*~*~*Meli-mello Here is YOUR SPOTLIGHT*~*~*

[mkmama]

Before you have that baby...if you haven't already ....

How are you feeling today?
Is this your first babe?
Do you have any names picked out that you'd like to share?
When was your first kiss?
Do you like sweet or salty (or both like me!)?

[meli-mello]

How are you feeling today? Well, it is still very early and I didn't get much sleep but I seem to be feeling okay. I mean, I'm either 39 or 40 weeks pregnant so I think I am doing pretty good all things considered!

Is this your first babe? Yes it is! I'm very excited but also extremely nervous.

Do you have any names picked out that you'd like to share? If it is a boy we are calling him Oscar Patrick and if it is a girl she is Moira Catherine - which is a play on my Mother's name Mary Catherine. My Mum doesn't know yet though so she will totally freak out if we have a girl AND name it after her.

When was your first kiss? Uh - I don't know if I even remember that! I think it was in grade 7 with some guy I briefly dated. I remember the first kisses of the guys I truly cared about - like, when DH asked me on a "date date" I was tempted to turn him down but thought it might be fun to hang out (we had been friends since we were teenagers but I was 26 at the time). When he kissed me at the end of the night I knew I didn't want to be with anyone else - I tell him it was the kiss that did it. And you know, I'm not usually sappy like that.

Do you like sweet or salty (or both like me!)? I definitely have a sweet tooth and love to have desert but I also like vinegary foods A LOT which is salty so I guess I would say both!

[Jennisee]

What is your favorite breakfast?
What was the last movie you saw in the theater?
How do you picture your life in 10 years?
What is one thing your parents did right that you hope to repeat, and what is one thing your parents did wrong that you hope to avoid?

[meli-mello]

What is your favorite breakfast? Oh, this is a tough one because I really love breakfast! Right now I am eating porridge that I cooked bananas, raisins and sunflower seeds into - I tend to eat a lot of porridge and always try and mix it up with fruit or something. I also love French toast and the occasional eggs benedict (but with asparagus instead of ham).

What was the last movie you saw in the theater? I think it was Juno at Christmas. We almost never go to the movie theatre since we don't have any money but my best friend was in town and wanted to take me to see that. It was great because the baby was kicking the whole time and she got to feel it while we watched the movie.

How do you picture your life in 10 years? Hmm... well, hopefully this little babe will be 9 and we will probably have another one. One thing I would like would be for us to afford our own home with a little yard so I can have a garden and also to have continued my writing which has slacked off quite a bit since I got pregnant (and lost my job at the same time). Things are looking good though because we are moving soon and there are more writing/editing/publishing opportunities for me where we are going. Oh - and I better have a dog by then!

What is one thing your parents did right that you hope to repeat, and what is one thing your parents did wrong that you hope to avoid? I think my parents tried really hard to overcome their childhoods and raise us in a loving environment (something my Dad didn't really have and my Mum was ridiculously poor and her Mum was mentally ill). I like to point this out to people to show them that you can grow up, start your own family and start again. I hope my children always feel loved by us because that is what I felt from my parents even though I was a total surprise and they thought they were long finished having children. Unfortunately my DH felt like he and his brothers were unwanted by their father for the longest time and so he needs to overcome that with his own children. One thing we are going to change is the secrecy around money we both had in our families. We want our children to get a firm understanding of how much we make and how it affects the family and why we can or cannot do things - instead of saying something like "money doesn't grow on trees" or "we just can't afford it" we want them to understand the whys and hows of it all. We think it is more important to spend time together then to spend all our time working to make money which means certain sacrifices for our children. (Except, you know: love, play and time spent together which is really no sacrifice at all!)

[thetnpreacherswife]

Favorite Movie?
Favorite Musical group or performer?
Favorite Children's book?

[kjoy2]

What was your favorite vacation or traveling adventure?

What would you do to indulge?

Is it warm up there yet?!

[meli-mello]

Favorite Movie? I'm always terrible at these questions! One of the movies I have enjoyed the most recently was Stranger Than Fiction - I can watch it again and again. I really love old movies though like Charade (if you haven't seen it you should! Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant are phenomenal), His Girl Friday and The Ghost and Mrs. Muir I really like watching documentaries too.

Favorite Musical group or performer? These days I am really into The Arcade Fire (one of the best concerts I have ever been to). I've had a bit of a "music issue" since I got pregnant since some of the stuff I used to listen to a lot (Sonic Youth, Pixies, Radiohead) is some times a little much for me - I'm really hoping it passes but probably not as much as DH hopes it passes! My other love is Otis Redding.

Favorite Children's book? You know, I haven't read a lot of books for really young children lately - I guess that is because this is my first and my nephews are older. But I do really like Make Way For Ducklings and the Olivia books. I have quite the collection of kids books actually but since my nephews moved away I haven't looked at them - but that is all going to change really soon!

[meli-mello]

What was your favorite vacation or traveling adventure? DH and I spent 3 weeks in Ireland and Scotland in the fall. One of those weeks was on a Wwoofing Exchange in Northern Ireland with a fantastic family - we spent a week working on their farm in exchange for room and board. We really wanted to go away but had very little money so we stayed on that farm and in hostels - I would recommend it to anyone. We also really wanted to go away before getting pregnant but I actually got pregnant in July - oops! However, I have had a pretty easy pregnancy and it just meant that DH had to carry my backpack more often than normal and I took more breaks. With out DH one of the best adventures I have had was going to Burning Man.

What would you do to indulge? I would buy myself a nice pair of shoes. I'm not really into shopping or buying things but a nice pair of shoes can really make a whole outfit. I even wrote a whole blog entry about it lately so I guess I've just been coveting shoes - something I AM going to buy myself once my body is somewhat back to normal (and also because I haven't bought a new pair of shoes in years).

Is it warm up there yet?! Not really! I mean, I think we have had a pretty mild winter but it still snowed yesterday and everything is very brown - nothing is budding yet.

[kjoy2]

Ohhh... I've always wanted to go Wwoofing but never have - good to hear that you and your DH had a great experience!

And as for the shoe thing, I love shoes. Love them. I'm not sure whether it's a bad thing or a good thing that my feet have GROWN this pregnancy. No, they are not swollen. They've expanded a half size (apparently this happened to my mother with her pregnancies, as well). So the sad part is that I've outgrown a lot of my shoes The fun part is that I get to buy new ones (on a budget, ick... and my feet are entering the hard-to-find-cute-shoes big stage now, too!)

[oyinmama]

i have heard of family or apt/house-based international exchanges, but hadn't heard of wwoofing. neat!

are you a morning or evening person?
who is your oldest friend?
what's your first memory?

[mkmama]

Cool about Wwoofing...we were SO close to doing that before we moved to the UK instead.

What is the meaning of your user name?

[meli-mello]

Originally Posted by kjoy2

I'm not sure whether it's a bad thing or a good thing that my feet have GROWN this pregnancy. No, they are not swollen. They've expanded a half size (apparently this happened to my mother with her pregnancies, as well). So the sad part is that I've outgrown a lot of my shoes The fun part is that I get to buy new ones (on a budget, ick... and my feet are entering the hard-to-find-cute-shoes big stage now, too!)

My sister said the same thing about her feet so I have been holding out on getting shoes even though I sorely need a new pair. Also - my feet have been at the hard-to-find-cute-shoes big stage since about the 4th grade and they are really narrow (AAA) so that is another reason why I don't own many shoes - I hate shopping for them because I usually end up disappointed but would definitely indulge if I found the right pair that actually fit!

[meli-mello]

are you a morning or evening person? I would definitely say morning - although I can have burst of energy at night. I have always been this way, when I was little I used to get up early and hang out with my Dad before he had to go to work.

who is your oldest friend? You know, I never really sat down and thought of this question before. I have one friend that I have had since grade 4 but if I stop and think about my oldest "true" friend (one that I can talk to anytime and do stuff with) it would have to be DH. We met when we both sang in a choir in high school (although it wasn't a high school choir it was part of the city music conservatory) - he was 14 and I was 15 when we met. He always had a crush on me (even tried to kiss me once when we were on tour in Scotland) but even though I really liked hanging out with him I wasn't interested in dating him. But he is very persistent and we got together 10 years later!

what's your first memory? Hmmm... I have a very patchy memory from a bad concussion I got when I was nine that made me lose big chunks of my memory. But I do remember waking up in the morning (about 5 a.m.) and hearing my Dad in the kitchen grumbling about how the kids didn't do the dishes and I would be scared to get up and go down to him but also hungry. And then when I would go downstairs he would get a big grin on his face and be really happy I was there and start making up songs about me. You see - he was never grumbling about me because I had teenage siblings when I was about 6 years old so it wasn't actually my job to do the dishes. A lot of my memories revolve around this crazy Dalmatian we got when I was three - she lived for 14 years and I could (and probably will) write a book about her and her antics.

[meli-mello]

What is the meaning of your user name? Well, my first name is Melanie and my last name (or maiden name because sometimes I use both now but I use my maiden name for publishing purposes) starts with an O. Also, I like to think that I am pretty mellow so it seemed appropriate.

As for Wwoofing - I wish I had known about it years ago. It is such a great way to travel! There is lots of wwoofing going on in Canada too and I didn't even know! I guess that is what happens when you are such a city person - or at least a person who always lives in cities.

[mkmama]

Originally Posted by meli-mello

who is your oldest friend? You know, I never really sat down and thought of this question before. I have one friend that I have had since grade 4 but if I stop and think about my oldest "true" friend (one that I can talk to anytime and do stuff with) it would have to be DH. We met when we both sang in a choir in high school (although it wasn't a high school choir it was part of the city music conservatory) - he was 14 and I was 15 when we met. He always had a crush on me (even tried to kiss me once when we were on tour in Scotland) but even though I really liked hanging out with him I wasn't interested in dating him. But he is very persistent and we got together 10 years later!

That is soooo sweet!

And how did you get that concussion?

[meli-mello]

Originally Posted by mkmama

That is soooo sweet!

And how did you get that concussion?

I know. It really is a great story - he is an amazing guy. He likes to tell people I had "stuff to get out of my system" before I would date him and he is kind of right. But I always loved hanging out and talking with him (he's ridiculously smart and makes me think all the time) but always felt bad that he had a crush on me when I was dating other guys. Anyway - it all worked out perfectly since I can't imagine having anyone elses baby!

And how did you get that concussion? My friends and I were playing tag at a local park on Canada Day. All I remember was turning to run away from the person who was "it" and running straight into a metal bar (like monkey bars to climb across). I guess I ran into it full force and my best friend at the time said she heard a crack and then someone ran to get our parents who were having a bbq near by. I don't remember much else but I know we went to the hospital and they released me that night and a couple days later my sister took me to a parade and was trying to talk to me and I kept blacking out and wandering away and stuff (which I would never have done - especially not during a parade) so I had to go back to the doctors and the he freaked out that the hospital didn't keep me. I don't really remember the rest of that summer or that school year.

[Jennisee]

Wow, the Wwoofing things looks so cool! I wish I had known about that in college.

And for those whose feet are growing, my feet went up a half size with my first pregnancy (from a 10.5 to 11), but they stayed at an 11 with this pregnancy. Good thing, too, because the day before I found out I was pregnant, I went on a shoe shopping spree in Chicago.