DragonBlog

Snuggles and Squishes...

We are totally running late today on getting out to do errands. I think I'm going to have to evaluate how important each errand actually is and decide what can wait until tomorrow at this point.

But I am not at all annoyed by this deviation from schedule. Why?

Because I got to spend nearly an hour being serenaded by my little boy while he snuggled in my lap and intermittently asked for high-fives, tickles, hugs, and "squishes" (extra-tight hugs). I got a couple recordings with my computer microphone of his singing too. I was close to tears with sheer joy just having him there in my arms wanting to spend time snuggling with me. It was one of those precious moments I want to remember forever and was NOT worth interrupting just because I need to run out to the hardware and grocery stores.

Nope, not a chance. These are the moments I'll never get back if I miss them. These are the moments I love most about being a "mommy". He's been one happy little ball of laugh, sing and snuggle today and I just can't bear to disrupt that.

Mmmmm.

G'night!

Current Mood: loved

Haircut, and the first day of class...

Today felt like a short, frazzled kind of day, as I rushed about getting ready to meet Brian at the hair salon we now go to so I could get my hair cut. Unlike with his, I deliberately left the camera at home. I was not getting it cut from such a dramatic length as Brian did, so I didn't feel it was a big enough deal to make people take pictures of my mug. I do like how it turned out - slightly different from my usual bob/wedge cut that I so often get when I go with short hair, but not so drastically different as to feel weird when I look in the mirror. Now I'm tempted to color it again, even after I had decided not to. I tend to like having some red in my hair more when it's short. Makes me feel daring. We'll see. I'd love to do the foil stuff I was discussing with the gal at the salon today, but it sounds like the way I really want it would cost $70, plus tip and any crap I buy to take care of it afterwards. As much as I'd LOVE to do it, I doubt there's really any room in the budget for it, especially after driving Brian's car to class today - I'm thinking he needs brakes soon. They work, but they are kinda joltingly bumpy???

I had Brian meet me there as the LAST time I got my hair cut I went by myself and everyone but me HATED my haircut. This time I took no chances - I went to a decent salon instead of a local joint and I made damned sure Brian was there to give the a-okay on what kind of style we were picking. It seems that so far everyone likes it, including ME. This is a good thing. Hopefully when I style it after it's been washed, it will still resemble what she made it look like too. That would be nice.

After the haircut, we grabbed some fast food at a Wendy's before swapping cars (as opposed to moving the car seat to his car for a lousy three hours) and he took Jareth home while I headed off to my first jewelry class.

After ten or more years since I've been in a jewelry lab, I felt a bit intimidated by the machinery in there, but not so much to make me at all worried. Class was short tonight - mostly introduction to the class stuff and a homework assignment to draw out some designs for the first project which we will dive into on Thursday. I'll have to remember to get a picture of the first piece of work, assuming it turns out okay, once it's done. There's six projects throughout the semester, and we got an overview on what they will be. I'm excited. I already have to sort through some of the ideas I've got milling about in my mind and figure out which ones would fit best with the different types of things we'll be doing.

Anyway, that's today. Tomorrow I run errands and try to get further on a project I'm doing for Brian for his work, since I've not gotten anything done on it in a few days. Tonight, however, I'm hoping to get to bed early.

G'night!

Current Mood: contemplative

The Exciting, Enticing, Exhuasting Family Weekend...

This past weekend was about family. Brian managed to get Saturday off of work, although he's probably going to have to work on his birthday early next month, which is partly why we decided to try for a Saturday off in the first place. Thus, I bundled my family into my car at evil-o'clock Saturday morning (okay, it was really around 9 AM when we left, but remember I don't do mornings!) and headed off for the first day of adventures.

We started off by hitting the fundraiser resale event for our Parents Who Care group. (Yes, I know I had the link wrong in my last post - it's fixed now) where we picked up a winter coat for Jareth along with some other fall/winter clothes. We also found a different breast pump for me, since I LOATHE the one I already have (that's what I get for buying the cheapest damned electric breast pump on the market I suppose) so hopefully it will work better when the next baby comes along. There were also a few books we picked up for Jareth and a set of large wooden beads with string to string them on, although we spent about an hour last night reaming out the beads so the string would actually go through them instead of getting snagged on splintery bits in the holes. Once we're done having our own kids, I'll have to remember to put stuff in the annual sale, since it's like a garage sale that the group gets a percentage of. I think it's a really cool way of doing it.

After that, we headed on out to the big park where the Annual Family Picnic was being held for my stay-at-home-moms' group on meetup.com. It was nearly a bust, since nobody had known there would also be a kids' soccer tournament taking up 95% of the park, including all the picnic shelters! Cars were lining the streets for blocks, and the parking lot was full. We were told that they might not have the picnic shelter in the further back used, so we parked near the back end of the park and went there first, only to find that one of the soccer teams had basically taken it over already.

We were starting to get concerned that we weren't going to be seeing any of the other moms and their families, when I spotted two moms with strollers and husbands walking down the path. I peered at them, and they peered back until one of them asked if I was from meetup. Our group is large and widespread enough that I don't exactly know all the moms in it, so I was relieved to hook up with some of them. Eventually, we managed to gather with more and took over a chunk of grass by the playground equipment so that the kids could play together. I have pictures of the weekend, starting at that playground, located in a separate gallery here for anyone wanting a peek.

We hung out there for several hours before the picnic broke up at about the right time we needed to head out if we wanted to catch the Ralph's World show at the Palatine Streetfest. We had just enough time to stop at an ice cream shop we saw first though, and took the opportunity to cool off and change Jareth's diapers instead of trying to do it in the car.

The Streetfest seemed neat enough, although by that point all the clouds that had been providing the occasional cool spot had vacated the sky. The temperature itself wasn't so bad, but the sun made it feel blistering after a while. We enjoyed the music for more than half the show, Brian having grabbed one of the round, tall tables they had in the street and letting Jareth sit and stand on it so he could actually see from where we were at. Jareth was clapping, and definitely enjoying the music, but was both getting hot and desperately in need of a nap. Eventually we bailed and headed home where we succumbed to our fatigue and ordered pizza for dinner instead of bothering to cook.

Sunday, we only had one thing planned for the day - The Bristol Renaissance Faire just north of the Illinois border in Wisconsin. It has been quite a few years since I've been to the place, although I seem to recall the last time being with Brian's parents and sister, so it has to have been within the last ten years. For one thing, the place has gotten BIGGER. The amount of vendors has more than doubled, possibly tripled since I was last there. There was, quite literally, too much to see and do in one day. We didn't make it to one of the shows on our list of ones to check out, although we did manage to peek into nearly every jewelry merchant's shop so that I could get an idea of what all they had for sale and how it compared to the concepts I have floating about in my own mind for jewelry design as my class in jewelrymaking gets closer (it starts tomorrow evening, actually). I did see a couple merchants with some design similar to ones I've been thinking of, but not exactly the same at least.

We picked up a viking drinking horn for Brian, something he's been wanting for a while now, and a handmade glass dragon for me that I intend to hang over my desk somewhere near the window. Other than that, we limited our expenses to food mostly, and had some wonderful items - garlic mushrooms, bread with lumps of roasted garlic baked into it, cinnamon roasted pecans, and a crepe-ice cream dish with strawberries and whipped cream. Food items were pretty expensive, and they didn't allow food or drink to be brought inside the park in order to better force m'lady and m'lord to spend their precious cash as much as possible. We had brought a cooler with us and they even made us open it on the way in. Fortunately they didn't see the cans of pop hiding under the bag of ice - just the bottles of water, so they didn't make us go back to put them in the car. While we didn't try to drink those in the park, just the water, we DID want them cold for the trip home, so we were pleased they hadn't been thorough. I couldn't have drank most of the stuff they offered anyway as I don't like lemonade, and didn't want to be drinking anything alcoholic or caffeinated. Basically it was water all around while we were there. We'd already planned to buy food.

While the faire itself was wonderful, including an area where you could stop and let the kids run around for a while - something Jareth sorely needed at one point - my own hormonal, pregnant body refused to cooperate. There was reasonable shade to be had, so we didn't have the heat problem of the day before at least. However, at one point I nearly burst into tears for literally no particular reason! We'd been watching the parade they do midday and suddenly I had this overwhelming urge to cry. I did my best to fight it off, as there was no logical reason for me to start bawling my head off, but I still found myself apologizing as I dabbed my leaking eyes and bit down on my lip's attempts to do that stupid quivering thing. Damned hormones!

Later, however, I was crying for good reason as we left the park. I don't know if it is pregnancy related, due to the uneven terrain at the park, or if I just somehow twisted my leg funny, but I was in excruciating pain for about half the journey through the faire. We didn't even see the last quarter of the vendors as I was just focusing on getting back to the car with my fist jammed into a part of my behind where it seemed to help if I put pressure on a particular area of muscle. Last time I was pregnant, I had similar problems, but in the opposite leg. Most of those problems happened later in the pregnancy, however, and were caused by Jareth always leaning to that side of my body. I remember shopping for baby stuff with Brian, a couple weeks before he was born, and having to get a wheelchair halfway through the store because I couldn't walk anymore. I was pretty much feeling very similarly by the end of Sunday, and was crying pretty bady as I focused on putting one foot in front of the other and keeping the momentum to get me all the way to the car. It sucked to have things end that way, I didn't want to put such a damper on an otherwise fun family outing, but the pain got the better of me. I'll have to keep myself from planning any more events where there will be long periods of walking like that until after the pregnancy is done, just to be on the safe side. Two days of lots of walking, standing, and otherwise being on my feet caught up to me. I'm spending today not doing much of anything as a result. Fortunately, the pain has mostly gone, although if I twist or turn on my leg wrong at all I get reminded rather sternly.

Needless to say, Brian did the driving home after the Ren Faire. Jareth, who'd not had a nap again, and had started getting cranky about it anyway, passed out in the back seat for quite a bit of the hour-long trip. We'd spent so much on food that day, however, that we did cook dinner instead of ordering out again. Our budget has been a bit tight lately and could only handle so much stretching.

Overall, though, it was great to get a chance to spend some time going out and doing stuff as a family. It seems to be a lot of just me taking Jareth places and us spending our family time at home in the evenings. With Brian's work schedule including Saturdays now, it won't be so often that we can schedule family weekends like that. We also tend to book up our Sundays or need to spend them working on remodelling the house and other such stuff. With my class starting tomorrow evening, I'll have two weeknights where I'll have less time with my family too. I think we really needed the chance to go out together and just have some fun.

So that was my weekend. The most interesting bit today so far is that Jareth got a kick out of seeing me make bubbles with bubble gum. He thought it was the most hilarious thing, although if he was sitting in my lap while I made a bubble he'd put his hands over his face and hide from it until the bubble was made. He kept asking me to "do it again" though. My jaw now aches as I don't chew gum very often. I was attempting to avoid one of my sweets cravings by having some sugar-free gum instead. Now I think I'm going to blow it and go get an ice cream sandwich from the freezer. Hey - there's milk in ice cream. Right?

G'night!

Current Mood: optimistic

The Nesting Begins...

Somehow I got stuff done today. My back is hurting a bit from lifting stuff at the storage place, and yet I found myself cleaning, organizing, doing laundry, and sorting through boxes of stuff for most of the day. My sister came by this evening and she suggested she'd make spaghetti sauce from scratch so I let her do the cooking, as I was pretty wiped at that point. I have gotten about a quarter of the boxes we brought home yesterday sorted out already though. This is a good start. Hopefully taking the weekend off to do family stuff won't slow my progress again come next week, although we have such a busy weekend planned that I might just take Monday off altogether and rest.

Tomorrow we've got three things to go to, and Brian has managed to arrange for the day off since he's probably going to end up working on his birthday next month. We've got a fundraiser resale even for a group called Parents Who Care that we're a part of, followed by an annual family picnic for my mom's group. After that, we're heading to the Palatine Streetfest, where a Ralph's World show will be happening in the afternoon. After that, I suspect we will come home and collapse in a puddle on the carpet while Jareth gets a really late nap.

Not to mention we're going to go to Ren Faire on Sunday too. All fun stuff to do, but a LOT of it packed into one weekend. I feel a mite intimidated by it all. And I still need to make the jello for tomorrow's picnic and finish the laundry today...

Which means I'd better go now.

G'night!

Current Mood: busy

From The Vault of Memories...

We'll put this post under "house projects" as it is on ongoing project on my list: Get all the crap I have in storage to my house somehow, sort through it all, and get rid of the stuff I don't want/need in some way or other, hopefully getting some cash to upgrade a few things (like some of my dishes) in the process.

Today we made a trip to storage and I have three towering stacks of boxes sitting in my kitchen, waiting to be sorted through. Some is old paperword I don't need, like utility bills from when I was in the first apartment Brian and I shared together. They will likely just end up in the paper recycle pile and end up on the curb next week.

Other things, warrant some eBay attention. Like the tea and biscuits set - gold-edged plates that have little indentations in them where the gold-edged saucer is meant to sit. They are from my grandmother's house, after she died. I have now realized that I really, honestly, don't have a need to serve THIRTY PEOPLE tea and biscuits all at once. Yes, that's right. I have enough to serve thirty people all at once.

*blinks*

I also have no idea what I was thinking when I packed them in with the other items I took from the house. I had to fight my uncle to get the antique dry bar, which I have storing my barware in the family room and love dearly. But there was no contest for the set of THIRTY tea and biscuits plates and cups.

Yeah. I'll post a picture and a link to the auction for that one once it's up. Egads. What could I possibly do with it otherwise?

So. Much. Stuff. Must. De-clutter.

And thus, the nesting period begins.

Jareth, however, now has chairs and a racoon rocker from when I was a little girl. I've cleaned them and glued one of the chairs back together for him. He loves them.

G'night!

Current Mood: busy

Hedging on Nesting?

First we hit the Randall Oaks, where we met a new member of one of my mom's groups and her two children. She was great, and we had a lot of fun chatting while the older kids ran off some energy. We did, however, take time to stop and smell the flowers at one point...

After that we made a quick stop at the grocery store and headed home. I took care of a couple of small things, and still felt really tired today, but I think I'm coming up on a shift as the nausea wasn't nearly as bad today as it usually has been. I also kept feeling the urge to tidy little things here and there and I'm thinking I'm about to come up on a "nesting" stage. If so, I'll hopefully take full advantage of it - I have plenty I need to get done.

Anyway, not much tonight as I need to go tuck my little boy into bed now.

G'night!

Current Mood: hopeful

Enter The Friend Bearing Food and Fluffed, Stuffed Critters...

Our friend Mr. Matt came this evening. In true Mr. Matt style, he came bearing gifts - this time it was in the form of stuffed animals and desserts. He rarely shows up at my house empty-handed. He even wasn't sure which dessert would go over best so he bought two, which means we've now got dessert leftovers for about a week. Mmmm. Now THAT'S the way to appease a pregnant woman boys. Watch and learn. *grin*

The stuffed animals, of course, were for Jareth. Two matched soft stuffed dogs - one large and one more puppy-sized. Jareth took to them right away. The littler one went up with him to bed, while the larger one guards over his toys in the living room at the moment.

So the evening was spent relaxing in the living room, catching up. It's been several months since we've had the opportunity to see Mr. Matt, so there was much to catch up on. It was most enjoyable too.

Tomorrow, Jareth and I will hit Randall Oaks Park and Barnyard Zoo again. My stay-at-home-moms group has scheduled an outing there, although it looks like it may be a small turnout. Jareth will enjoy the animals no matter how many other moms and kids we see them with though. It's rare that events get scheduled out here anymore ever since meetup.com started charging group fees and the splinter group for this area merged back into the main one. Most of the good stuff gets scheduled way far away - places that I'm not willing to go when gas costs nearly $3.00 per gallon. Not much that Jareth would enjoy or is the right age for gets scheduled in our area anymore, so we grab them when we can.

Which means I gotta roll my ass out of bed at a reasonable hour tomorrow, so...

G'night!

Current Mood: pleased

Ahhhh, the fresh *ah-choo!* air!!!

It was absolutely gorgeous weather today, which prompted me to run all over the house flinging up window sashes and yanking open doors after flipping the air conditioning switch to OFF. Of course that also means that I've had a box of kleenex nearby for nearly the entire day, as my poor sinuses said WHAT THE HELL?

Speaking of which, that's one of the phrases I've inadvertantly taught my son. He's a total mimic right now, which means I have to watch every single word that is uttered around here. At some point or other he heard me say "The hell?" and now, in proper embarrass-the-hell-out-of-mommy fashion, is running around repeating it in EXACTLY the same tone of voice he heard me say it in.

*sigh*

I've been trying the approach of not making a huge deal out of it, and hoping he will just stop using it. At the moment, he'll sometimes just say random things, testing out the vocabulary he's accumulated thus far. Which is why we can be in the downstairs bathroom, with absolutely no windows, and he might suddenly look at me and excitedly say "airplane!" Today, however, I heard him repeating "the hell?" over and over and over again until finally I stopped and very nonchalantly tried to explain to him that that was not a nice thing to repeat and that mommy was VERY sorry she'd accidentally said it.

This is not the first time he's pulled one of my own words or phrases out of the air and run around saying it to my dismay. I'm quite sure it won't be the last.

Between the sinuses and my nausea, the only time we went outside however, was to run and make a pickup from someone else on the freecycle list I subscribe to. I got another large plastic pot to add to my little patio next spring with some other potted vegetable to try out. Or, I may repot the chives into it, as they might really want a bigger pot than the little one I started them out in. I also got some fake ivy and three candle holders. Not that I technically needed more candle holders, but now that the windows are getting to be open again I can start lighting them occasionally. I don't like to do it in the summer too often as it's kind of counter-productive to the air conditioning. In the winter it's all good, so long as the house doesn't get too smoky when I blow them all out.

Oh... and I ACTUALLY got an e-mail that at least pretends to be from a real live person at the place The Gift was purchased from. They suggested it could be here within another day or two. Uh-huh. I'll believe that when I see it. Of course if I want to communicate with this human being it looks like I have to send another e-mail through the complicated manner I did the last time.

*sigh*

What-ever. I just want the thing to arrive so I can inspect it, tuck it away, and hopefully not forget about it. Yeesh.

In other news, Jareth has decided that his computer needs a chair in front of it like ours have. He has one chair, a collapsable thing that my father-in-law found for him, so I had to bring it down after he sat down on a short stool that we had downstairs and had to reach waaaaaay up to get to the mouse and keyboard, along with straining his neck to see the screen. I have some white wooden chairs in storage from when I was a little girl, and I think Brian and I will add a trip to storage to our projects for Thursday afternoon. I've also got a rocking chair in there from when I was little too. It's butt-ugly, with a raccoon motif and I think it's either puke-green or a nasty shade of aqua, but I think he'd get a kick out of rocking in it. We'll see what else we can shove in the cars while we're there too. I really want all the crap from storage dealt with, along with the stuff in the garage, but it is such a HUGE project it gets too daunting to tackle most of the time. I need to get it done though. When we eventually move out of state, I REALLY don't want to haul all this crap with me. I'd like to weed down to just the best stuff and then try to slowly upgrade to all-matching stuff. Wouldn't that be a concept? Some days I feel like 80% of my belongings are either inherited from dead people's homes or were picked up at a rummage sale.

Tomorrow, Brian will have a half day of work and our friend, whom I call Mr. Matt, will be coming to visit after a long, dry period of not getting to see him. It ought to be very fun indeed.

Current Mood: jubilant

In the End, Plan B...

Well, since The Gift hasn't arrived, we went with Plan B for my father-in-law's belated birthday gift. If The Gift arrives, we will tuck it away for a future gift-giving occasion. It is not perishable, so things will be alright.

As for the company from which I purchased The Gift, I have re-sent my recent unhappy e-mail after getting another automated response that suggested within it another possible way that MAYBE, JUST MAYBE an honest-to-god HUMAN BEING might actually READ the e-mail this time. Ooooh, my anticipation just can't handle the excitement that someone might finally answer me personally.

Thus, I highly doubt it will happen. I've already gotten the auto-response saying they've received this latest e-mail. I'll await the next auto-response telling me yet another hoop I must jump through before I ever, ever, EVER commuincate with an ACTUAL person.

*grumbles, mumbles, breaks something inexpensive (no, not really, but I glared at that Bic pen really hard!)*

Plan B was a repeat of a previous fun gift we'd done before - a six-pack of imported microbrewed beers, since my father-in-law enjoys sampling different liquors, liqueurs, and other fun things. We all do, really. When I'm not pregnant, I've been known to run downstairs to the area we keep the bottles and whip out something specific with a bunch of little cordial glasses to pass around "tastes" of something. It evokes some interesting conversation, and it's not like we drink enough to actually get anyone even tipsy. If you think that's bad, you should see us drink coffee. I, at least, have become a distinctive coffee snob during the time while Brian was working at Sara Lee Coffee & Tea. I will try different coffees, but as a staple, I'm particularly fond of Ethiopian Yirgacheffe, and I prefer to have Brian roast it. He knows the roast, grind, and brew strength I like my coffee. Now THAT'S picky!

There are a couple others I've found that I like too, although I have a trickier time remembering which ones for sure. I can only get decaf right now anyway, so I'm not drinking a whole lot of coffee. Caffeine is one of those things you're suppose to limit your intake of while pregnant too. Oh well. Some days I just can't make it through without a can of Diet Mountain Dew however. What I drink the most of all is generally water, but sometimes I gotta have some Dew. The other soda pop I've found I liked that isn't caffeinated, is Diet A&W Root Beer. I developed a love of that stuff during the last pregnancy, actually, when I was searching for non-caffeinated stuff that tasted good.

How did this become a blog on my beverage consumption? Did I mention I LOVE iced tea? But not the flavored, lemoned, or pre-sweetened stuff. Just basic brewed Lipton tea. I prefer the brewed stuff, although I will frequently get the instant stuff just to make it simpler on myself. I add a smidge of sweetener (but not nearly the amount that the pre-sweetened stuff has) and I'm good to go. I like hot teas too, although not as much as I did before losing my sense of smell. The aroma of tea was a part of the experience that I truely miss. I tend to aim more towards flavored cappuccinos, or hot coffees, and sometimes some specific herbal teas instead, when I'm not indulging in coffee.

Okay, that's enough. This somehow became a Beverage Blog. Next I'll be detailing my dietary requirements. I'd better stop now while I might still be ahead.

Anyway, the six pack of fun imported beers was gladly received. I made Brian do the wrapping, as I'd done all the shopping. Dinner, on the other hand, was a nearly total disaster! I made a recipe I've made before, but somehow the slight change in ingredients to match the recipe better than the substitutions I made last time seemed to turn dinner into a nearly impossibly spicy affair! Now "spicy" doesn't generally go over well on family dinner night. I like spicy sometimes, but I cook some lighter, gentler stuff when feeding more than just the three of us.

This stuff was seriously hot! It was wicked too - it started sweet and mild and all the HOT was in the aftertaste! I found myself drinking milk and eating plain rice just to try and stop my mouth from burning. Oy.

The guys seemed to like it. The rest of us couldn't wait for dessert. I think the funniest moment was when Jareth agreed that it was "hot" and proceeded to blow on his plate to try and cool it off! Then he couldn't figure out why it wasn't helping! After all, isn't that what you're supposed to DO when food has been classified as "hot"??? Once again, we have to try and help him understand that some words have multiple meanings, even when applied to the same item. Man, English sure is a tough language!

G'night!

Current Mood: hungry (at least I am now after all that talk about food and drink!)

They can read the BIBLE, just not the "NO SOLICITORS" sign...

They sent men today, canvasing the neighborhood. Two men showed up and rang the doorbell, waving their little pamphlet and wanting me to take it. I just shook my head and said a nice "no thank you" before firmly closing the door and returning to my busy day. This time it was the baptists. At least they scare me a little less than the mormons. Either I missed seeing it, or they didn't drop them off at the bottom of my driveway this time. Or maybe they just didn't bring the big bus today.

At least the women can read the "NO SOLICITORS" signs. I have two - one for each door. It's supposed to help ward away the religious fanatics and the salespeople. But there's always a few who just can't figure it out. They're RED and IMPOSING for a REASON folks! C'mon, get a CLUE!

Every time they mistakenly come to MY door I find myself, once again, tempted to make up my OWN pamphlets to "exchange" with them. Wouldn't they just like that? I probably would too, if I weren't in the neighborhood I'm in. I fear that an egging would be the least of my worries if I "came out" around here. I'm thinking it's a rather heavily Christian/Catholic group in this area. And I don't want trouble. So I just quietly smile and continue to turn them away again and again. Buh-bye baptists.

You know, it used to be that only Jehovah's Witnesses (that might even be spelled right) went door-to-door like Girl Scouts for Jesus. Nowadays it seems that they ALL do it.

Crap. I gotta get me a bigger sign. AND resist the urge to just get one saying "BEWARE OF PAGANISTIC SPIRITUALIST" or something along those lines. That would get me egged for sure.

I can't wait to move. That two-year clock for when we can start considering a move to another state is ticking down so very slowly. I'll hate leaving friends and family, but there are a lot of other things I really, really, really won't miss about Illinois. I just hope it's not too tricky to also figure out where the most open-minded areas of the east coast are, so we can pick one of those to move to, instead of inadvertantly landing in a bible-thumpin' kind of town.

More research to add to my list of things to look up, I guess.

Ah, well. Enough rambling for now.

G'night!

Current Mood: restless

The Gift We Keep On Waiting For...

The Gift, as it so shall be dubbed for the moment. The Gift that was supposed to be given to my father-in-law two weeks ago Sunday, is STILL not here. I am in a quandry as to what to do about it.

I perused the web site for the company I purchased from. They do their selling on eBay, but they maintain a web site that they link to liberally in their auctions and e-mails. Including the repeated e-mails I keep gettting "thanking" me for my purchase and encouraging me to a) leave positive feedback for them and b) buy more of their stuff. Yeah. Like THAT'S gonna happen anytime soon.

On their web site is a phone number. Thus, after the mail arrived today and still no package from them, I dialed that phone number. With the usual phone-phobic lump in my throat, I tapped away and steeled myself to ream out some poor sap stuck in a customer service cubicle in god-only-knows-where, to handle irate customers like myself.

I reached a recording. It told me to go to the web site, and that they don't offer "phone support" for their products. It then listed a bunch of URLs where I could find FAQs with more information on ordering, shipping, etc. I've BEEN to those URLs already - they aren't helpful at all. They say the same crap their e-mails do about how they don't seem to have any tracking number on my package and it could take 14 days to send my package by the slowest USPS turtle on the payroll.

These people invested in a toll-free number just to tell people that they don't offer phone service? What? Did someone tell them it "looked better" if they had a phone number on their web site, even if NO PERSON CAN ACTUALLY BE SPOKEN TO AT THE OTHER END OF IT?!?

Needless to say, no heads were rolled, rocked, or otherwise yelled at today. And I was all riled up and ready to rumble there too. Damnit!

Now what?

So, I looked more closely at the negative feedback on eBay. You see I figured they were worth the risk with over 100,000 positive feedback entries total, and currently running at 97% positive on the feedback ratio. But looking at the negatives, now I'm not so sure I'll ever even GET this package. Or a refund for that matter. Aparently the time it takes for their packages to arrive at their destinations is often a MONTH and sometimes they just never show up at all. And refunds sound rare, if at all. There was even one reference to them "bullying" people for positive feedback! What, did I order from the eBay MAFIA?

I'm thinking at this point I should check my father-in-law's list again and just go get him something else for the moment instead. If, on the odd chance, this package ever DOES arrive, then I'll tuck it away for another occasion.

Although not Christmas, as Brian and I have to make it clear to everyone somehow that we don't actually celebrate Christmas in our house, which means it is unlikely we'll be exchanging gifts this holiday season. After all, you wouldn't run around handing out "Christmas gifts" to all your Jewish friends, now would you? Our holiday is celebrated some four days before Christmas anyway. I'm just hoping it doesn't go down all tense and awkward that month.

Anyway, as for The Gift... *shakes head in frustration* It will probably show up two days after I've already bought something else and we've given it to him. Mark my words. Two days. Let's see if I'm right. If I'm successful in picking something else up tomorrow, then I'll give him a belated gift when he comes over on Sunday. That means the one I've ordered ought to show up sometime Tuesday. I'll keep you posted.

G'night!

Current Mood: discontent

Plodding through my day one low sodium Wheat Thin at a time...

The 9:00 AM appointment for the plumber happened at 8:30 AM instead. They showed up early. I suppose most people wouldn't bitch about getting their sewer line rodded out a half hour earlier than expected, now would they? No. Just little old me who has a hell of a time rolling her ass out of bed after only three hours of sleep, gotten ONE HOUR AT A TIME.

*grumble, mumble, curse, bitch, moan*

So the GOOD news is that the toilet flushes and the shower drains without either backing up into the downstairs bathroom. This IS good news INDEED.

The BAD news is that they now tell me there's a HOLE IN MY PIPE where big-ass roots are trying to reach in and block my SHIT as it passes down through with it's accompanying big honkin' wads of toilet paper...

Errr... and... um... everything else that might make it down the drain.

Hey - if you'd SEEN some of my shits, you'd understand why I blame myself every time the damn drain clogs up again. There's a REASON there's plungers conveniently located next to each toilet. *nods emphatically* We'll just leave it at that before I start describing consistency and texture here. Really. You don't want to go there when I start comparing my crap to the food it originated as.

So they gave me an estimate on digging a big old hole in my front lawn and cutting that piece of pipe to replace it with a fresh new one that Mother Nature hasn't attempted to gouge out of the earth yet. Brian has suggested we wait and see how long this rod job lasts first. If it lasts us six months to a year, we won't be in the house long enough to warrant paying that kind of money to fix it. We'd spend less calling for them to rod it out. If it lasts a couple weeks - we'll be letting them dig. And attempting to stretch the current budget out a little further. Ouch. At least the estimate they gave me was less than the horrible number that popped into my head when they showed me the little video screen with the camera pointing into the pipe to let me see the offending hole. Mostly it looked like a bunch of frayed tentacles were trying to reach into the pipe in a long thick mass. Eeew either way.

After I paid them for their services and they went on their merry plumbing way, I attempted to do today's entry in Quick Shtick Writing. We were getting bored again, so Brian killed off another non-vital character to make our main characters scatter and panic a bit again. Problem was, the server went down sometime between when I began writing the post and when I finished it. Fortunately, I know to copy and paste my text to a note if anything goes wonky when trying to post. Especially fortunate as the power went out for about two seconds later in the day and my computer shut down. Had I not saved the post to a note already, I would have had to totally re-write it. It took them hours to get the server back up - I got an e-mail explaining that someone else hosted on that particular machine abused their account somehow and mucked up the server in the process. As always, they fixed it though. Once again, I'm very pleased with the work they put in over at CleverDot.com. Thus, the link/plug for them again. I tend to do that when I know they've had to work to fix something and they took the time to keep me posted when I asked what was up.

The long-awaited gift for my father-in-law has STILL not arrived. They told me in several e-mails that it could take as much as 14 DAYS to get to me (how are they shipping it to me? BY LITERAL SNAIL???) so I've tried to be patient. Today was day 14 based on the first e-mail I received saying it had shipped (there was a second one the following Saturday, which confused me, but I'm going on the first date). Which means that if it's not on my doorstep in some manner or other tomorrow when the mail arrives - heads are gonna ROLL baby. Well, maybe rock a bit. I'm not generally overly assertive. But the key thing is that I will TRY to contact SOMEONE. RAWR! The guy shouldn't have to wait two weeks for his birthday present! GEEZ!

Also today - we had some very awesome rain. There was that power outage moment, which set poor Jareth into a state of panic for a short bit, and he trembled in my arms for a good five or ten minutes after that too. It was lucky he just happened to be sitting in my lap at the moment everything shut down. It did so with a crack and a rumble too, as it was a result of some nearby lightning. Not enough to take anything down for any length of time, but enough to surge it for a moment. Jareth has been especially snuggly lately for some reason. I had the priveledge of him napping on me for a short while today too - something he rarely does anymore. Brian came home from work in time to see Jareth all curled up on my lap and chest and he said he didn't know which one of us to be jealous of. Awwww. I know that feeling. When Jareth was still very, very small I used to be terribly jealous of him sometimes - *I* wanted to curl up on Brian's chest and take a nap. Then again, we're talking the first three months after childbirth here. I just plain wanted a NAP. Oy. At least for child #2 we've been broken in and know what to expect. Brian and I take turns, each of us getting a full night sleep every other night while the other one cat-naps on the couch or recliner with the baby in our arms. At least that's how it was for nearly three months straight with Jareth. Then three months hit (on the date) and he suddenly decided to sleep through the night. It was like he heard the doctor say "oh, he should start sleeping through the night at about three months" and Jareth went "oh, okay!" Go figure.

I've been eating crackers and fruit and stuff all day long in tiny increments. I'm amazed I've managed to maintain my current weight instead of gaining like 40 pounds. I'd still like to lose a little even though I'm pregnant, but I'm not going to push for that while I'm fighting off the nausea. I'm getting sick of my unsalted pretzels that I was using to snack on, so I've switched to Wheat Thins today. At least they are tasty. I suspect that's because they have twice as many calories in them as my pretzels do. Ugh.

Anyway, I didn't get much sleep last night so I'd better end here and go get some sleep. What a mish-mosh of rambling that was tonight eh? And to think I almost blew off posting tonight!

G'night!

Current Mood: tired

As Life Doth Spilleth Over...

Today seems to be about things spilling...

This morning, after he'd been sitting there an hour with his breakfast, I asked Jareth why he wasn't eating. It took me a while to figure out, actually, which is something I feel a bit badly about. He kept giving me this look that I couldn't quite interpret, but looking back I'd have to say it was along the lines of bewilderment. He wasn't eating breakfast because he'd thrown up!

At first I saw the small puddle under the high chair and figured one of the cats had puked. The oldest of my two cats is puking occasionally lately, although this was more of a puddle than I'm accustomed to finding with her. Then, upon closer examination, I realized my poor son was sitting stiffly in his high chair, not moving his right arm or leg because they were sticky with puke! Eeeww.

You see he hasn't ever thrown up before. Oh he'd spit up a few times as an infant, but not really hurled before. I'm pretty sure he had no clue what had just happened to him. I tried explaining that he'd "thrown up" and that if it happened again he should let mommy know so I could clean him up. Hopefully he understood me as I went about the task of sopping up the liquidy stuff with paper towels and then using a damp washcloth to wash him, the high chair, and the floor down. Afterwards we took a trip upstairs to fetch some fresh clothes for the poor little guy. He doesn't seem to have a fever. I think something may have just disagreed with him. I kept lunch light and then bulked back up at dinner, and he seems to have no trouble keeping anything else down so it must have been a fluke.

The other spill today involved the bathroom floor downstairs. I believe it was leaking out from underneath either the shower or the toilet. The water seemed clean though, so we're banking on the hopeful idea that it was the shower. Either way, the plumber is coming tomorrow to root out the crap in the sewer again. Seems we need to have that done once a year. Last year we had a wash-out (?) put in outside. A bit of pipe that means they can do the work OUTSIDE of our house instead of coming inside, dragging filthy machinery down my carpeted steps to the basement, PULLING OUT THE TOILET, and then rodding it out via the toilet drain. I think the money spent letting them tear apart my front garden bed and put that ugly white pvc pipe in will start paying off on my nerves tomorrow while they stay out there with their big noisy machine.

Of course, with having to do this every year for just over $100, it makes me wonder how much one of those big ugly machines costs. Except that's yet another thing that I don't want to have to figure out how to store for the REST of the year. I've already got too much crap in my garage.

Fortunately, we got the first paycheck from Brian's new job that had some commission on it today. Which means we can hopefully afford to pay the plumbers too! Yay!!

G'night!

Current Mood: hopeful

There goes the bandwidth for this month...

Today we had the end-of-camp party for Jareth's summer camp group. We all met at a larger park in a nearby town where the group's organizers had reserved space and rented a "bounce house" thing for the kids to jump around in. Everyone brought something to add to the table, and the group provided hot dogs and the remainder of the crafting supplies were brought out for those who missed a craft. We showed up a bit late, as I overslept a bit, but Jareth seemed to not notice and we had a good time. We lined as many kids as we could up on the bleachers for a group picture too:

I've also got an extra gallery set up with the rest of the pictures, located here as some of the other moms didn't have their camera or had a difficult time catching shots. It was tricky, since there was a fence only a few feet in front of the bleachers. I managed to get that shot by holding my camera up in the air and angling it down over the top of the fence from the other side of it. Some other shots where taken right in front of the kids, but you just couldn't get all of them in the frame at the same time without going at it from an angle or somehow behind the fence. There weren't really other good spots to line up the kids though, so we made do with what was available. I think that should be a mom's motto - "we make do with what we've got." Some days can really feel that way.

Of course that means that suddenly my site is getting a slew of hits on the gallery and then some of them will add extra load by saving the pics too. I don't think it will be a big deal, but I've never actually had enough traffic to bother keeping track of my bandwidth. It just means if I have any more gallery images to share with a group of people like that, it might wait until next month just to be safe. That's what I get for going with the inexpensive server host. Although I have to say that cleverdot.com has never been a real problem yet. There are some slow, laggy server times sometimes and the occasional downtime. Usually that means they are upgrading me again, however. I don't mind getting upgraded. *grin* And so far they've been excellent in the customer service area, which is why I link 'em now and again. I'm ALL about getting good customer service.

Today was also Brian's first half-day of work, so we spent most of the afternoon lazing about, enjoying having him around again. It feels like it's been forever since we had any time with him.

That's all for today. I'm going to blow off doing anything remotely constructive to play a computer game while unwinding before bed. Hopefully I can convince my body to sleep at a reasonable hour tonight. I don't have any plans for tomorrow, which means I've got piles and piles of stuff here to tackle.

G'night!

Current Mood: relaxed

Inner Dragon Craves ICE CREAM!

Totally cheating today, a friend of mine brought a quiz to my attention:

dragonhame.com dragon quiz

and your inner dragon is a ....

Heliotropic Dragon

In the war between good and evil, a Heliotropic Dragon tends to walk the fine line of Neutrality.
When it comes to the powers of Chaos vs. those of Law and Order, your inner dragon walks a fine line between Law and Chaos.
As far as magical tendancies, Your inner dragon has the ability to conquer the world of magic, but it will not be easy.
During combat situations, whether by spells or by claw, your inner dragon will do whatever it takes to get the job done.

Dragon Description:

Instead of scales, Heliotropic Dragons have a thick hide to cover their body. At the early stages of life, the Heliotropic Dragon is green with red speckles that resemble blood spots. When fully grown, the dragons color changes to any number of variations of violet, but predominantly they have a deep, reddish purple color with streaks of azure blue and magenta.

This unusual skin type also gives them an unusually sleek appearance and allows them to move with greater speed and freedom both in air and under water. These Dragon's are known to be highly competitive.

They often meet with other dragons to compete with each other for sport. NOTE: A few small villages have been destroyed by being so unlucky as to be in the path of a speeding Heliotropic Dragon taking a shortcut to gain an advantage over it's competitor.Heliotropic Dragons are well known for their protectiveness, but also are known as loyal friends and allies. They make true friends rarely, but those friendships that they make are well chosen and long lasting.

This Dragons favorite elements are: BloodStone and Valerian Root

Hmmm.

In other news, the new doctor I saw today has given me an estimated due date of March 19th. He says I'm only 9 weeks pregnant. However, he said some other things that unsettled/distressed/concerned me about having him as a doctor. I am currently considering UN-firing my previous OB-GYN just on the premise of the fact that they seemed more up-to-date on current information on pregnancy and childbirth. Maybe now that I can see them under the Public Aid/Medicare system I can get them to "amend" my records while I'm there and fix the reason I was "firing" them in the first place. Something in their records prevented me from getting private insurance. Something that was INCORRECT, but is now considered part of my "permanent medical record" as far as they are concerned.

*sigh*

I'm in a quandry as to what to do. Stay with the new doctor I don't like or feel comfortable with or go back to the one I liked but totally screwed me when it came to paperwork?

Decisions, decisions...

G'night!

Current Mood: confused

Oh CRAP!

I'm a bad, bad mommy. Although it's not entirely my fault, as Brian should have remembered too...

Remember just a couple days ago when I told Jareth that he couldn't go to the other gymnastics class that he saw going on while we were there, but that we'd be back for HIS GYMNASTICS CLASS ON SATURDAY?!?

Oh crap. I totally forgot. Last night, I went to bed thinking "Awesome, I don't need to set an alarm or anything for tomorrow morning. We can stay in all day!"

In fact, I didn't remember until Brian got home tonight and mentioned that he remembered it himself on the way to work this morning at about the point it would have been too late for me to get up and get there in time.

Oh.. and it WAS the last class of this session too. My poor little guy now has to wait until the next session starts on September 8th.

DAMNIT! DAMNIT! DAMNIT! BAD mommy! NO BISCUIT!

I feel so bad. I partly blame Brian's new schedule. I have to work hard to just remember what day of the week it is anymore with him working Saturdays. And this weekend is totally screwy as he's working Sunday too, for the RV show.

*sigh*

I know that someday I will be reprimanded for the expensive therapy bills my son will have to pay because his mommy couldn't get it together enough to remember his last two sessions of gymnastics class in August while he was two.

I guess next time I'll be putting it into the PDA even though it's Brian's thing to take him to and not my own. At least by that time I'll be in classes, so if nothing else that will help me keep track of which day of the week it is.

Ah, well... it will all come together in the end. I'm going to have to take him out somewhere now to make up for it though. Maybe tomorrow I'll take him to the park or something. We'll see.

G'night!

Current Mood: distressed

Reminiscing and Drooling Day...

Today I took Jareth and headed over to the Kane County RV Show, where the place Brian works at had some trailers, pop-ups and motorhomes available to see and buy. I think I went inside nearly everything that had an engine in it, generators not withstanding. Jareth got to tour about half of them, although I've all but thrown out my back from hoisting him up the steps so he could get inside. It was hot and humid out today, so I didn't feel like waiting while he tried to climb up every set of steps on every motorhome we checked out. Oof.

On the way there I realized that I'm already antsy to go somewhere. Maybe it's just the recent RV reminders with Brian's new job, but I do miss traveling. I looked westward as we crossed over route 90 on the way south to the show. A part of me wanted to turn off and start just heading out and see where I ended up. The rest of me, on the other hand, remembered I had this little two-year-old boy in the back seat with me. Thus, we went and drooled over stuff instead...

For living in, in the class A category, today's favorite was the Damon Intruder, floorplan #350. Oooooh. Count me smitten. I think I could finally learn to love slideouts. And next time we do it, we do deisel. That's been agreed upon. No more wussy gas engines after two broke down on us before.

However, the next motorhome we buy will be a class C, for family camping type trips. For that, I loved the Coachmen Leprechaun, floorplan 307KS. Normally I'm not impressed with the Coachmen floorplans, but this little model impressed me. I saw a used 2001 version of it too, and still liked it.

I didn't really look at trailers or pop-ups. I'm spoiled like that. I like to know I can get up and make a sandwich while driving, so I don't want to be in a separate car with the bulk of the kitchen being pulled behind. I also don't think we'd be happy in a pop-up after the luxury of our previous motorhome.

Anyway, gotta go tuck my little guy into bed. He's pooped after all that browsing...

G'night!

Current Mood: pleased

My Little Trooper...

I have to feel bad for my kid today. First I tell him we're going to "camp" which he enjoys so very much. Then, after I had rolled my sorry ass out of bed early so that he could go to camp, as we're putting his shoes on to leave - it starts raining.

Normally I love rain, but today it wanted to work against us.

I took him by camp to see if anyone else had come, but I wasn't suprised that there was no one else there. After that, we ran errands. One of them involved going to get him signed up for the next session of his gymnastics class. He enjoys that one a lot, as it's all about jumping and tumbling and climbing. He's almost got jumping down. He was practicing tonight and got a teensy bit of lift anyway. His current class is about to end and then there will be a couple of weeks break before the next session starts. I've signed him up for Thursday evenings so that Brian can take him to that again. Brian got a kick out of taking him for most of this session, and he's already going to be doing half days of work on Tuesdays and Thursdays so that I can go to jewlery class starting at the end of the month. So Thursdays dinner will be early and then they can go to Jareth's class while I go to mine.

The problem was, while we were there - there was another gymnastics class in session. Jareth pretty much only goes to that building for his class, and on top of that he could SEE them in the gym, tumbling and climbing and jumping... I tried to explain that that was a different class and that we'd be back for his class on Saturday, but he's TWO! C'mon, this kid's sense of time is lacking in any real depth of measurment here. I can tell him something is "tomorrow" and he'll still ask me five minutes later if it's time to go.

Needless to say there were tears shed as I took him by the hand and led him away from the class, back to the car. Poor guy. Double whammy of disappointment and then I follow it up with a trip to the grocery store. I'm a bad, bad mommy sometimes... *pout*

Although I did introduce him to the joys of Starburst this evening. I was hesitant, as he's not really been given anything quite that sticky-chewy to eat before, but he seemed to enjoy it considerably. But, no - I generally do NOT bribe my child with sweets. Fruit, on the other hand, is fair game. Right? Mmmmm.

This kid is totally benefitting off of his mommy's cravings lately. But knowing I have to either share with him or eat it furtively while he's sleeping is at least keeping my own sweets intake down to somewhat minimal. That's something anyway. I'm trying to keep eating healthy and indulge my cravings in small doses now and again. Unless the craving happens to be a healthy one. At which point all bets are off. *grin*

G'night!

Current Mood: indescribable

Cobweb time...

Well, since my health seems to be keeping me mostly home (not that my budget can afford for me to go out anyway at the moment) and I have absolutely no inclination to do much in the way of housework while I feel crappy, I've started working on cleaning out the blogroll on my sidebar. At some point I need to take some of those links and drop them into the site itself under different categories, as they aren't blogs at all. I'm only on "D" so far, and I've found four blogs that have either gone missing or the last post was months ago stating that they weren't going to blog anymore.

It's really tough to delete stuff, but I keep adding blogs and I don't want it to scroll down for forever with blogs I don't have time to read. One rule of thumb lately - if it doesn't have RSS, it's unlikely I stay current on it. And even that doesn't always work. I have some in RSS feed that I'm more than 100 posts behind on! I just don't have time to read all the good blogs out there, so I need to limit myself to just a few. Mostly funny ones. Or honest, down-to-earth ones. There's a few that are wonderful writers but they just seem too wordy in the end. Not that I can really say much about that. Pot? Meet kettle.

On that note, I'll just stop rambling for now.

G'night!

Current Mood: gloomy

Something's Gotta Give...

So maybe I need to put a "physical health" type of category on this blog next. You know, something titled "Fun With Phlem" maybe? No. Mostly because I don't want a counter later on that tells me just how many posts fit into that category. Urrgh.

Today isn't about phlem though. Nope. Not snot. First I'll be venting about sleep. Or, rather, the lack thereof...

Last night I tried waiting for my body to settle down before heading upstairs. My legs sometimes have a problem (I believe it's called "restless leg") where it feels almost like they itch on the inside and I can't seem to keep them still. It's far, far worse during pregnancy. My poor knees were all but dancing a drum roll on the bottom of the slim metal drawer underneath my desk.

*bounce. bouncety-bounce. KICK. bounce* and so on...

Around 2 AM I got sick of waiting and went up to bed anyway. I crawled into bed with a (supposedly) empty bladder and tried to snuggle in and get some sleep.

About 2:30 AM I went to the bathroom. And again around 3, 3:30, 4, and 5. Yes, that's right - I made it a WHOLE HOUR WITHOUT PEEING! Woohoo.

Unfortunately I didn't SLEEP during any of those half-hour intervals. Nor the hour long one either. It wasn't until about 5 AM that I finally fell asleep. I tossed. I turned. I swore and beat the pillow senseless. Nothing seems to work but pure, raw, utter exhaustion.

I never heard the alarm at 7 AM. I have a vague recollection of Brian leaving for work a little before 8 AM (and I think I got up briefly and peed again, but never bothered to look at the clock).

So, we didn't go to "camp" today. Because mommy overslept. Until 10 AM. But that's still only like four hours of sleep. *grumble, grumble, grumble*

And then... there was the BOUT.

For those "less enlightened" of my readers, I have an irritable colon. Not irritable as in - geez, lady, lay off the coffee already! - no... mine is irritable in the sense that it takes great joy in strangling its contents with great chomping grips that can send me to my knees grabbing for something to hold onto, until my colon decides it's time to expel EVERYTHING I'VE EVER EATEN violently out my ass in THREE ROUNDS OF FLAMING, EXPLOSIVE SHIT!!!

And that's the tamed-down version too.

Now, USUALLY I have this relatively under control. I've even gotten so far as to manage it with mostly herbal supplements and diet. When I'm pregnant, it USUALLY eases up more. When I'm not pregnant I also sometimes need a product called Bentyl which helps. I'm off the Bentyl right now as I like to have as little as possible in the way of medications going through my system while I'm pregnant. It's bad enough I can't get off the allergy stuff without spending the day in bed with my head on ice.

TODAY, on the other hand, I got reminded just how much I've had it under control. Today, after having not enough sleep, I spent a good chunk of my morning running into the bathroom to sit there and wish the total remodelling of my downstairs bathroom was more than just an idea in my head. Because when *I* design a bathroom, I look at it for location of decent handholds to grip while my COLON EXTRACTS ITSELF FROM INSIDE ME! Honestly, if I ever have DEAR GOD, JUST KILL ME NOW moments - it's when my colon is acting up.

Let's just say I didn't get a whole hell of a lot done today. We have higher hopes for tomorrow. We also now finally have an OB-GYN appointment set up for next Monday. I'm hoping we can finally get a closer estimate on how far along I am in this pregnancy, along with maybe getting some resolution on what the hell I'm supposed to do now that I'm a nauseated, insomniac with restless legs and a colon that hates her. I hope this doctor understands that fine balance between risk vs. reward like the last one I had did. Because I am one stressed-out mommy-to-be.

And I swear I can already feel this kid moving around in there.

Or maybe it's just my colon.

G'night!

Current Mood: stressed

First Harvest

The tomatoes in my garden seem to be doing better than any of the other things I have potted around them. I don't know when broccoli is supposed to start looking like broccoli, for example, but mine sure isn't there yet. My chives seem to be doing well enough, but my onions are still tiny. I think I may have needed to plant them deeper into the pot to begin with.

On the other hand, a short while ago I just picked my first small selection of cherry and grape tomatoes:

And yes, they ARE yummy. I'd say about 1/6th of the tomatoes seen in that picture have already been devoured. WHOLE. Squish! Squirt! Mmmmm!

There are more coming, but we'll see how long they stretch out for. Next year, I may need more plants. *grin* Maybe I should just plant those in my side beds and the heck with planting flowers! I wonder what my neighbors would think of THAT! Mwahahahaha.

That's all for now. Maybe more later. Maybe not. *shrug*

Current Mood: devious

Family Night Out...

Well this weekend seemed unbearably short. With Brian working, yesterday didn't feel like a Saturday AT ALL, especially since I spent most of the day still feeling lousy. Fortunately, I felt better today. I'm still not perfect - the stomach has still felt off for most of the day - but I was well enough to get out of the house at least. Brian's dad had a birthday on Friday and we celebrated today by gathering together at a restaurant he wanted to check out called Stir Crazy, followed by some pie and coffee at a Baker's Square. All food eaten was yummy and allowed room for me to be a tad picky and go for stuff my stomach didn't grumble about. It was probably the biggest meal I've eaten in days. And didn't feel overly unhealthy, despite all the massive quantities of oil they kept dousing the stir fry with. With all those veggies in there, how could I go wrong? And I've got enough leftovers that if I just add a little more rice I've got dinner tomorrow too. SWEET!

No leftovers on the pie though. Mommy crave! I had coconut cream, since Brian can't eat coconut (the texture does something funny to his throat) and therefore I rarely get any myself. I love coconut. My mom used to buy them and crack them open on the back stoop so we could scrape the fruit out of the shell and eat it fresh. Yum. I'll have to make a point of doing that with Jareth one day. He didn't seem to have any trouble eating bites off of my plate tonight anyway.

Today seemed to zoom by though, and now I'm sitting here wondering where the "weekend" got to. It feels more like we've got a 6-day week and a 1-day weekend now. Especially since Brian doesn't get any of his half-days until after next weekend, as they will be busy prepping for a show. Next weekend he will have to work on Sunday as well. It seems they don't get any days off to compensate for extra days put in... hrm. I'm only assuming that because it's a smaller "family oriented" kind of place, that the balance will come out when I need Brian during those first few weeks after the next baby is born. Until then, at least, I guess I'd better suck it up eh?

I just miss him already. He seems to like the new job, but I never get to see him for very long.

And to think, a little over a week ago I couldn't wait for him to get back to work and out of my hair after his week at home! I guess I have to learn to watch what I wish for a little better.

Hopefully this "feeling better" stage will hold for a little while at least. I've certainly got a LOT of crap on my desk that needs my attention. That, and I took a good look at the front beds in my yard on the way in today and they could really, really, REALLY use some help. I've been threatened with a ticket to get the lawn cut (when we were only letting it go an extra few days to help re-seed the lawn), so I don't want the WEED POLICE on my back next. Good grief! I guess it's time to move those roses to where I want them and get those beds ready for stuff to get planted in them next spring. I've got maybe ONE DAFFODIL in there that I want there. And even that technically wants... shifting to a better spot. At least now I own shovels and stuff after doing the tomato bed. Some of my tomatoes are about ready to pick too! Yum!

Sounds like my week is already starting to form up. I haven't even started yet and I already need a nap. Sheesh!

G'night!

Current Mood: good

Under the Weather...

Sorry no blog, but I'm not feeling so hot. I had been looking forward to some stuff this weekend too, and yesterday I spent most of the day in bed. Today was not a whole lot better. Also, Brian's new schedule means that he is working on Saturdays now, so any "family plans" I had are now totally out the window. It's going to take a while of adjusting to this new schedule. It pretty much feels like I am never going to get to see my husband anymore. *pout*

I'm hoping I feel well enough tomorrow to leave the house as we have plans to have dinner with Brian's folks. We'll be celebrating his dad's birthday, so we're going out instead of the usual home-cooked deal at one of our houses. The restaurant he picked sounds fun and yummy.

Of course, what really sucks is that his gift hasn't arrived yet. It looks like we'll have to make him wait. *grumble* I can't even seem to get a tracking number out of the people who I bought it from.

Anyway, it's time to tuck my little guy into bed and then I think I'm going to be crawling into my own.

I am SO TIRED OF FEELING SICK!!!

Current Mood: sick

Things that go WHOOOOOOOOMMMP!

If there's anything that terrifies my little boy the most, it's the lights suddenly going out. At about 8:45pm last night, half the neighborhood lost power. All of a sudden, the whole house made this sort of WHOOOOOOOMMMMP kind of noise and we were suddenly blanketed over in darkness and silence. Three computers ground to a halt. The fountain and lights in the iguana cage stopped working. Three fans across the house stopped spinning. Lights everywhere winked off, along with the fridge, the clocks, two-thirds of our phones (there's a reason the bedroom has never bothered going cordless too and this was it!), the vcrs, the satellite receiver, and all the little night-lights I have strategically around to keep us from tripping at night. Oh. And the air conditioning turned off, along with the loud fan that distributes it throughout the house.

There was this moment of utter silence while Jareth and I both processed what had happened. I still had one hand resting on the mouse as I'd been browsing a web site. Jareth had been standing next to my chair, still totally distracting me from the web site after having climbed down off my lap where we'd been "snuggling" (read "tickling and squirming with the occasional hug or kiss thrown in for good measure").

Then the dam broke and his little terrified voice piped up with his fears. I was really glad he happened to be right there as it would have taken me a bit to find him. I scooped him up and started fumbling for the Aim 'n Flame I keep handy. Fortunately it was exactly where I had thought I kept it, and I lit candles with one hand while holding my little clinging boy in the other and saying soothing things to try and help him get past his fear.

Thus, last night, he really and truely learned the word "dark".

Basically, as I was getting the first few candles lit, is when Brian finally came in the door after having been gone for two days. Go figure. Then we had to figure out how we could put Jareth to bed. I called the electric company and got an estimated repair time of 10:45pm - far, far too late to keep Jareth up waiting for his nightlight to come back on. He's not quite alright with sleeping in the total dark, so we finally found a battery-operated light that we have and put it up against the wall so it wouldn't be TOO bright. Poor kid was very confused.

The lights came back on early though, so Brian ended up trying to slip back in and retrieve the battery light to save on it's batteries. Which resulted in a short spat of renewed tears from Jareth who didn't want to go to bed in the first place.

Yeah, kid. I know... life's rough ain't it? Having to do all that "bedtime" stuff and all? Whatever! Man, do I ever wish he could bottle up all that extra naptime he doesn't take now and pop them open as "naptime opportunities" for later in life when he'll need them. I know I could use some extra "naptime opportunities" about now. *yawn*

As for today, we had camp, errands, naptime (for me too today) and then dinner. My sister joined us for dinner tonight and brought over some Eli's Bailey's cheesecake for dessert (mmmm) as well as some of a dessert she made that I got to sample but Brian ate most of as it was laced with actual alcohol. She's left me with the recipe and I plan to tamper with it further once I'm not pregnant. *grin* I'm not going to get to see much more of her for a while though as she heads back off to college on the 15th, although she's coming back one weekend a week to keep her job at Ikea (we pronounce it "icky-ah" in our house) so she can keep her seniority there.

Oh yeah... I just remembered the other thing I wanted to blog about tonight. The bitch I saw endangering her child today. *puts on her best dragon glare* This woman was either oblivious or didn't care that her child was half hanging out the window at the back seat behind her while she drove along at 45+ miles per hour on a busy road! The kid had his arms crossed on the door and was leaning waaaaaay out like a dog might! He either didn't have his seat belt on or it wasn't fastened properly to be allowing him to lean out like that. He may have been just old enough to not legally need a booster seat in the car anymore, but COME ON! One little accident, even just a fender-bender, and that kid could have been TOAST! I was horrified. I even tried waving at the mother in the front seat and stuff, doing all but rolling down my window and honking my horn, but she was totally focused on the road ahead of her and noticing nothing!

Is there something I can do about this woman? Report her to someone? I did get the make, color, and license plate off her car and I might go over to Roadragers.com and put a report there, but that's supposed to be for bad driving (like the guy that went up onto the curb just to try to get around me as I waited to go around another guy making a left the other day - I got his plate number too, as he had also been tailgating me even though I couldn't go any faster than the traffic in front of me!) and not for bad parenting. Arrrgh. It looked like there was another kid in that car too. I hope she isn't that negligent in all her parenting!

Okay, enough ranting, I'm tired. I'm going to wind down a little and try to get to bed early tonight. I've not been sleeping well lately at all.

The good news? I think the nausea I've been having is finally starting to let up. Maybe. At least that's my fervent hope.

G'night!

Current Mood: tired

My GOD they're EVERYWHERE!!!

When I get nicely printed, photo-quality copies of my pictures, I generally order from the Kodak Gallery web site. I've found out a few frustrating things about them, such as the fact that if you DO do the "zoom and trim", then you run the risk of having a super-cute photo get the top of it lopped off. Obviously there is a computer running the show over there, not a human being. If you do NOT order the "zoom and trim", however, you will get white bars on either end of your photo. It is becoming clear that I will have to resize them myself before uploading them onto their server, since it will be a whole hell of a lot easier than doing it online.

Also, there's apparently a glitch somewhere in their ordering system. I placed a huge order for about 5 months worth of pictures. One particular picture I ordered extra copies of, as I did for several others I planned on sharing with friends and family. Three copies of this particular photo, I ordered. Three.

Somehow, between my entering in that "3" and them processing my final total, it became THREE HUNDRED AND TEN!!!!

Not only that, but this particular picture is one of my in-laws. One that I didn't even take as it was from my father-in-law's camera! He gives me a CD every now and again, with copies of the pictures so I can make prints of the ones of my kid and so forth if I want.

Would someone please tell me who in their right mind would ever want 310 copies of a picture of their in-laws??? I mean, it's a nice enough picture of them, but COME ON ALREADY!!

Thus, I have decided that there is quite obviously no human being in charge of processing the orders. One big mega-computer is happily processing payments and orders and spewing out pictures at the other end. Because if *I* were the person who was told to print out THREE HUNDRED AND TEN copies of somebody's parents smiling at the camera, I WOULD QUESTION IT!

Needless to say, I have 307 copies bundled up with one of their return forms to go back to the pharmacy I picked them up at. I SO want that money BACK. I hadn't realized, as I was using a coupon and ordering a huge amount of pictures, that THAT little doozer cost more than the rest of the photos COMBINED.

*cough, gack, hack, wheeze*

I guess I'll either be ordering from someone else or triple-checking (I thought I'd double-checked it before paying, but it was a LOT of pictures) my order before paying next time. Sheesh!

Anyway, not sure what time Brian gets back tonight, but I can't wait. I watched three dvds yesterday and they were all undoubtably "chick flicks" indeed - The Prince and Me (Fluff. Entertaining if you're in the mood for that sort of fluff, but fluff nonetheless.), Alfie (Well, THAT was a total waste of my time. Sorry about that nasty little blemish in the careers of those actors. The movie was self-indulgent and without point. Kind of like the... um... protagonist?), and The Phantom of The Opera (Very pretty cinematography, but some gaps in the plot got left. It seemed like they added to the story and didn't want to get too specific in case it offended die-hard fans of the musical. Overall, I liked it. I love the music although some of it falls flatter on a screen than in a theatre and needed a little more to look at for the longer-but-slow songs. I hated Gerard Butler though. I didn't feel his voice portrayed what I wanted to hear in the music. He sounded too young for the part. I also didn't like the "puppet" scenes he was making in his basement. It made him seem more like a serial killer/madman than the eccentric genius/madman we could sympathize with.) - They weren't a total waste of time, but still sappy chick flicks in the end.

Yes. I cried. Yes. Kleenex was employed and then disposed of. Yadda yadda yadda. I can currently milk the "I'm pregnant and therefore emotional" excuse, so therefore will. *mumble, grumble, mumble* Besides, it kept me away from the ice cream. There's even still some cookies left. Go me!

That's all for now.

G'night!

Current Mood: surprised

But I Wanna Go Too!

So, I just now realized that last night's entry had a typo in it that left about 1/4 of the post missing. *sigh* One stupid end quotation mark (or lack thereof) can muck up a whole lot. It's fixed, and now the post makes more sense. Not that it made a whole lot of sense, but what do you want from a ramble? Nyah.

Tomorrow begins two days of Brian being MIA. He's going to see where the campers and other stuff are made that they sell where he now works. He came home from his first day today still excited about the prospect of selling motorhomes and campers, so I have high hopes that this will work out for him. He's stuffing his head full of tons of new trivia relating to the job. The pattern of him spontaneously sharing some statistic or tidbit about what he's working with has begun anew. It will go on for weeks or even months before he weans down to only occasional trivia between stories from work. I've seen this pattern many times now, and it is usually an interesting one. Although it does depend on where he's working. Some companies just don't have anything interesting about them!

I'm just glad he's out of the recall center. He had callers calling and complaining at him all the time and frankly he was getting progressively grumpier as a result. I kept having to point out that his patience seemed to be dwindling, even with us at home. It was wearing on him something fierce and I'm SO glad he's gotten a chance to move on to something different.

But, as a result, I'll be spending the next two days without him as he gets to go do cool stuff. Bugger. *I* want to see how motorhomes are made! *pout*

And, NO, I'm not just saying that because I'll miss him while he's away. I honestly would like to see it. After living in a motor home for as long as we did, it would be really neat to see how they put some of that stuff together.

Several years back we happened to have the opportunity to tour the Saturn plant in Tenessee while visiting for a big Civil War event in a field next door. Considering the event was rained heavily on and we left part of our muffler behind trying to drive out of a rainy field at night while Brian huddled in a blanket coughing and shivering after catching cold - I'd say the Saturn tour was actually one of the highlights of that trip for us. We got driven around on a golf cart while a very nice woman explained what each section of the plant was doing and how they did things differently than other car companies. I actually looked at buying a Saturn the next time I was getting a car, but found that the interior of the basic Saturn model was... well... cramped. I like my car to feel more spacious than that. Maybe the newer models are better now - I don't know. I'd have to test drive one to find out. They didn't have a wagon or SUV back then yet.

Anyway, it was fun taking the tour. It was just us and a couple of other people - not some big huge tour group - so we got to ask plenty of questions and see lots of stuff. I'd love to do more tours of places like that. When Jareth gets a little older, we'll have to see what's in the area. It would be a neat addition to his homeschooling curriculum, if you ask me.

Anyway, I'm rambling again. Tomorrow, after camp, we'll run some errands and grab a few "chick flicks" that Brian isn't interested in seeing. That ought to keep me distracted from Brian being missing at dinner and beyond. I've got a list of eight movies already, but won't have that much time on my hands. I've got laundry and other crap to do too this week! Not to mention plans to go out for a bit with RainMoon on Wednesday. Not sure what we're doing yet, but we'll figure something out. *grin*

Okay, enough for now...

G'night!

Current Mood: envious