August 27th, 2006 by Mrs Eaves
Yesterday marked the 20th week of pregnancy – the official half-way point. Thankfully, morning sickness ended a month or so ago, as did the frustrating first-trimester exhaustion. Right now, it’s smooth sailing.
I’ve started showing a little, and am finding that maternity shirts are becoming the preferred attire. The switch from regular to maternity clothes inevitably makes me look more pregnant than I am, though, just from the huge amounts of fabric that are needed for these big belly garments.
I’ve settled on a name I like and am relatively sure that Bos likes it, too. NewBaby is wiggly.
Ice cream has become a nightly necessity. Currently we’re working on a tub of Edy’s low-fat raspberry royale, which is actually quite good.
***
Anyone who knows me well knows that I’m an obsessive-compulsive planner. If you don’t know me, just ask Bos, who grew increasingly frustrated at me yesterday for planning my own birthday surprise.
Anyway, this week I began a new planning project: The Cemestos Gardens 20-Year Plan. Basically, it’s a chart of the next 20 years, with information such as when which kid will be in what school and the estimated times our long-term debts will be paid off. It was a lot of fun to create, and despite the fact that I know nothing is set in stone, I think it will be very helpful.
It also provides interesting tidbits about our future:
- If we continue on the same payment plan we are currently on, Bos’ school loans will be paid off the year that October graduates college herself.
- The earliest we can even consider moving to a bigger house is 2009, but financially speaking, it could be as far off as 2012. Six people and 1 bathroom for the next 6 years….greatttttttttttttt.
- The kids will all be exactly 3 grades apart.
- The 2016-2017 school year will see all four kids in different schools:Â October at her first year in college, Spotz in high school, Lugnut in middle school, and NewBaby in elementary school.
- October will graduate high school exactly 20 years after I graduated high school.
- NewBaby will graduate high school in 2025, and I will be 48 years old. Bos will be pushing 50.
August 27th, 2006 at 11:34 am
So much will happen in those twenty years. It is like looking over the edge of a cliff when we unroll our future like this and see where each of us may be.
My goodness, we’re going to be spending a lot of time at Willowbrook Elem.
August 27th, 2006 at 12:32 pm
Hmm. 20 years ago I had no idea where we’d be living a year later or that in two years I’d be a dad. Looking back, it’s remarkable to me how little actually did change (same wife, same town, same basic type of work, same hobbies, just less hair). But it never would have occurred to me to plan 20 years ahead. I guess this means you’re more of an optimist than I.
August 27th, 2006 at 4:18 pm
Wow. That really puts things in perspective.
AT and I haven’t thought things out quite that far. We’re more spontaneous than that, advantages and disadvantadges to both ways of thinking.
I barely know what’s going to happen tomorrow. It will be the fist time all four people in this house will be in school.
August 27th, 2006 at 4:22 pm
Twenty years ago I was working 80-100 hours per week, managed a large sales department, made a ton of money, never saw my then very small kids, never saw my wife which was okay cause we didn’t like each other, drank way too much, cheated on my wife, lived a miserable life that I became ashamed of.
Now, twenty years later, I’m re-married to a wonderful woman that I would never be unfaithful too, also learned that I can’t be unfaithful to myself as well, work less than 40 hours per week, make far less money (relative to the economy), have found contentment in my life, have a wonderful relationship with my children, even the 28 year old daughter that I adopted last November, am the happiest guy that I know.
Neat exercise Mrs. Eaves…thanks.
August 27th, 2006 at 8:01 pm
Twenty years ago…
Well, I was 8.
However, 12 or so years ago I was in the cuckoo’s nest, and one of the exercises they were doing in group dealt with seeing the future. It was almost a hypnosis thing, and something they did often, where the lights would go out, and you’d do relaxation techniques to pretty much let your subconscious out. The idea of this one was to go 10 years in the future, and look at your night stand, or dresser, or whatever, and see what you could see.
I couldn’t even make anything up. I’ve never been able to envision a future, and its hard to plan for something you don’t see.
Disclaimer: This is not to mean that I’m all wiggy and have a pessimistic view of the future (tho I certainly did 10 years ago), but more to say that beyond what Eaves did and facts (20 years: AT:48, making fun of GAC and Bos for being 50 soon, kids being grown, probably not being entirely broke, maybe a few more health problems, etc), its just hard to belive the fact that a year 2026 is as real as the year 1986.
Dammit, I always kill the philosophical conversations…
August 27th, 2006 at 8:19 pm
” . . . its just hard to belive the fact that a year 2026 is as real as the year 1986.”
Heh. It passes quicker than you think. Make the most of it.
Youth is wasted on the young.
August 27th, 2006 at 9:02 pm
GAC, though I’ll certainly admit to not being the most spontaneous person, I don’t think that having a loose framework to work with diminishes spontaneity. The way I see it, having that framework in place gives me the freedom to fill it.
Then again, spontaneity and freedom aren’t the same thing, are they? Hmmm…I’ll have to mull that one over for a while.
Everyone, thanks for your stories.