Red berries with yogurt--yum!

Unless something (likely) problematic and therefore unwanted occurs, I lost my bet about the d-day.  I had it pegged as June 3rd.  Positive!  Without a doubt!  Kismet (for a number of reasons)!  So I'm now going with my back-up of tomorrow.  I admit, I'm more than a little disappointed that it wasn't today JUST BECAUSE that was Abby's due date 3 years ago.  How perfect would that have been?  I guess I'll trust that she's not 100% ready yet--still needs just a touch more ripening.  I'd rather have her ready to come on her own time than mine when all's said and done.

The upside of her not coming today is that a) I've been able to go to all of the open houses that I've wanted to hit and have had the time to go to, and b) I made it through all of my obligations for the 2011-2012 school year.  Summer can now start officially!

And I was thinking about open houses and graduation trends in general this weekend.  I graduated just 11 years ago, and the way things work now are seemingly the same but in all actuality, much different.  My open house invites were printed by a friend of mine in the graphic arts class.  It had no pictures and was basically a small piece of cardstock with blue ink (school colors, you know?).  And, it was just like everyone else's.  NOW, everyone does some pretty awesome stuff with pictures, layout, colors, graphics, and such.  Really cool.  I'm pretty jealous.  High schoolers have sweet senior pictures now.  And the open houses--food has changed!  When I graduated, everyone had lunch meat trays, veggie trays, fruit trays, chips, pop and cake.  Everyone.  You were unique if you had Rice Krispie treats.  (This is my basic recollection...I really could be wrong.  Probably am.)  NOW, no one has cold cut trays.  There is a lot of BBQ pulled pork/beef though.  Nothing wrong with that!  I'm very much liking the upgrades.  Tacos!  Cupcakes!  Waffles!  Chocolate fountains!  Good stuff.

And while I'm sitting there eating my chocolately fountain goodness at one particular open house (and trying to keep Ab-tastic's fast fingers away from my angel food cake), the grandmother of the honored graduate came up to me with the opening remarks of how I "looked miserable."  I assure you (and her), I am not.  And then, Ben told me a story after we all got home tonight about how a lady at our church who also occassionally subs at our school was trying to tell him that I "looked miserable" a few days ago at school (about 2 weeks ago, actually).  He assured her, repeatedly, that I am not.  Her response: "Well, she just might not be telling you."  I'm glad that my spouse believes me even if acquaintances don't!  What's with people, strangers and friends alike, who peg you for misery just because of a round belly?  I never felt "miserable" with Abby, and I certainly don't now.  By no means!  Frankly, the most miserable that I've felt was when that butterball caught the corner of a decorative table at a student's open house yesterday, full on the tender belly button region.  That smarted!  So for the record, once again, yeah, I'm more tired and my back/legs become fatigued more easily, but I'm just not miserable.  At all.  What does that say about our society?  Are we a bunch of weaklings who can't handle a simple pregnancy?  (And one other thing while my soap box is smokin' hot right now, I'm just plain tired hearing the "I can't believe you're still working!" line.  Why not??  What else am I going to do?  Waste unnecessary sick/personal days so that I can sit at home and wait to deliver?  That makes N-O sense to me.)

And now, by this point, who's not thinking "What does any of this have to do with "red berries with yogurt--yum!"  I assure you, it really doesn't.  But I just had a big bowl full of this delish-ness, and it always makes me happy and healthy feeling.  If I remember correctly, I'm about 10 pounds lighter this time around, and that makes me happy.  On a middle class income, scads of berries out of season just isn't very financially feasible or reasonable.  It's nothing short of a luxury some weeks.  I can definitely go through an entire container of raspberries in one sitting, I assure you!  This has truly become one of my favorite treats, though.  On those weeks when berries are priced right at the store, I'm all about the RED BERRIES WITH YOGURT--YUM!  And so the title of this post is relatively random, just like the rest of this string of paragraphs.  Once again, it makes sense in my mind!