Thursday, November 29, 2007

Wow.

 
Yeah. I'm really big now.


That doesn't even look real, does it!?

I will never be used to seeing myself like this. It all goes too fast to get used to anything. Just when I thought I was used to it, I got bigger. I wonder how big I'll get yet. I've still supposedly got five weeks to go. Oy.

We're goin' to the Brown/Tracy baby shower this weekend at Amanda and Josh's house. I'm lookin' forward to seeing people I've not seen in awhile from Willi's family. I'm also lookin' forward to seeing Amanda and Josh's house again. We've not been there since May!

This will be my last traveling weekend, I think, until the baby comes. That's a really weird thought. Wow. I actually hadn't realized that until I just now typed it. I will be going nowhere (nowhere far, that is) after this weekend until game day. Holy schmacks.

I'm just gonna sit here and digest that.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Email Conversation Between Willi and Me


Jenny -
You're already getting me into trouble this morning.
WAB




How did I manage that?
BTW, did you hear the freaking 10 minute long Steely Dan song when we got here!? WTF!?




Jennifer -
Yes I did and thought of you.
Someone was asking how you were on the phone and mentioned you must be getting big enough to pop.  I made some Willy Wonka references, specifically you as Violet.  Maybe you needed juiced.
Everyone yelled at me afterwards.
WAB




HA HA HA HAHA!
You've got a blueberry for a wife.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Hank! (Mildly graphic content.)

No worries, everyone! Hank is okay!

I called my vet yesterday (they weren't in the office until 3:30 because of some conference or something), and when I told the lady what was wrong with Hank, she said, "Can you bring him in right now?"

I was like, "Uhh . . . maybe . . . um . . . I'll try to."

So, I left work early (after talking to people, of course, and ditching Willis since he had to stay until 5 p.m.), and I ran home. When I got there, I let the dog out, and then I went to collect the cat. When I went to grab him, the poor thing was hanging out in his litter box again and looking all frustrated. So, I waited for him . . . and waited . . . and waited. When he finally came out of the litter box, I let him clean himself up, and then I grabbed him up and ran out the door. We got to the vet with ten minutes to spare, luckily.

After a bit of waiting in the examination room, the vet came in and expressed Hank's bladder on the table. I was a little surprised at this, as I didn't realize that she had actually meant to have the cat pee all over the place. She told me afterwards that she did that on purpose, of course. They took a sample of that urine for a urinalysis. She told me that the fact that he actually peed meant that he wasn't "blocked."

She not only looked relieved about that, but she said that was a good thing. If he had been blocked (and if she had not been able to get him to pee), she said he'd have had to stay overnight to have a catheter put in and to be monitored. Oy. So . . . I was pretty relieved, too. I think Hank was also relieved considering I think this was the first time the poor cat had peed in a couple of days.

The vet gave Hank an antibiotic shot and an anti-inflammatory shot (for his pain), and we were on our way. She said they'd give us a call about the urinalysis the next morning.

Yesterday evening, Hank looked like a new cat! He actually looked like he felt better. He was all social, and his eyes looked brighter. He was even jazzy and whatnot—he attacked me in the bathroom right before I went to bed. (The cat occasionally attacks me in the bathroom when I'm leaving the room to go to bed. He's a spaz like that.)

Well, today the vet called me herself to tell me that our kitty is okay. He just has inflammation of the bladder (she said some fancy word that I couldn't repeat or spell). So, to treat him, we have to put him on some special food and sprinkle some special anti-inflammatory capsules that taste like salmon on his food for awhile. I don't think he's going to mind too much.

Now that this post has been primarily about my kitty, I must post a happy photo of him. Here:

Monday, November 19, 2007

In Cars

I basically have one thing to share today. So, here it is:


We saw these guys when we went to the grocery yesterday.

Now, tell me that you can't smile. Liar.

Okay . . . two more things: I made bread in my rice cooker, and our house is -like- kind-of coming together somewhat, which is nice.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

The Mother of All Posts

Wow. Do I have a lot to post about today. It's mostly photos, so I'll get started on that.


Here's a shot of our nasty upstairs flooring that was under all the carpet. This is before we sanded and put polyurethane down.


Sanding in action, basically.


Here's a shot of one of the four bedrooms with the finished floors.


Upstairs landing/hallway finished.


This is a shot of our bedroom with finished floors.


And, of course, here's the lovely, wood paneling room with finished floors.

And now, here are some pretty fall photos from our street.


This is our street. If I had taken this photo a week prior, it'd have been much prettier, I think. I missed the really good colors.


This is the sidewalk on our street. Our house is actually a few houses down from where I'm standing.


A shot up the neighbor's awesome tree.


This is the extent of my fall decorating.


Shot of our street from the porch. It's a pretty view these days.

And now, it's time to gross you out. We cleaned our electronic air cleaner the other night, and it was so bad, we HAD to share.


Firstly, this is where the electronic air cleaner goes. (We've already pulled out the filter parts here.)


Isn't that disgusting? The dirtiest parts are the prefilters (the two filters laying on top).


Here's a shot of the air cleaner fins. They're pretty sick, too, but you can't really tell here. You'll be able to tell in the next photo.


Look at the water. See what I mean? Siiiiick.

And now, it's time to show you what I cooked in our rice cooker the other night. I'm so excited about it. It took 10 minutes, and the whole time it was cooking, I was doing dishes and cleaning up the kitchen. That's usually a task that is saved for after cooking (and while the food gets cold). When it cooked in ten minutes, it flipped to warm, and the stuff stayed warm until we were ready to eat. It was so stinking awesome. I love it. Love it, love it, love it.


It's shells and cheese with tuna (we need to get to the grocery—this was a "dig in the pantry" night). We added diced tomatoes to it, too. We like those cold, though—not cooked.


Here's the pretty rice cooker. Ooooh. Pretty.

That's pretty much it for the photo session of this post.

In other news, I went to the doctor this morning. That went well. The beeb has moved from the transverse position to being in the "correct" position for the rest of this journey. I was pretty thrilled to hear that. I can't believe I didn't notice that happening. This kid moves quite a bit as it is, though. My CNM told me I've gained about 37 pounds, but she was assuming I weighed less than I did when I came in, so I think it's more like 30. Either way, though, I'm huge. I'm just glad she didn't -like- yell at me or anything. I'm not sure I'd be able to do anything about it, anyway. I eat when I'm hungry, and I eat fairly healthy. I keep active, too.

The baby's heart rate is clockin' in at 136 bpm these days. The last time I was in, it was in the upper 140s. It sounds strong, though, and I'm not surprised since this rat is kickin' me a lot.

I can't believe how fast this is going. Seven more weeks. That's not very far away.

And now, I get serious for a minute.

The closer that we get to game day, the more I am realizing what my sisters have been telling me since they started having kids. I know fear, now. I'm not afraid of being a parent. I'm not afraid of labor and delivery. So what is it that makes me afraid? Every day lately, I have crippling thoughts of losing Willis to a car accident or some freak thing—leaving me alone to bring this baby home to our big, empty house in La Porte. I worry that something is going to happen to me and the baby before this kid is even born (leaving Willis to deal with the loss of two instead of one). I think about when this kid gets older and all the horrible things that could happen. I fear having to bury this kid before the world buries me. I feel like a total nutcase! I sat there and cried to Willis about it last night. He sat there and talked me down, and he's the one that's usually the worrier. It's neat, though, instead of further worrying him, he was able to put any worry he had to the side and help me with mine. That's how it's supposed to work, and thank God it does.

I get it now, guys (sisters). I get it. It's terrifying. I can see how it's all worth it, though. I don't think I'll ever regret this.

Dilly out.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Ridiculous Photoshop Action


Okay. I have to share these photos. They're just too absurd to keep to myself.

I had to do this project for work. They intend to use the final photo in a Power Point presentation at a sales meeting to embarrass/tease the guy that's on the scooter. I'm not going to say who that guy is on the scooter, but I know him.

Check it out:


This is the original, untouched photo that I started with for this project.


This is the metamorphosis of the project. I was asked to replace the guy's clothes with black leather. (Notice that he still has on the brown sandals. I couldn't let those go. I just thought they were funny with black leather. If it wasn't for the helmet, I might have attempted black boots, but the helmet requires the brown sandals.)


As if that wasn't enough, I was asked to remove the guy from his Aruba setting and put him in Hawaii.

I was told that I am scary.

Photoshop is just a cool program. That's all I know.

32 Weeks and 5 Days

 
Here I am at 32 weeks and 5 days. Am I not a sphere with arms and legs? For serious.

Special thanks to Jacki for taking all these photos of me (except for the two Maggie took for me once, of course). Jacki, you HAVE to be so sick of taking these pictures of me!

Monday, November 12, 2007

Bellies, Floors, Scary Holes, and Rice Cookers


I'm feeling a bit white-trashy today. My clothes aren't quite fitting anymore. My belly is practically hanging out the bottom of my maternity shirt, and my maternity pants that I'm wearing no longer cover any portion of my belly (they're the kind that fit on the underside of the belly). I look like something you'd see on a hot summer day at Indiana Beach or something. I don't have many other pairs of pants that fit that I can wear to work right now. I have maybe two or three pair that fit, and I never seem to have them clean when I need them. Luckily, it's as if God heard me (or, God forbid, He saw me today) or something because a lady at work brought me some maternity clothes that are nice and humongous. That'll help. I've gotta hem some pants, but at least I know I'll be able to breathe from here on out. Thank God. Thank that lady at work, too. It's crazy how lucky I've been this whole time. Every need seems to be taken care of at right when I needed it. How sweet is that? This can't be just coincidence.
BTW, my belly has its own gravitational pull. So, be careful if you come over. You could end up stuck to my shirt just like everything else.

We got our floors sanded this weekend. We're still putting on coats of urethane, but we're at least done with the major work. That marks the end of all major work before the baby comes (besides cleaning the house, setting up the room, and preparing things). So, we're really relieved. Willis is the most relieved, I'm sure. He's the one that's been doing the massive grunt work. Poor guy. He's gotta have some gargantuan muscles by now. He said this morning that his hands were tingling. It kind-of freaked me out at first, but then I remembered that he busted his butt all weekend pulling up staples on the floors. There were some SEVERE, stubborn staples, and I heard him grunting a lot when he was ripping those out. It sounded pretty harsh. I imagine that's why his hands are tingly. My hands are tingly thinking about it.

I'll have some photos later this week—once we get all the urethane down and I take some photos.

I submitted our basement hole story to Ask This Old House today. It'd be cool if they came to our house to solve the mystery and fix it for us. I fully don't expect to hear back or anything, but I thought, "What the hell?"

Every single person I've talked to about it (and I've talked to a lot of people now) has NEVER heard of ANYTHING like that happening to ANYONE in their whole lives. That's pretty messed up.

I bought a rice cooker last night. It felt totally frivolous. It turns out, though, that you can cook more things in a rice cooker than just rice or veggies. Oh, yes. I'm excited to learn these fun things. I've read that you can even make bread in them. How crazy is that!? We've been eating a ton of rice lately, though. It just made sense to me.

I finally baked Frank some cookies this weekend. Those were overdue . . . I can't believe how stinking awesome nice our neighbors are. We totally win.

In other news, I really hope I don't get sick this winter. That'd be rough. It's already hard enough to breathe right now.

It seems like all my friends are having babies! Babies everywhere! It won't be long now for me. I can't believe how fast this has gone.

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Halloweeny

Oh, wow. Lots to update about.

Firstly, our neighbor Frank mowed and trimmed our yard while we were at work on Tuesday. I think he may have even picked up dog poo, too. At first, Willi and I thought, "Oh, man . . . he must be tired of looking at our yard (we've not been keeping up on it that well this year due to me not being able to help much and due to us being so ridiculous busy with getting ready for this kid)," but now that I've thought about it for a couple days, I'm pretty sure the guy was just being nice. I should seriously bake him some cookies or something . . . but when!? He's such a nice neighbor.

Secondly, Halloween came and went! Trick-or-treating was Sunday night in my neighborhood. I totally thought it started at 6 p.m., but it apparently started at 4 p.m. So, I was late getting out there with my candy. I felt bad about that. We still had a bajillion kids come, though.

Randy and Kelly came over with their little rats. Melissa was Elmo. She was sooooo stinkin' cute. I wish I'd busted out the camera. Marian had on a cute little pumpkin outfit. Her butt had a jack-o-lantern face. It was neat to meet her. She's a good little baby.

Willi made beef and noodles that day for us all to eat for dinner, and it was awesome. He's as good as somebody's grandma with that stuff. He's gettin' to be a pro with that crock pot. I'm loving it. It's so tasty, and it makes my life so easy. Randy and Kelly brought desserts, and we scarfed.

During trick-or-treating, we did have a random kid ask to use our bathroom while her mother waited for her at our steps. We let her, of course, but . . . it was still a little strange. I escorted her through the house, of course, but not in the actual bathroom.

Here's what I dressed as for Halloween (this is probably the worst photo of me pregnant that there is so far). People at work peer pressure me into dressing up for Halloween every year, and this year, I took the apathetic route. Nobody yelled at me.


I kept having to change up the face because I kept knocking the mouth off on my desk. I kept giving it facial expressions to match my mood. You're lucky you're not seeing the mean face here.

Also, I helped to make this girl's costume possible. Check it out.


I did the measurements and cut out all those letters. I didn't actually put it together, though.


Here's the back with the nutrition facts and whatnot. I'm pretty proud of myself on this one especially since I was doing those letters and things based on proportions and math. I'm terrible with math.

Last night on Halloween, we discovered this scary action in our basement. We're pretty creeped out by it, and we've got NO idea what to do about it since we've never heard of anything like this ever happening before. Check it out:


This is our basement floor next to the water heater. Yeah. That's a hole.


Closer look at the hole.


Shot of the floor of the hole. Our cat could seriously fit down here and take a comfortable little stroll. How scary is that!? This is below our basement floor!


Here's a shot from inside the hole. I have no idea what direction this is facing . . . but it might be towards where our furnace sits.


Here's another shot inside the hole. It's pretty creepy down there. Since it was Halloween, I half expected to pull my camera out, look at the LCD screen, and see some creepy beast living down there or something. It was dark in that hole when I took those pictures. Scary, scary stuff, man.

Has anybody ever heard of there being -like- a crawlspace underneath a basement before!? What is this!?

In other news, I definitely passed my glucose screening test with flying colors. I needed less than a 130 to pass, and I scored a 117. So, I win. Everything else is pretty much normal. (I had a doc appointment this morning.) My iron is a twinge low, but I can handle that, I'm sure. I have stretch marks in places I never dreamed would see stretch marks. For example, my calves now have stretch marks. How messed up is that? My belly doesn't have any, though, surprisingly. I'm sure it will before I'm done.

Oof . . . I think that's all I have for now. Dilly out.