Ramblings of a Sorta Single Mom

So on BBC one of the girls posted a link to this labor predictor.  You answer some wierd questions and it pops up what it predicts your labor to be like.  Figured I'd save it here for later reference jsut to see how right or wrong it might be!

The day you deliver, outside will be sunny. Your baby will arrive in the morning.

After a labor lasting approximately 9 hours, your child, a boy, will be born. Your baby will weigh about 6 pounds, 13 ounces, and will be 20-1/2 inches long. This child will have dark brown eyes and dark hair.

But there is more. I sense that you are in need of distraction. Some enjoyment. Have you thought about belly painting?

So I've been wondering lately if I should be due for a name change on my blog.  I guess it depends on how you look at it but for all intents and purposes I'm not a single parent anymore.  I actually have someone doing some helping here.  Still adjusting to that idea!  Part of me thinks maybe I should wait and see how things go but is that being kinda pessimistic?  I'm normally a fairly optimistic person.  What do you think???  New name or stay the same?

The last couple days I spent in a training class with one of the companies we represent.  They called it "Sales Tools".  Just that....nothing more nothing less.  So going into it I fully expected to be bored out of my mind and hear the same things I've heard for years now.  Not to say i know it all but man....there are only so many ways to teach someone to sell after 8 years of listening to it.   Anyways, surprisingly I did learn something rather interesting.   Ya, surprise surprise.  So interesting in fact I thought I would share it here.

We talked about something called Social Styles.  There are 4 different styles (Driver, Expressive, Amiable, and Analytical) and figuring out which one a customer may be helps with knowing the best way to "close a sale".  It also is helpful to know which type you are so they had us a do a little exercise to find out.  I honestly thought I would be considered more of an analytical but wierdly enough it came up labeling me as an expressive.  And then I read the descriptions of that type and it all made sense.   Check out the following and see if you agree!

-Appear communicative, warm approachable, and competitive.
-Involve other people with their feelings and thoughts.
-Want friends but more as followers and supporters of their dreams, not competitors.
-Consider power and politics important and seek to gain personal recognition.
-Relationships may seem shallow and short-lived.
-Spend time and efforts moving toward a future deam.
-Act quickly, but often undisciplined in their use of time.
-Focus on the future with little concern for practical details in the present.
-Can change action easily, seeking the most exciting vision of the moment.
-Very oriented toward change.

-Will take risks in making decisions and decisions will be based on personal opinion.
-Opinions of prominent, successful, or important people are more important than facts/logic.
-Appear as more imaginative and creative than other styles; but easy to make mistakes.
-Like incentives/rewards for taking risks and the social recognition that comes with such risks and rewards.

Dreams, Imaginative, Center of attention, Follow through, Short attention span, Future, Fun, Enthusiastic, Undisciplined.

DO'S
-Plan interaction that supports their dreams and intentions.
-Leave time for relating, socializing.
-Talk about people and their goals; opinions they find stimulating.
-Don't deal with details; put them in writing, pin them to modes of action
-Ask for their opinions/ideas regarding people.
-Provide ideas for implementing action.
-Use enough time to be stimulating, fun-loving, entertaining.
-Provide testimonials from people they see as important, prominent.
-Offer social, immediate and extra incentives for their willingness to take risks.

DON'TS
-Don't Legislate or muffle intentions
-Don't be curt, cold or tight-lipped
-Don't drive on to facts and figures, alternatives and abstracts
-Don't leave things hanging in the air, or they'll hang there
-Don't waste time trying to be impersonal, judgemental, task-oriented
-Don'g 'dream' with them or you'll lose time
-Don't kid around too much, no 'stick to the agenda' too much
-Don't talk down to them
-Don't be rigid, inflexible, or an authoritarian


Wow that was a long bit!!!  LOL  so what do you think???  Close?  Way off?  Right on??  I hve to say I would love to just pass that don't list on to my boss.  Especially the rigid/inflexible and talking down to them part!!!  LOL

I figured I'd take advantage of feeling pretty well to post another blog. Even though less than 12hours ago I said I was "To Be Continued..."   LOL   But I'm sitting here at work in one of my moments of lala land unable to focus siutations and figured what the heck.  I've busted my butt all morning so I deserve a little break right?   LOL  No seriously, I really did get a ton done this morning.  It must be me feeling pretty well that is doing it.  I knocked out 3 days of work in 3 hours.  Whew!  See though I should realize that it will only hurt me later to work that diligently.  Cause the boss notices these things and then will wonder why I've done nothing for the following 2 days.  Oops! 

I'm hoping I'm not jinxing myself but at this point it's really probalby just wishful thinking.  The last couple weeks I've been getting sick pretty bad.  To the point that I walked in the door at night, put in my pj's and went straight to bed.  Poor J has been such a trooper though.  Hmmm I wonder can our kids have sympathy sickness too??  It's the wierdest thing.  She's fine all day while we're apart.  But soon as we get home she is exhausted and sick too.  Has even gotten sick a couple times but no fever and acts completely fine other than that.  Dunno... I like to think she just loves me that much.  LOL  It really started with yesterday as far as feeling better.  I noticed late afternoon that I hadn't felt queasy all morning.  YEA!!!  Such a bummer to b/c the training class I was in they took us to Ruby Tuesdays for lunch.  Yes, I got salad to eat.  What I really wanted was that Buffalo Chicken Sandwhich.   MMMMMMMM  Spicy!!  Course in my preggo brain state of mind I thought about it THE REST OF THE DAY.  Ugh.    Even now I could go for one but I'm enforcing some will power and holding back.  Now thats something new.  Anyways, back on track here.  The rest of yesterday went fairly well.  I got home and was ok but I think took too long to make dinner.  Instead of grabbing a bite of something I held off and well....that just made me queasy and I ended up only eating about 3 bites of the lasagna.   Today it's pretty much the same.  I even ate pretty well for lunch!  pb&j on wheat, small orange, yogurt, and a non-fat pudding cup.   I feel completely fine after it too.  So you know I'm keeping all my fingers and toes crossed that I'm finally on the other side of hte m/s issues.  It started so early I was seriously worried I'd be dealing with it until 12-14 weeks.  So not cool.  Course it's probably just payback for having such an easy time with J.  The baby that i didn't have any symptoms with.   Now is not the time to wonder what I got myself into either i guess.

Lets see what else.  Official due date is Sept 7th!!  Can't remember if I updated the ticker on here or not.  The ultrasound we got on the 15th gave a more accurate date.  My weeks change over on Sundays so this weekend I'll be 8 weeks.  Yea!!  It will be April/May before we can find out gender depending on how my doc decides to do it.  I'm hoping she'll try it around 18 weeks otherwise it will probably be closer to 22 weeks.  I still tell everyone I think it's a boy.  SERIOUSLY  This one is totally different than J so either I'm going to have my hands full with an exact replica of myself as a girl or it's a boy.   And don't tell anyone but I secretly hope it is to!  It would be the first boy born in my family since my brother 24years ago.  My sister and brother both have girls so it would be nice to finally have another boy in the family.  So we'll see soon enough.  Only 3 appointments to go!

Guess thats it for now.  Here's the u/s pick from before.  And for those of you who don't knwo what your looking for....look for the arrow.  It's pointing at the baby bean!

I'm sure who ever reads this has noticed there have not been recent blogs.  Not that I had that much stuff to say before BUT it has been quite awhile.  Just wanted to say I'll be back though once the constant nausea subsides, I can stay awake past 7pm, and I'm not getting up at 1am doing wierd things like reading blogs!!  I'm going to hate my alarm clock in 4 hours.   Blah   anyways......to be continued!

We had our first doctors appointment yesterday.  The first bump along this very long road has been crossed!!  LOL  It was just a typical first appointment.  Lots of paperwork, exams, blood work etc.  The doc is guessing between 5-6 weeks along but we are schedule for an ultrasound on the 15th just to be sure.  Other than that all is well and looks to be progressing like normal.

As for me...the morning sickness has hit me pretty good.  Even now this morning as I type this my stomach is just rolling.  Blah.  I'll be so glad when this part is over.  I never had it with J  so this is a whole new experience for me.  it definitely makes taking care of her more difficult but thankfully X has been supportive and helped out a lot.  I'm also getting really tired now.  Wishing i could take a several hour nap during the day.  Work though seems to prevent that.  Oh well.

Thats it though....more to come!

Enjoy!!!!