Apparently 25 weeks is the point where I now look obviously pregnant to the world. I feel like a mama sow already, but I guess now I’ve crossed the line from the “well, she might be pregnant or maybe she just needs to lose a few pounds” to “boy or girl?” Even though this is my third pregnancy, I still find it rather startling to have perfect strangers in stores come up to me to ask me “boy or girl?” or “when are you due?” “Are you hoping for either a boy or a girl?” What on earth makes them think this is acceptable? On Monday I had a the person at the register at the hardware store shout out at me with no preliminaries and from about ten feet away, “boy or girl?” I honestly thought she was talking to someone else before I realized she was staring in my direction, waiting for an answer!

The somewhat sad part of this all is that people are finally beginning to notice my pregnancy at Faith Formation too. I’ve been there almost every Wednesday evening since mid-September (which, coincidentially is about the very beginning of my pregnancy) helping at various tables and generally trying to make myself useful. I had one teachers come up to me and ask me when I was due and she said she didn’t realize I was pregnant. The head of the program said the same as we were leaving. It is amazing how one can gain 25+ pounds and not have anyone notice! Really, it was quite despressing and I felt completely invisible. It immediately (and perhaps childishly) brought back memories of being in my 8th grade science class and overhearing one student say to the teacher, “Who’s Amber? I have her paper here but I don’t know who she is.” I had only been classes with this boy every year since 4th grade! *sigh* Apparently I am invisible, and I really need to find some friends up here - although even some people who might notice me slightly more than this would be nice at this point!

OK, Turbotax is done installing, so it is time to go work on taxes. I’m hoping for a big tax refund, because boy do we need it this year!  (And yes, I know, a refund is just a refund of our interest free loan to the government…  but really, I had no idea our income would be so different this year than it was from the year before!)