The jar is not half empty... it's all empty.

Bubbles the fish is no more.  It was a sad day when we gathered in the bathroom and M flushed him away.  Early this week he came down from the upstairs room and was looking quite ill.  We blamed it on M forgetting to feed him all week, but food and a clean home didn't help.  We noticed a red lump on his back half that seemed to be weighing him down, and I guess it was terminal.  Sad.  The life expectancy of a betta fish is 2-3 years, and Bubbles made it to just over 3.  He was a 'goodie bag' from a birthday party M went to in grade 4; none of the other girl's fishes lived out the year.

Now the good.  She loves her new room.  Recognize my old studio there?  Nope?  It underwent a pretty major transformation.  She's now using an alarm to get up in the mornings on her own, too.  Lots of new responsibility.

And an update on me...  At 38 weeks & 2 days, it's getting close to baby time.  I've gained 40 pounds!!  I don't think having Christmas right at the end of this pregnancy helped with that.  My feet and legs are swollen, too; I don't remember that from when I had M.  Some nights I'm pretty uncomfortable, some nights I get sore hips, but most are fine & I generally only have to get up once.  Can't complain about that!  I didn't go into work today because I'll be in tomorrow to help take down all the Christmas decorations & will be on my feet for hours; I figured today I'd stay home and alternate getting things done with sitting on the couch with my feet up.  It turned out to be a good productive day.  I went through all the baby stuff in the storage room and pulled out all we have for newborns (crib sheets, towels, onesies...), made the crib, put everything in there from Christmas and other parts of the house where it's been starting to collect (car seat, bathtub, diaper genie...), and it's looking pretty good.  I just need to pull out the old rocking chair from my storage room and then I'll take some photos for you.  And it's the same mushroom brown as our kitchen, with dark chocolate brown furniture, so the colors aren't going to give anything away for you!

I've got my hospital bag half packed, and I've got one full week of work left.  Lots of my duties were passed on this past week, so it's just wrapping up the last stuff that I've got left.  Hope to get it all done before the babe arrives - it would be nice to have a day or two to sit with my feet up and rest before the pain and sleeplessness hits!  Although that's what I'm doing pretty much every night anyway.

I used my new studio space to make some magic bags for an order I got, and also to work on my December album - I think I've added just about everything I'm going to for this year.  I have some scrapbook pages in mind & would like to find time to putter around down there on those.  Realized the other night though that if I'm down there after M's bedtime, it's a little light and noisy for her.  Have to wait till she falls asleep, maybe.  Or maybe she'll just have to get used to it.  :)  Did I mention I got a fireplace??  Sean bought me an awesome one for downstairs - it's going to be a pretty sweet place to hang out.

I think that's all for tonight...  have a good one and I'll be back soon with a report on M's soccer tournament tomorrow, photos of the nursery and of the new piano...  Cheers!