Lately, I've been having the strangest most vivid dreams. I attribute this mostly to hormones, but good lord- that can't be the only reason why.

The other night I dreamt of an alternate theme for Lost. I was on the island with my friend Kathryn because we were both on Oceanic Flight 815 for some odd reason, and of course survived the crash because we are super women. Instead of "the others," the thing that was causing all of the problems on the island was The Wicked Witch from the Wizard of Oz. There she was, in my dream, in all her green makeup glory in her black witches outfit. Of course, she was carrying her broom with her and every time she came in to the scene she would let out a very loud witches cackle.

The point at which I woke up in the dream was when she struck me and Kathryn down to the ground, in which we both were unable to move. I woke up with complete sleep paralysis, and was even unable to talk, for about a good 20 minutes. When I was finally able to move, I got up to go pee- which was like the scariest thing EVER. I thought that The Wicked Witch was in my house! I'm sure it would have been funny to watch a pregnant woman sprint too and from the bathroom at 4 o'clock in the morning. I almost woke up Kyler to walk me to and from the bathroom because I was so scared, but I knew that he would never understand and would probably be so disgusted with the fact that I was afraid of the dark after that dream that I would have had to go solo anyways.

Last night I didn't dream of any cackling wicked witches, but my dreams were still very bizarre. The one that I was having before I woke up was that I was past my due date, and every time I'd think I was going in to labor my contractions would peder out and stop. When I woke up to that dream it made me feel like this baby is never going to come and that I'm going to be stuck being pregnant for the rest of my life. Ugh, the horror!

I feel like we are being shafted by our Wedding Photographer, and I'm sure that I'm not the first bride to feel this way. I'm sure that the reason for this problem is a break-down in communication on the photographer's part (since I've tried to contact him in the last week with no response), but none-the-less I'm still upset.

The photographer sent me an email last night that stating that my wedding album (which I had not approved the layout of, OR the images for that matter) was going to cost me an additional $1,000 on top of the $4,000 that we already paid him before the wedding. This additional cost was due to the additional images that he was going to include "at over 50% off of the regular price," as well as all of the time he invested in the album layout. The thing that really miffed me was that I was allowed to make only three changes to the layout without having to incur additional costs.

First off, I was expecting to get a copy of the proof book three weeks after the wedding- and I do not have a copy of this as of yet. Secondly, we were supposed to collaborate together to create a layout of images that Kyler and I would both be happy about. Thirdly, I was not aware that the wedding album was going to cost an additional amount of money due to the fact that we paid him well for his services in the first place. Lastly, what the hell is up with the photographer trying to sell me additional services? I guess I can't help but feel shafted because my family has been using this photographer since 1984, and he has an excellent reputation in Southern California as a master photographer.

I calmly sent him an email after cooling off and discussing things with my Mom on how to approach the problem. I have yet to hear a response, and I feel that he will never truly understand how upset I am about this. Of course, I can't just fire off an email saying a bunch of mean things that I might regret later (especially since my wedding pictures are involved), and I have to be as nice as possible in order to rectify the situation. It just sucks that all of this even had to happen, and now I am a very distraught Bride!

Weddings suck.

*Update: The photographer messed up! Bah! I was totally right... and the type of album that he was designing was not the type of album that was in my contract. He was laying out a "picture book," when my album type that I specified was a classic leather bound with each picture printed individually and mounted on the page. But still... I'm miffed.

I am so confused about baby gear. It's incredible how many choices there are out there for the same darn thing. Of course, not all products are the same... but just when you think you might have found something great you read a bunch of bad reviews about the product on Amazon and it's time to go back to the drawing board.

I registered at Babies R Us last Friday for the baby shower that will be happening some time in June. Most of the gear I registered for I had already researched and decided upon. There were still a few things though that I was just plain confused on- like bottles. There are so many choices of bottles out there, and they all come in different sizes, nipple types, etc. I'm planning on breast feeding, but I know that I will have to pump for the times that I won't be available for milk service.

The other "gear" issue that I'm having is the stroller. I want something light weight, with the option of using it as a travel system with an infant carrier. And, I don't want to spend an arm-and-a-leg on the set, and have it come in lame colors like pink or blue. I couldn't find anything suitable that was sold as a set price, so I was looking at what was sold individually. Then I had the problem of colors- all of the colors seemed to suck. I did finally make a choice, but it was all consuming of me over the weekend. I even forced Kyler to come with me to Babies R Us to test drive all of the strollers because I needed a second opinion- and his certainly matters.

It's great that there are so many choices out there for baby gear, but it sucks that there isn't a clear cut way to tell which one is best. It's nice that there are people who write product reviews on Amazon.com for what is out there, but all in all it's still very confusing.

con·grat·u·la·tion Audio pronunciation of "congratulations" ( P ) Pronunciation Key (kn-grch-lshn, -grj-, kng-)
n.

1. The act of expressing joy or acknowledgment, as for the achievement or good fortune of another.
2. An expression of such joy or acknowledgment. Often used in the plural: sent him my congratulations on winning the award.

interj. congratulations

Used to express such joy or acknowledgment: I heard you got a promotion. Congratulations!

No entry found for congradulations.

Did you mean congratulations?

What is the deal with SO many people not knowing how to spell Congratulations? The above is proof from http://www.dictionary.com that the word is spelled with a "t" in it, and not a "d." I'm sorry to be a hair splitter, but it really erks me when I get emails, cards, etc. that have "congrads" or "congradulations" written in them. Spelling errors like that just make people look like retards.

/end rant

Not like I particularly CARE that Tom and Katie's baby was born, I can't help but laugh at the wonderful things that I can come up with to make fun of the name "Suri" that they chose to name their daughter.

"Suri With The Fringe On Top" - you know, like that song from Oklahoma! that Harry and Sally sing together on the karaoke machine in the middle of Sharper Image in every woman's favorite all-time movie.

"Suri Cruise" totally sounds like a Royal Carribean cruise ship.

When you say "Suri" while intoxicated, it will probably come out "Slurry."

Oh, and here is a pic of Tom eating last night's dinner: http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c187/nurseflamingo/?action=view&current=cruefete6.jpg

Don't even get me started on the name Moses, the second FABULOUS choice on the parts of Chris Martin and Gwenyth Paltrow.

I guess the only reason why I'm even interested in all this baby naming shiz is because I have to name my own child in about 3 months. Don't worry... it won't be anything weird, or a native name to Namibia.