESPITE what you may hear about this 9 month thing – in actuality it’s 10 months. Sure the first month you don’t really know you’re knocked up, but your body sure does.

40 weeks of pregnancy – subtract the 26 i’ve put into date –  so that means 14 left. Making progress, making progress. See! Basic math does come in handy.

Besides the bronchitis thing – and the kid doing circus tricks in my stomach – pregnancy is smooth sailing. And yes, before I typed that – I did knock on wood.

The nursery is in progress. It’s being painted this week – so no more yellow.  The room served as the nursery for both Z & E. While I did know the sex with Z (girl) – a guy at my work told me how his nephew was suppose to be his niece the day I bought paint. That and the fact Cold Play was hitting it big with their hit YELLOW in 2003 led me to a yellow nursery. A nursery which I have hated and been too lazy to repaint since #1.  Z was a week early and her room wasn’t fullydecorated. Her Grandma threw the pieces I had bought together for her homecoming.

E (#2), we didn’t know the sex. We were totally unprepared for a boy – the poor kid came home to a girl’s room – but he survived (but sadly the fan still has flowers on it).

So this kid, I am determined to have a room for him to come home to.  I’ll post pics as we make progress, I am super excited – I knew what I wanted to do if we had a boy… see God has a plan – this baby had to have a weiner.

Your baby is about 1 2/3 pounds and is 14 inches long head-to-heel, the length of a burp cloth.

Talk about crap.  My health has continued to go down the tube. I went to my general doc today and lone behold, I have the glorious BRONCHITIS. Cough, congestion, icky feelings, foggy haze and down right CRABBY.

The doctor was just full of cheery news. He informed me that I should see my peak in the next day or so. WAIT – you mean I may get WORSE?  Then he proceeded to search thru his handy dandy computer for prescriptions that I can take and the only thing he could give me is an inhaler – but told me not to fill until I get confirmation from the OB that it’s ok. WHEE. Apparently my “condition” – a.k.a. pregnancy – isn’t something you want to have when you have bronchitis. Or maybe you don’t want bronchitis while pregnant. Either way this crap sucks.

Thankfully I can work from home. Trying to keep projects in motion so I can take next week off to enjoy the kiddos and be WELL (hear that body?  Next week I WILL BE WELL).  It really is amazing when I step away from the office how much I can get done with no meetings or a phone ringing.  Too much going on to think about Christmas – that’s what next week is for. A week jam-packed with everything I should of been doing the 4 weeks prior.

Worse 3 days in I can’t tell you when. It started Friday. I had left work at 4 on Thursday and went to the doctor – apparently have an upper respiratory infection.  Went home – felt like crap but readied myself for the Oklahoma project and event.

Friday rolls around and I realize that I don’t remember where I put my phone. I can tell you the last call I placed, RIGHT before I walked in the house Thursday night, but after that – no idea. We scraped the house. Went and questioned my daughter at school (don’t ask). And I proceeded to cough and drag knowing I can’t drive 3 hours without a phone (i’m pregnant, and its 2009 not 2000).

Long story short – my health continues to worsen and after my boss telling me to stay home – I surrendered. And so thankful I did. Friday night I had the worse cramps followed by chills for hours. Saturday didn’t get much better. Today I had a coughing attack that led me to barely being able to breathe. Sean kept trying to push me to go to the ER. Not fun.

And what could top the weekend off? I log on to my work laptop – only to find its infected with some crazy virus. 3 hours later of virus scans and backing up data and i’m still infected – it needs to be wiped.

Bambino is jumping around throwing a party in my stomach. He’s increased the size of his apartment – I am freaking huge. I use to joke about me being a float – I now believe I am an RV.

Must stop complaining (and thinking about my iphone) – it’s not helping anyone. Trying to appreciate the good in life – like this fabulous blanket that makes me feel like i’m a teddy bear.

One thing I will say, life without the iphone is a heck-of-a-whole-lot less digital. I’ve disconnected all weekend and it’s actually kind of…. dare I say, nice?

One of the projects near and dear to me at work is The Revolve Tour. We see anywhere from 5,000 to 15,000 teen girls in arenas thru out the United States.  Being the psycho, emotionally confused teenager that I was – any outreach to curtail the unnecessary stresses of life at an early age is a passion I find worthy of pursuing.

The first event I attended, I sat and listened intently the first night hearing everything the speakers had to say, thinking I wish I had heard these messages when I was younger. The 2nd day, I found myself watching the teen girls and witnessing the messages impact them.  One minute the girls were goofing off with their friends, taking pictures with their cell phones and then the next minute they are hearing a speaker they can relate to and their undivided attention is drawn to the stage with a look of  ”you get me”.

This weekend we are wrapping our 4Real 2009 Revolve Tour event in Norman, OK. I’m hitting the road this weekend to help wrap up some video needs. We’ll be back on the road in 2011. If you have a teen girl, don’t miss it.

High school for me was a joke. The classes bored me. The school felt like a constant state of disorder. I hated just about every minute of it. The one thing that I looked forward to was Yearbook & Journalism – all because of the greatest teacher ever – Mrs. H. We had block schedules so I had 8 classes a semester. Thinking back to my entire high school experience, her name is the only one that even comes to my mind – most likely because she is the only one that seemed to cared.

I think the reason we jived so well together was she was a bit of a rebel. Numerous things happened in that class that make me laugh and I would probably blog about them, but the sheer possibility that my children may read this someday – prevents me from doing so. Journalism and Yearbook – both are creative outlets that sync’d well with me. We spent hours shooting, processing and then collaging every inch of  her classroom with photos. We were one of the first classes to make our Yearbooks on the “COMPUTER.” (WOW, I am getting old.)

Mrs. H had a teaching style that was fun. She listened and communicated with the students. She accepted me for me. Her theme song had to be “I Did It My Way!”. She didn’t care what others thought of her or her style. I always appreciated that about her. Plus she would write me notes to get out of PE.

Tonight I got an email from my mom:

Subject “Prayer Request”. For healing for Mrs H. She’s suffered a hemorrhagic stroke and is in ICU.

STUPID IPHONE. Of course, I get the email in a parking lot with the kids fighting in the back seat. All I could do is turn up the radio so the kids don’t hear me crying.  That word “HEMORRHAGIC” brought back memories.  Every verison of the word “hemorrhage”  - every time I hear it – makes me think of  her son. We were good friends in high school. He passed away our junior year of a brain hemorrhage and ever since then I go blank when someone says that word. And now Mrs. H has had a stoke and that stupid word of course had to be in there to describe the stroke.

Over the years I’ve always thought of Mrs. H. I wasn’t sure where she landed after retiring. I heard mention of her health not being so well.

12 years ago, shortly before I got married, she had invited me over to her home to talk and give me a wedding present. She told me I was gifted with my creativity and to put my computer skills to use (and gave me a great cobalt blue colander - sorry I have a psycho memory).

Mrs. H – I did just what you suggested.  I used them computer and creative skills  that you help me hone to do something with my life. Thank you for being you and our prayers are with you.

About 6 months or so ago, my husband started taking the kids out on Thursday nights giving me a night to “have off”.  If you are a mom – you KNOW nights off are rare.

Every other Thursday I spend picking up the house before the cleaner comes, but its the most relaxing time of the week. Moments of peace that I haven’t had in years. No crying, screaming, dinner to make, obligations, nothing.

What do I do with this new found freedom? I get knocked up. ha. So now, I am enjoying it while it lasts. This Thursday, no cleaning is needed. I plan on SLEEPING, enjoying the silence and catching up on Oprah…. because I can.

Gag. Even without make-up she’s pretty.

I was surfing thru my twit pics and came across this fun find.  This is from Halloween of this year. My lovely friends (and co-workers) Sally (on the left) and Jodi dressed up as me.  It started with the balloons under the shirt, and by the end of the day, they had plastered their outfits with the logos of social media companies. Too cute.

When I was working at home consulting – something that I took for granted was co-workers I’m not a natural extrovert, so when I should of found connections outside – I just didn’t. Returning to the workplace I realized one of the major things that makes the day go by are those you work with. Yes, I would rather spend most of my days in my office with the door closed, space heater on high and Cold Play blaring in my ears. But inevitably – human connection is needed.

While not every co-worker will be your BFF, there is a lot to learn from others (and not just how to setup a pivot table in Excel).  I’ve been fortunate in my job to have great co-workers that have developed into super friendships. On stressful days, I have an office I can go into to laugh with a friend. Or if there is something that I  need advice on – there is someone who is there to give it – whether it be something I want to hear or not. And when they leave (because they all leave – and I stay because I am committed like that – 9 years people! – and I know that some read this blog… HA) – I still have fab friends.

SXSW Interactive is hard to top. Last year was my 3rd go round, and it was incredible. The people, the atmosphere, the speakers – all around great experience.

This year – my fave speakers had to be Gary Vaynerchuck. I was familar with Wine Library TV, but not aware of the awesomeness of this dude. His enthusiasm exhumed as he spoke about CRUSHING IT.

Unfortunately, bambino is due right around the time of SXSWi in March 2010, so will have to wait until 2011 to return.