Good News

Time for an update....and it's alllllll good. After a rather harrowing week of trying not to overthink everything and just trusting God to help us be at peace with whatever the outcome - we finally had our appointment this morning - and everything is great!
The baby is fine - and hubs and I feel about 500 thousand pounds lighter.
Turns out, my due date was miscalculated - and instead of being 19 weeks, I'm actually only 17 weeks. They resubmitted our test with the new date, and it was negative...everything is hunky dory.
We did have an ultrasound and it was so neat to finally see our critter on screen! Our stubborn genes are already in effect because the kid wasn't in the right position to see it's face...and despite much poking and prodding, refused to budge except for stretching some arms and legs. In fact, the coolest part of all was when we saw an arm shoot out, splay out it's fingers in jazz hands position...and then give us a thumbs up!
Observe:

Hubs and I looked at each other with wide eyes and of course that's when I started to cry. We just knew right then that our kid was telling us everything is okay. As if to say "Hey you two..quit worryin I'm A-OK in here!"

*big sigh* I tell you what - that is exactly the sign we both needed at that moment. I walked out of that doctor's office and just fell apart...it was like every emotion and worry I'd been stuffing into my "I'm fine" responses just poured out of me at that moment. I feel such immense relief, and like I can go back to enjoying this pregnancy instead of having a cloud of worry hanging over my head. OUR heads. So it's over - and it was nothing to worry about after all. Next time, I will know better and I won't be taking that stupid test. Knowing that I love my baby no matter what - I've realized that ignorance is bliss as far as this test is concerned. I'll rely on the ultrasounds thankyouverymuch.

My new due date is April 6th - and I'll be having another ultrasound on Nov. 19th to see if "the bun" cooperates and shows us some face shots!

By the way - I promptly showed up wearing my "not finding out" t-shirt and the tech walked in and looked at me and said "well...that WAS going to be my first question" ha-HA! We told him didn't we Amanda???

Fun Stuff

So I can't remember if I've mentioned it before, but hubs and I have decided not to find out what we're having. Even if I end up getting an amnio which means we would know for SURE which gender it is...we still decided (okay I should say I decided...because honestly I think hubs would find out in a hot second given the chance - too bad he's not the one with the uterus!) to wait and keep it a surprise.
It's interesting the responses we've gotten regarding this subject...some people think it's lame and we should just find out because it makes shopping easier and what's the point of having a baby in this day and age if you can't plan ahead - and other people think it's cool because it's so rare that people keep it a surprise anymore.


At any rate - how awesome is my friend Amanda for sending me this maternity t-shirt????I laughed so hard - it's PERFECT - and I'm totally wearing this to the ultrasound on Tuesday!She also sent this adorable onesie:

And just for kicks...hubs and I visited a Hot Topics store a couple weeks ago and HAD to buy this one:

haha - I wanted one that said "I listen to Led Zeppelin with my mommy" - but no dice - Daddy will have to do, even though he didn't even know who Led Zeppelin WAS until we met. Had to teach that boy everything I know about good rock and roll.

Anyway - THANK YOU AMANDA...you rock girl - I will be sporting this shirt proudly every chance I get!

Belly Pic!

Okay - it's a bit odd for me to see it myself...I get a completely different view most of the time - hee...but anyway - here be the belly at 18 weeks.

How fast things can change

Yesterday morning I was all excited because I felt the baby move...and I was pumped to go home and get our room all cleaned and spruced up. But by noon, we got a phone call that changed everything.
My doctor called me himself Yesterday afternoon and told me that my AFP test came back with an abnormal result. The AFP test is for Down Syndrome, Spina Bifida, and Trisomy 18. I have a friend who's child had Spina Bifida and she was able to have surgery in utero to help her baby and now everything is fine - so after much thought, and knowing it was a simple blood test - we decided to go ahead.
Today - after all the research I've done...and finding out just how high of a false positive rate this test has - (even my doctor said he gets 2-3 abnormal results a week) I wish I would have known earlier so I would have opted not to get this test.
At any rate - we tested positive for Downs Syndrome...with a 1 out of 100 probability rate.
Of course it's hard not to think the worst - but with the false positive rate being so high and reading story after story of others who worried unneccesarily - we have a good gut feeling that everything is fine.
My ultrasound on Friday was canceled and my OB scheduled us with a high risk pregnancy specialist who will be able to perform a level 2 ultrasound (this means it takes about an hour and they do alot of measurements of bones and such) and from there...if they feel we should - they will recommend doing an amnio as well as meeting with a genetic counselor. I REAAAALLY don't want an amnio - so please pray that it doesn't go that far. In fact, because it's Downs...I'm not sure I would do it anyway because it could put the baby in danger. We'll have to wait and see - baby steps, right?
My main frustration at this point is that the specialist can't get me in until next Tuesday - which means an entire week of waiting. I'm currently on a back up list in case there are any cancellations - which is good and bad. Good because we will find out sooner - Bad because hubs won't be with me to see our baby on screen.

We're trying really hard to be positive and keep our chin up - but there is a definate cloud of worry over both of us. We just have to keep reminding ourselves that it's probably nothing - but having peace of mind would be GREAT right about now.

Movement

Since I've neglected this blog for over a month now...and TODAY I felt the baby move for the first time - I figured it would be a good time to update.


Last Monday I had a doctor's appointment - and my doc said it would happen any day. He said I should definately be feeling movement by my next appointment - and lo and behold, this morning I felt a light tapping...like popcorn popping. So flippin wierd, I can't even explain it.


We're getting our first and possibly only Ultrasound on Friday. It's going to be a 4-dimensional ultrasound...I'm not quite sure what to expect - but apparantly what we'll see will look more like a baby and less like a blob on a black background.


I'm feeling pretty good - although I have my ups and downs in the energy department. I'm also fighting a cold and of course I can't take anything for it, so that sucks. Yesterday, I had a burst of nesting instinct and cleaned the living room and kitchen spotlessly. Our wood floors are polished and shined, everything is dusted and picked up and vacuumed and CLEAN...*sigh* it's so nice to wake up in a house that's actually clean, and actually SMELLS clean. Febreeze is the bomb.


Tonight we'll be working on our bedroom which still looks like a hurricane went through it. Our bedroom is really narrow and to make room for our dresser - we shoved the bed as close to one wall as we could...like so:

If I turn sideways - I could usually fit through that space just fine.....but now that I have this growth on the front of me...and I have to wedge myself in and out of that space many times a night, what with all the peeing I do nowadays - it's getting tougher and tougher to manage and fit my girth between the wall and the bed...so hubs and I are switching sides. This will take some getting used to I'm sure - because we've had our same sides of the bed almost 6 years now...but as for me getting up 3-4 times in the middle of the night, it will be a LIFESAVER. Plus, I figure once we get the cradle in place - we'd have to switch sides anyway... so tonight I plan on washing alllll the bedding and vacuuming every nook and cranny of that room - cat beds and all. I need my little haven back, and we've been really slacking in the "clean bedroom" department.

Eventually, we're going to have to roll up our sleeves and get crackin on that baby's room. I look in there and just shrug and walk out...I'm not sure why - I just haven't had the slightest bit of excitement about decorating that room. I have no plans to actually decorate anyway...just paint and we've got to sand and paint some of the furniture in there. I think we might end up with a soft green color on the walls and white furniture with some green accents. Nothing special - but neutral enough to go for either gender. I'm not really into cartoon characters or anything like that - so whatever bedding I choose will probably be really simple...sister in law suggested bugs or frogs...but I don't know - I don't want a THEME...and bugs or frogs would be too themelike for me. I guess one of these days I'll have to see what I can find that suits my fancy (or not-so-fancy as it may be)

I brought my camera with me today so I can take some belly pics...but I've got to wait until I'm alone because taking pictures like that with coworkers around is borderline creepy.

18 week belly pictures to be posted today!

Sinking in

Hmmm....allright - so it's just a little bit more real now...



Have a listen:











We were on our way home from the doctor's office and reality sort of gripped me right in the throat for a moment. All this time I think I easily could have convinced myself that I've been making all this up somehow. Tired? that's easy...not enough sleep - Clothes not fitting? Too many Doritoes! Feeling weepy and emotional? hellllooooo period.


But now? Now that some doctor let me hear a "WAHWAHWAHWAH" sound (kinda reminds me of the teacher on peanuts, ha!) and actually said "That's your baby!"


whoooooooooaaaaaaaa...hold the phone. Wee bit too much reality for me today.



I've gained exactly 1 pound...which is pretty sweet - because in all honesty...I could have taken an extra gulp of air before stepping on that scale and it would have made a difference. I can SMELL a cheeseburger and gain 5 pounds, no joke.
Doc says all is going well, it was a good strong heartbeat - and they'll schedule me for an ultrasound in 5 weeks.
Every day that I wake up feeling good I am grateful because I know alot of people who's pregnancies have not been so easy.


While we were waiting...this woman and her husband came in - she waddled in I should say. This tiny itty bitty little thing with this HUUUUUUUUUGE Belly. She sat down and she and the lady next to her started talking - and I heard her say that she was due on Sept. 11th. Holy Moly...that's 8 days overdue - and she looked it. She looked like she just wanted to lay down get that kid O-U-T. Poor thing.



Okay *shiver* , moving on...



Last Sunday, I fell asleep on the bed in the afternoon, and I was starting to wake up when I hear hubs walking down the hall, only to find this:

Yes folks, that would be our DOG and our most alpha male CAT sleeping butt to butt snuggled up against me. I find it interested how the one cat we thought would have the most problem with our sweet puppy has actually taken to her the most. I mean seriously - they're SLEEPING together. And not just that, but Tweak is actually on his back in quite possibly the most relaxed position I've ever seen him. Suuuure, they may act like they're mortal enemies - but now we know the truth. Don't ever let anyone tell you that cat's won't adjust to a new family member because THIS is living proof.

Lagger

Sooo - let's see, what's new?
I'm about 13 weeks along now...all my pants and skirts are uncomfortable and annoying...I sort of just WOKE UP with a belly last week, which is wierd - I thought it was still too early for that...and I'm hoping there is only ONE kid in there. (I know twins are cool and everything, but I'm not sure I'm cut out for that job...) I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow and we'll be listening for a heartbeat so that will be exciting. It'll be nice to know that everything is okay in there. I already feel oddly protective of this little critter and I find myself constantly putting my hand on my belly. I'm thinking I should start doing some belly shots so I can see just how massive I get...hahaha - this is going to be a wild ride. I'm no skinny minny as it is...add a kid to the mix and I feel like I might just topple over forward.
This whole thing has gone so smoothly so far, I feel incredibly blessed. I still haven't gained any weight...still craving fruit - although now it's all about apples - no morning sickness. I'm heading into the 2nd trimester, or the "golden trimester", and I've already noticed my energy level improving, and my dizzy spells have gone away - which is AWESOME because those were a real pain.
This weekend will be a challenge for me because we'll have all 3 of our neices for a couple of days. I love those girls to pieces, but they run us ragged. At 8, 6 and 2...they are so full of energy!

Allright, enough baby/kid talk...

I'm not sure if I mentioned it before...but I did a little barrel garden this year. I planted sugar cherry tomatoes, yellow pear tomatoes, early girl tomatoes, yellow crookneck squash, and zucchini. I also attempted to sprout seeds for different kinds of melons and peppers and peas...but I failed miserably. My seed sprouts became death row rather quickly as they need to be "tended to" daily - and...well...my lazyness takes over for any plant that needs daily care.
BUT - my early girl tomatoes took off like wildfire and before I knew it, I had a HUGE and wonderful green and leafy plant with noooooo tomatoes on it. My other tomatoes were just growing very slowly and not really doing much either. My squash was pretty much doomed from the start. I had a couple days of hope for them, but eventually they succumbed to my black thumb and have all but shriveled up and died.
So finally about mid-summer, I noticed I had some green tomatoes on all my plants. I kept looking and looking and nothing was happening. I moved the plants around thinking maybe they needed more sun...but nope, nothing happening
FINALLY last week - I had tomatoes starting to turn red! Sunday I had my first big harvest (and did I take a picture? NOPE - because I suck) and I filled a big bag with big red tomatoes, little sweet cherry tomatoes and yummy yellow pear tomatoes...and I sent them all home with our friends. What IS IT about homegrown tomatoes that are so much better than storebought? They have an entirely different flavor - it's completely amazing to me. I've stood out there watering them and just found myself picking and eating little maters right off the vine. The. Best.
I feel like inside me there is this little farm girl in an apron and a straw hat who loves to garden, and enjoy the fruits of her labor...but she gets beat down by the lazy, tv watching bum I really am.
Speaking of tv...is anyone else as excited as I am for all the season premiers??? Greys, the new Private Practice, Survivor, Kid Nation, ANTM, etc, etc, etc....
I can't figure out how I enjoyed this time of year before I got a DVR - because that thing is a LIFESAVER. Seriously, if you don't have one...get thee a DVR pronto!

Tired

So on my last post, Lori asked what Linguica is...and I guess it didn't dawn on me that alot of people don't know what that is - but then I remembered that hubby's family from Georgia came a few years ago, and they had no idea what it was either. (They loved it by the way)
I guess the best way to describe it is like a spicy sausage...but not too spicy, it's just got a bite to it. I guess sort of a cross between kielbasa and chorizo. We usually throw it on a grill in one big link...and then when it gets all crispy and cooked on the outside, you slice it in bite size peices and squeeze lime over the top...mmmmmm, so good. But the regular linquica is usually made from pork and it's terribly high in fat and calories (of course, isn't everything totally yummy?) so I decided to give the turkey linguica a try. It's not the same...but the flavor was good, and I felt better about not consuming all that fat.
I remember as a kid, going to our local farmers market and sitting on the curb eating a bbq'd linguica on a stick...oh wow, what a memory - those things were SO GOOD.
Anyway, I hope that somewhat explains it :)


You ever get that feeling that you could close your eyes and fall asleep RIGHT NOW?
These last couple of days I've really had to fight and struggle to keep myself awake at work...my body just feels heavy and dreary, and I could seriously just put my head down and sleep right now.
I think this whole feeling tired thing has been my biggest challenge so far - it's hard to concentrate or be motivated to do anything other than sleep...which is why I go home and crash on the couch, even though I have all these great intentions of catching up on laundry or emptying the dishwasher.
I must say, hubster has been AWESOME when it comes to helping me around the house - I had no idea he could be so domesticated, but apparantly me carrying his child is a huge motivation :)

This morning I had my first inkling that my clothes are getting tighter. My jeans are just a wee bit snug in the waist...and it's wierd because it's not like I've gained a few pounds and they're tight all over - it's just in the belly. I feel like I've got this little mound...very strange feeling.
My sister in law hooked me up with all her maternity clothes - so when the time comes, at least I won't have to run out and spend a ton of money on new stuff that I'm only going to wear for a short time - I've got a huge storage container full of clothes!
I've actually already saved quite a bit of money on stuff like that - by the time my last neice was born, my brother and sister in law got alot of new stuff for her....and since she's their last one - I got a bunch of hand me downs that are practically brand new. I have a swing, an exersaucer, a papasan bouncy chair, and little saucer carrier thing that you can take to the beach and it zips up with a netting material so the baby doesn't get hit with sand or sun...I also have a little santa suit for Christmas and a baby chick halloween costume.
Instead of a frilly bassinette, I'm going to use a wooden cradle that my mom used with my brother and I - my parents are getting it all cleaned up and put together and then my sister in law is going to sew bumper pads and sheets for it.
As for the bedroom, all I pretty much need is a crib...which my parents are going to buy. We're going to sand and paint the furniture in the room. There is a bookshelf that my dad built when I was about 4 years old...and then we have mark's dresser from when he was a kid...and my desk from when I was a kid (which will be used as a changing table). I kind of like the idea of using our childhood stuff for our own kid...I guess I'm sentimental in that way.
This weekend we're going to the paint store to try and agree on a color to paint the room. Anyone have any suggestions?? I've read that you're not supposed to paint a baby's room yellow because it makes them cry.....hahahahaha - not sure how much truth there is to that. I've been thinking about a white with a tinge of blue. I want the walls to be light because that room is very dark - and I think a very subtle light blue wouldn't necessarily have to be boy related. I'm SOOO not into pink - in fact I can't stand it, so if we have a girl...it won't really matter.
I've also toyed with the idea of doing color on just the bottom half and putting a chair rail halfway up - or maybe a simple border of some kind.
Honestly, if it were completely up to me - I'd probably just leave it the way it is, stick a crib in there and call it good. hee!
Sooo, suggestions - I need suggestions, since I'm missing that "decorator" gene.

Going Overboard

Yesterday...I stopped at our local fruit/veggie stand, and I bought $26 worth of stuff. I don't think I've ever spent that much there before.
I bought:

A big watermelon
8 large nectarines
10 kiwi
1 giant bag of grapes
6 bananas
8 zucchini squash
1 canteloupe
1/4 flat of strawberries (3 of those little green baskets full)
1 big basket of cherries
1 small basket of blackberries

I went home and made a huge bowl of fruit salad so I could keep it at work and nibble off it for the next couple of days. Or at least that's what was SUPPOSED to happen. Let's just say that by 5pm yesterday, my head was practically inside the empty bowl licking the juice off the sides. Hubby came home yesterday and saw all the bags of fruit sitting on the dining table and just looked at me...he goes "daaaang, you really ARE craving fruit aren't you?"
ummm, ya THINK?

I mean, I like fruit as much as the next gal...but I NEVER eat it like this. It's incredibly bizarre.

I haven't been to the actual grocery store in a while - mainly because getting myself to work and back home is about all I can muster...and I hate grocery shopping anyway. SO last night, at about 7pm...I was trying to think about what to have for dinner...and I ended up scrambling some eggs with some sliced up zucchini, some chopped leftover turkey linguica, and some shredded cheese. OH DAMN was it good! I just whipped it up hoping it would be good, and it was not only good, it was pretty healthy too. Eggs GOOD, Squash GOOD, turkey linguica? not GREAT...but much healthier than regular linguica, shredded cheese EH, but I need the calcium since I'm not a milk drinker.

I've been sticking with water and crystal light these days. I have a diet soda on occasion - but I've cut out coffee completely which has been SO FRIGGIN HARD. Especially since I'm still walking early in the mornings. BUT, I feel good about all the water I've been drinking, and my skin shows it - I'm all glowy and stuff.

Okay - my appt is in about 2 hours...I'm feeling kinda anxious and not sure why. Maybe because this whole baby thing will be so much more REAL after the doctor confirms everything? And if we can hear the heartbeat? Ay-yi-yi...that's so REAL. I've been kinda floating around in this cloudy, foggy version of myself. People ask me about the pregnancy and I'm always caught a little bit off guard...or they talk about the baby itself and I'm kinda like "huh? I can't think about that yet...still processing the positive test at this point!" But today - a doctor will look at me and poke and prod and examine me and will treat me like a PREGNANT PERSON. That's just weird. This is all quite hard to comprehend at this point....and alot of people seem surprised that I feel this way. Most people say "oh, but it's such a beautiful thing, a precious baby" - and in my mind, I'm still kinda freaked about the whole thing. I'm living in a realm of surreal.

You know, I just looked at the calender, and my due date being March 24th is the day after Easter. HUH.

Cooking right along...

I CANNOT get enough fruit into this body of mine. Grapes are my main thing...fresh from the fridge, crisp and cold. Watermelon too - cold and juicy. Everything has to be cold and fresh. I can't eat room temperature grapes - they gotta be COLD. So wierd. I'm just thankful that I'm craving something healthy....let's hope it stays that way! I'm at the point where I feel like I can't suck my stomach in anymore - all my clothes fit fine, I just walk around feeling like I have bad posture or something...very bizarre. Last weekend, I had my first "oh crap, I'm gonna puke" moment. We were in Petco with our dog, and we walked past this group of young men...I was hit with this WAVE of STENCH - it was BO. My eyes watered and I hightailed it to the back of the store where I paced around going "don'tthrowupdon'tthrowupdon'tthrowup" while taking big gulps of non-b0 filled air. Oh man, it was HORRIBLE. Course hubs smelled it, but he goes "it wasn't THAT bad". Oh yeah? to my incredibly sensitive nose, it smelled like that unwashed manboy had crawled right up my nostril and rubbed his stench into all my nose hairs. In that moment, it was the worst smell ever - and I COULD have tossed my cookies, but I refrained. Later on that same day, I went to my parents house to feed their dog and the same thing happened when I opened the can of dog food. I got hit with this wave of worst smell ever and I had to actually put the can down and go outside for fresh air to avoid losing it. I actually held my breath and forked out that food faster than you can blink an eye because I really didn't think I could handle it for another second. So wierd how pregnancy makes your senses so much stronger. Stuff like that would normally only make me flinch...not go running away with tears in my eyes. I'm 9 weeks along and we have our first doctor's appointment tomorrow. Hubs is taking the day off work so he can be there to meet Doc and we're HOPING to hear a heartbeat. We've been told it's still early, so we may or may not hear it - but we're really hoping because it'll be rare that hubs can take a day off for my appointments. I'll be doing most of them by myself. Please everyone, keep your fingers and toes crossed for a heartbeat tomorrow!

I'm here...

I'm here....and I'm :

Yeah....weird.

In fact, I didn't believe it - so I took 4 more tests....2 more that same day - 1 the next day - and 1 a couple days after that. JUST to be sure.

I'm still kind of in that "head in the clouds" stage. I'm not quite sure what to do with myself.

I had my first visit with a Doula at my doctor's office....we basically went over all the paperwork and she answered my multitude of questions. I'll be seeing the doctor on the 22nd - which will put me at about 9 weeks.

Holy crap you guys....I'm gonna have a baby!

Finally, the bday post is up!

So....now that over 2 weeks have gone by since my Georgia's puppy birthday - I finally got around to posting pics!
Since my parents and my brother and his crew were all coming over (with their dogs) - we decided to keep it simple and made a big giant salad and ordered a big giant pizza - and when I say Giant...I mean FRICKING HUGE.
Observe:
Look people...it is EXACTLY the same width as my dining table. Hubs had to put the seat flat in the back of the car to get it in...and I'm not even kidding you when I say that we barely got it through the front door. Biggest pizza I've ever seen....and only $33! This sucker fed 6 hungry adults and 3 kids and we still had plenty of leftovers. If you look in the picture below...you can see the size of the slices compared to the plates - yeah, they didn't exactly fit. It was pretty funny. Especially when the kids walked in and saw the box - they said "WHOA! That's the biggest pizza I've ever seen!"
(gotta tell ya, that pizza is looking pretty tasty right about now)
My put-martha-stuart-to-shame wonderful sister in law and neice even made party hats for all the dogs!

Complete with names - Jasper - Georgia - and Libby...how cute is THAT?
Course we had to try it on, but my mom had to hold her so I could get a picture

I wanted to get a picture of all three dogs wearing their hats - but it just wasn't meant to be...they were too excited about the cupcakes. Yes, hubster made them CUPCAKES. Peanut butter and carrot with whipped cottage cheese frosting. finger licking awful...

The funny thing is - when hubs went to frost the cupcakes...we noticed a couple of bites missing - and we surmised that possibly the kids decided to partake and then thought otherwise - which makes me laugh and laugh...because I can imagine the look on their faces when they realized it wasn't exactly tasty.

The dogs LOVED them though - and inhaled those things. Big hit for hubster!

Here is Libby, happy as a clam about her cupcake:

Although I didn't expect it - Georgia was even brought GIFTS...

Which hubster sat with her and opened...and found TREATS! and TOYS and all sorts of goodies:

(ha-ha - she's so black in this picture that you can't even see her face)

Here's Jasper looking on saying "hey, I want thome of thothe!"

And so we taught Georgia about sharing....and hubster got surrounded just like at little kids birthday parties...

It was a fun night! We put the cats in our bedroom so that we could leave the backdoor open and so there were dogs running in and out and kids running in and out and it was chaos everywhere....and soooo funny.

Georgia passed out after they all left and we found her sleeping with her new lizard toy

I know...I think we may have too much time on our hands - but she's our baby for now and we love her to pieces :)

So we're having a party...of sorts.

I have to announce that TODAY - my baby is a year old.
Our sweet puppy went from this:
To This:
It absolutely BAFFLES me how fast the time has gone. We got her when she was 8 weeks old, and now she's fully grown. Hubs and I look at pictures of when she was little and we wish we could go back and snuggle her!

So despite some major eye rolling and gimme a break comments - we decided at the last minute to have a pizza party tonight at our house. My parents are bringing their dog Libby, and my brother and his family are bringing their dog Jasper. Hubster found a recipe online for dog friendly cakes and made some peanut butter and carrot cupcakes with whipped cottage cheese frosting (ahem...YUCK). My oldest neice is making all 3 dogs party hats - so hopefully they'll keep them on long enough for me to get a picture. I know, I know - it's completely ridiculous to have a birthday party for your dog...but we don't have kids, and we figure when we DO have kids - we'll probably forget her birthday, so we might as well live it up now while we can. Besides, any excuse for pizza and cake right?

My brother said his friends at work were trying to convince him to go out tonight and this is the conversation that took place:

"I can't, I have a birthday party to go to"
"oh yeah? whose birthday? one of the kids?"
"uhhh, no...it's for, ummm...my sister's dog"
"dude, if you don't want to go, just say so - you don't have to lie"

I'd say this is a serious indication that Hubster and I have officially entered Nerdville with this whole birthday business.

Last night, we discovered that she was trying to send us a message about what she wants for her birthday. See, we found out that she LOVES SOCCER. Seriously, she can block and kick and she makes a darn good goalie. But her soccer ball was getting kind of deflated and easy for her to pick up with her teeth. We should have taken it as a hint that she needed a new one - but of course we are self involved...so she decided to send us a louder message.

(how appropriate that it says Attacker) And just in case you ever wanted to see what the inside of a soccer ball is made ofThe culprit was quite proud of herself, and as you can see - she is CLEARLY expecting a new soccer ball for her birthday...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY SWEET GEORGIA PEACH!

I'm sure tonight will be full of hilarity, which I will of course try to capture on film.

K

Neglect

My poor little neglected blog...I didn't mean to forsake you, it just happened.

For some reason, I feel like we've been extremely busy for the last couple of months. Yet, when I sit down and think about exactly what we were busy doing..my mind goes blank.
Last weekend, the hubster turned 31 years old - and his entire family (4 adults and 3 children squeezed into our little house) came down to celebrate. It was nice to have them all here since it has been almost 2 years since they last came, and hubs seemed to have a nice birthday albeit a touch more chaotic than we are used to.
We love our neices dearly - and since we each have siblings with 3 girls....we're just surrounded by cute girlyness on both sides. BUT, I can't imagine how my sisters-in-law handle those kids without going insane...they are so BUSY and all over the place. My father in law asked me over the weekend if I'd learned anything from watching them...and I said "yes, I've learned that I don't want three kids". HA!
I think the amount of kids a person has is a very personal decision - and of course I won't really know how I feel until I actually have them...but I think 3 would put me JUST over the edge of sanity. I think two feels like a good number. 2 kids and buncha pets would do me about right. If you ask hubster he might have a different answer though, don't they always? For men, it's just "let's have a baby!" and that's that. It's a different story for women though, it's more physical and emotional, plus we have to figure out the job situation, and the housework load gets bigger. Let's face it - even in this day and age of equal opportunity - the women take the brunt of the housework and the child rearing. I'm just sayin...it's a WHOLE different story for us wimmins.

One thing I've done, is gotten our yard spruced up a bit...planted some flowers and some veggies. I started a mini-greenhouse with seeds of sweet cherry tomatoes - a cherry tomato medley (yellow, orange and red), sherbet watermelon, and a medley of sweet peppers (also yellow, orange and red). The seedlings just sprouted so I should be able to transplant them in a couple of weeks. I also have big barrels with zucchini and early girl tomatoes growing. And I have some sugar snap peas to plant along our fence line. Hopefully it'll be a fruitful/veggieful summer for us!
Hubster was very sweet and got be a bunch of big barrel pots to plant in this year - so I don't have to worry about Georgia pulling up my plants.

Speaking of Georgia....she is currently at home playing with her cousin pooch Jasper the Bassett Hound. He's been visiting for a couple of days and she drives him NUTS by climbing all over him and licking his face. I've had to seperate them a bit so the poor guy can get some rest. She just LOVES on him.
The one thing I have noticed is that they walk SO WELL together. It's great!

I updated my book list since I've read a few since I last updated...
I'm just here, doing my thing, working, loving on the puppy and the hubster - getting ready for summertime. Hope all you readers (if there is anyone left) are doing well. I'll be back, I promise!

Breaking the rules...

Over the last few years, every time Hubster and I go into a place like Cost Plus, Marshalls, Ross, or Pier One...we are struck by some of the beautiful dishes they have. We admire them and think that one day we'd like to get new dishes, but we would just never do it. For one thing, we already had a full set of nice sensible dishes, and for another...we would never be able to decide on just ONE pattern because we liked so many!

So one day, a few months ago, we were wandering through Marshalls and came upon the dish section. They usually have such a mish-mash of stuff...you might find one plate that is really cool looking, but you'll never find a whole set. Another thing is that these plates and bowls are usually about a dollar...maybe two dollars each - which is a pretty good deal for some of the awesome stuff they had.

We stopped and admired several different plates and bowls and then we kinda looked at each other and wondered why we would have to find a whole set of the ones we liked? Why couldn't we just buy different, assorted plates and bowls that we DO like? Why would they have to match, or be part of a set, or all look the same, or even similiar?

It was at this point that we decided to break all the rules and just get all different kinds of dishes! I'd had our other dishes for at least 10 years...and hubs wasn't really too fond of them anyway. We decided that we would slowly just aquire an entire set of dishes that we liked. Nothing could match or look similiar - we decided to go for stuff that was completely different and funky.

Of course I had to take pictures and document everything :)

These our our previous dishes...beige with a blue and green stripe around the outside.

and here are some of the things we picked up that first trip....

Big Plates!

This is one of my favorites...

Bowls!

I'd say our first trip was productive! We have so much fun digging around on all the shelves trying to find the odd funky plate.

We've acquired alot more since that first trip - so I will be taking more pictures :)

Why do I need a title?

I have a recent obsession.

I find myself reading this throughout the day, catching up on old posts...wondering if anyone I know has ever posted. Some of these women are insane - and others are just stupid - and others I can totally relate to! haha

Go read True Wife Confessions and watch your day disappear hour by hour as you become sucked into the vortex along with me....

*****

In other news, I've sold 12 books on Amazon! It's a far cry from the 56 books that I listed, but I'm honestly surprised at the ones that have sold so far. It seems to be around a book a day so far. I'm happy because not only did I make room on my bookshelves, but I can actually make money off the books I've read and don't want anymore. I was going to use Ebay because the fees are less, but the good thing about Amazon is that if your item doesn't sell, you don't have to pay any fees and since I listed so many books - I figured it would really suck if I have to pay fees on the ones that don't sell. My favorite hobby is actually making us money now, which is awesome!

*****

We bought Ms. Georgia a new collar over the weekend and she is STYLIN - looking very snazzy in red...Here's a close up - hibiscus flowers...

And even though it's very yuppie of us - we got a matching leash too. The leash we had was way too thin and small to handle her anymore - she's not a tiny puppy now - she can drag me down the street if she wants to...hee!

She also has a little backyard aquaintance now...meet Gertrude:

She hangs out on our back fence at night...scary eh?

I leave you with a cute picture I found on our camera...

I haven't given up I swear!

Christmas just swooped in and dominated over my blogging time...and then going out of town for New Years, and getting into the swing of the new year at home and at work...Before I know it, here is it January 23rd.
The big clean-up of 2006 has turned into the big clean-up of 2007 - probably to the delight of any naysayers out there who know about my fabulous procrastination skills.

BUT - we had some vacation time and yet couldn't really go anywhere...so we did the next best thing. We stayed home and got things accomplished!

Well okay, we slept in and read books and lounged around and played with the puppy and then from time to time got up and accomplished something, but still...it was fantastic.

One of the major things I got done was to clean out my BOOKSHELVES. Oy Vey, they were a mess!

Here is the before...

And inside the glass doors:
And after spending hours and hours sorting books into piles of KEEP, SELL, and HAVE NOT READ YET - I finally accomplished a neat bookshelf...observe:

Inside those glass doors??

I actually have all my cookbooks in one place - yippee!

The sad fact of this whole "book sorting" adventure? All the books on the end shelfs are books I HAVE NOT READ...isn't that crazy? Look at all those books! I have absolutely no reason to go bookstore hopping for a while now - I'm simply appalled at myself. I have a huge buffet of good (well, hopefully) books to read!I did make a big ole stack of books to sell and sat down last night at 11pm and listed 35 of them on Amazon. I still have more to list, but upon opening my email this morning, I've already sold two of them! I couldn't believe it...barely 8 hours later and I already have stuff to ship out. Weird - but it was amazingly easy to list them online, so I think I'll stick with selling books I have no interest in keeping.

I read 3 books during the week I was on vacation...and I created a list over on the sidebar of the book I'm currently reading, as well as a list of books I read in 2007 - I'm kinda curious to see exactly how many I read in a year.

It feels SO amazing to actually have those bookshelves cleaned out and everything gone through and organized. That bookshelf has been taunting me for almost 2 years and now it's DONE!

Sad News

I'm sitting here drinking a Diet Coke and wishing I had a cigarette to smoke in tribute to Leslie Harpold. I was shocked to read the news this morning...and honestly I kinda feel like I was the last to know about it. I should've been paying more attention.
She was a brilliant writer and all I can say is it just sucks that she's gone. I've spent an obscene amount of time online today reading every blog post about her imaginable....and articles she was known for. She seems like a very well loved and respected person who would not have wanted a bunch of people mourning her, but rather for those who are sad to look around and appreciate life and just BE HAPPY.

Cheers Leslie, you will be sorely missed.

Here are some articles from The Morning News written by her:

http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/new_york_new_york/my_guys.php

http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/how_to/how_to_cook_thanksgiving_dinner.php

http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/how_to/how_to_write_a_thankyou_note.php

http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/new_york_new_york/to_nap_perchance_to_rest.php

http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/stories/posttraumatic_postcards.php

http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/how_to/how_to_road_trip.php

Productive Weekend

So I got quite a bit done on the cleaning front...not as much as I'd hoped - but hey, it's better than nothing...especially since we weren't home much on Saturday, so the majority was tackled yesterday. Here we go,

Laundry Room Before:

And from the other direction:
Gross - clothes piled everywhere...on the counter, on the washer and dryer, on the floor...muddy paw prints, etc, etc...(cat's everywhere - this room is like a where's waldo of cat's)
aaaaaaand After *sigh of relief*:

(Hi Georgia!)

Okay, I gotta boast about my brilliant hubster for just a minute here. We've had issues with the pup "partaking of the almond roca buffet" that is housed in the cabinet next to the dryer shown above. We knew we needed to block it off somehow so that the dog couldn't get in there, but the cat's still could. It also needed to be easily removable so that I could clean the litter box (which happens often since we have THREE stinky buttinskies) . SO, before I know it, my hubby has busted out some snippers and grabbed our baby gate and thus created THIS:

Is my hubs just the best or what? It's friggin PERFECT - and now I'm thinking we should market something along these lines for other folks with canines who luuuuurve the poopage.

(since we have a dog with perhaps the most sensitive stomach on the planet...this was a major issue that needed immediate attention - not to mention OY HOW SHE NEEDED A BREATHMINT!)

Moving along...after marveling over my lovely laundry room and doing 7943 loads of laundry (and I'm still not done), I went to the hall bathroom...which although not too bad, looked like this:

seriously, I can't go into any room in our house without a cat - what a buncha busybodies!

and from the other direction:

Voila!

I completed the bedroom and bedroom closet (okay those pictures are going to be HAAAAAARD for me to post because it's really embarrassing how out of hand it had gotten in there) and parts of the living room as well - but I think I'll post those tomorrow to avoid a super long post.

I must say, our kitchen is STILL clean - which honestly, is probably a record for us. There are no dirty dishes in the sink, no pots on the stove, nothing piled on the dining table - I'm haaaaappy. I love, love, love having a clean house - I feel much more relaxed and not so overwhelmed. I still have the guest room and the office to tackle, both rooms that look like a bomb went off because we've just been tossing stuff in there. BUT, tonight I will be starting on the guest room. The bed in there is piled high with presents that need to be wrapped - so I think hubs and I will be tackling that while we watch a movie tonight....just having those out of there will help immensely. I have high hopes that we can accomplish those two rooms before Christmas! MAYBE..just maybe, I can start 2007 with a clean and organized home!

Till tomorrow folks,

K