I know this is a bit earlier than my normal update but I just wanted to let everyone know how the ultrasound went. We had our 36-week check-up on Monday. The baby looks good and healthy. Currently the baby weighs a little over 6 pounds, which is good. In addition, I asked them to check the sex again and our baby is still a girl. As everyone knows I've been very skeptical of this because of what happened last time. But now I am pretty convinced that we are in fact having a little girl. Of course, we couldn't be happier. Mainly we are just thrilled to know she is doing well. We could see her face pretty good in the ultrasound and she looks really pretty. We are so excited. Ian has no idea what's about to happen. Although, we have been talking to him about it since the beginning. I have felt the baby move a lot less lately, but that's probably due to the fact that there isn't much room in there. Over the last week or so I have felt increasingly more cramped for space. Otherwise, I feel really great and power walk 2 miles a day.
In other news, as all of you may know, I've been trying to think of ways to bring more money into the house. I've been trading stocks since April and that's going really well. In addition to that I came up with another idea that I'm trying out. I buy iPod's off of Craigslist for cheap and then sell them for a profit on eBay. It looked really promising, since I could make 30-40 per iPod after I pay my eBay fees and such. So I began listing my iPods and that's when the fun started. My first iPod sold easily and made a $30 profit. However, a major problem soon reared its' hoary head. The buyer paid $150 more for the item than agreed upon and required shipping to a "cousin" in Nigeria. Also, the buyer's English was poor and they didn't understand U.S. geography. Although the buyer's address stated they lived in Vermont, the buyer referred to him/herself as residing in Texas (the street they lived on was Texas Hill Rd.). I called Paypal and was able to confirm my suspicions, that this was in fact a scam. Of course, I didn't send the iPod and I alerted eBay...yada, yada. But, that wasn't enough for me. No! I was mad. So I sent an email to the phony Paypal address, called the thief by name, admonished him for being a criminal, and exhorted him to change his ways. This didn't go over so well. And in retrospect I realize it wasn't a good thing to do. I unwittingly called down upon myself the wrath and fury of angry Nigerian criminals, pricked by the truth (doubt it), and desirous to wreak havoc upon my unsuspecting eBay profiteering.
Back in the saddle, I put a second iPod up for auction a few days after these unfortunate events had unraveled. My auction was soon ending. It was going great! Then, the last minute, the Nigerians swooped in and bid $600 for my $200 iPod. Of course this ruined any further bids that might be legitimate, as no thinking person would pay so great a value for an iPod (maybe if it were owned by Elvis). I got the eBay police on it and they discovered, as I already knew, that the bid was placed with a stolen account. The Nigerians clearly did it just to ruin my auction and cause me to incur high fees from eBay. The fees were refunded, but now I feel marked. So I've been doing multiple chats with eBay security representatives, or whoever, trying to straighten out this debacle. I've been trying to convince them that the Nigerian Electronic Mafia is targeting me and eBay needs to do something, like let me change my userid. I will say this about ebay, their web-based help is about as useful as stereo instructions written in Japanese. Oh well, that'll teach me to act in anger. Then I look at my husband, the calm and still lighthouse he is, and realize how badly I really need to let him rub off on me. He already has but I've still got a long way to go.
So all this happened around the time of my birthday. I was a bit embittered at the loss of some extra cash right now. But, my birthday was so great that it cancelled out all the evil. My husband made it such a great day for me. I've never had such great birthdays in my life till he came along. And I tell him I don't need presents because he's the best present I've ever gotten and I don't need anymore. He made me a great breakfast, took me to dinner, rubbed my feet, and gave me gifts too. I got perfume, anti-aging face lotion, and hand-made computer generated coupons. As he said, it was my "pretty, pretty, birthday", i.e. sorry your so fabulous with child that feeling pretty is a forgotten concept. Matt makes me feel pretty, though. Just one among so many reasons why I love him so much and why he's my best friend. And now we get to have a cute little girl. My life couldn't get any better!
