Stupid.

If I wanted to, I could be in a bad mood right now. Somehow, though, I've managed to fight it. Here's why I could be in a bad mood. Someone removed my braunschweiger and cheese from the fridge at work today. I've had braunschweiger and cheese stocked in the fridge at work for nine months (and not the same package, mind you. I've been through several packages), now. Apparently, someone suddenly has a problem with that. Also, I was talking to some ladies in the lunch room today, and one of them started asking about names. I mentioned that Willis and I have a list of names that we're taking with us to the hospital, and I didn't really give any details. Then, another lady that was sitting in the room (and was not necessarily part of the conversation) actually looked at me and said, "You're not going to name it Willis if it's a boy are you?" My gut reaction was to say, "Um . . . wow. That's not really any of your business," but luckily, I have a really strong filter on my mouth. So, what she heard me say out loud was, "Well . . . my husband is the fifth Willis, so . . . we might. We'll just have to choose a good middle name so that we can call the kid by that middle name, much like they did for him and his dad and so on." The lady literally crinkled up her nose. The other ladies I was speaking with actually tried to help me out by saying, "It is tradition. People do this all the time." Then, the crinkled up nose lady goes, "Well . . . you have to stop sometime." See? I could be in a heck of a mood right now, but somehow, I'm able to just look at all this and say, "Well . . . that was stupid." 'Cause it is. It's stupid. This also largely explains why I don't really talk about names with people. I like to avoid situations like that one. In other news, I'm at 37 weeks today. I have an appointment this afternoon. Here's what I look like: I'm also nearly over my cold now. It's not quite completely gone yet, but . . . it's really close. And no. We don't have the baby's room ready yet, and we probably won't by the time he/she comes. Somehow, I'm getting less and less worried about it. I didn't think that was possible. I'm just falling into the mindset of "everything will work out," I guess. It always does, doesn't it? I can't do everything at once right now, and I'm realizing that and accepting it. That's about all I can do to keep my sanity. Gotta go!

For Christmas, we're getting a baby.

This weekend proved to be fairly productive for us, and yet, I don't feel too exhausted or anything. I took plenty of breaks, and I didn't really do anything too hardcore, which is fairly unusual for me when we're productive on a weekend. Saturday, we searched Northwest Indiana hardcore for a real Christmas tree (seriously . . . does nobody do real Christmas trees up here or what? We legitimately could not find one anywhere but at our local Kroger. Last year, we got a tree from Menards, for crying out loud. It was a terrible tree, too—all lopsided.), and we ended up buying one from in front of Kroger. It felt a little weird, but the tree is actually pretty nice considering it's probably been sitting outside and cut for a week already. I just hope that when our munchkin gets older, we'll be able to find a real tree farm or something where we can go have a tree-gettin' experience.

It's so weird up here. How can you not want a real tree!? It's not like you're destroying the world: they grow trees specifically for Christmas, and they get chopped down anyway. They smell awesome. I can't imagine not having a real one. I can't imagine having to store a fake one. Blah. Sersly. And then, when you're done with the tree, you have some awesome firewood for summer time fires. Heck yeah. Maybe I'm like this because I come from the boonies, but Willi says he's never had a fake tree. That guy's a townie.

We also decorated for Christmas on Saturday. Check it.


I could've probably cleaned off my little end table there, but . . . I was in the midst of working on some thank you notes.


We love those big, fat lights.


Here's a view of the Christmas awesomeness that is our living room right now. Look at our puppy. Sometimes he rests his head on the armrest and watches the fire from his chair.


Here's a closeup of the nativity scene we have. Willi made it (and by made it, I think he painted it and maybe constructed the stable box) in Bible school a long time ago, I think. It's pretty cute.


I like to put lights on this window. It's a cool window.


I made this bad boy out of tree clippings, a stiff wire, a chain, and hot glue. I'm pretty proud of it.


View through the front window.


View of our house from the street. Willi put up the lights outside for me.

We don't go too crazy with the decorating, but it works for us.

Sunday, we worked on baby stuff. We've made some progress, but we've still got a lot to do. Willi put together the stroller (which is freaking sweet and all-terrain, basically), the baby swing, and the bouncy seat yesterday while I went through baby clothes and whatnot (and organized stuff). This week, we plan to set up the Pack n' Play in our bedroom because it has a bassinet in it. Once we do that, we're officially ready to have this kid if it comes early. Somewhat. I still need to get some kind of changing table situation going, but if we got desperate, I'm sure we could set something up. I still need to do some serious, serious laundry before this kid can come, too. I haven't washed a single clothing item for this baby yet. Oof. See what I mean? We still have a lot to do. Kid . . . you better stay put for awhile. I'd like to be over this cold before I go into labor, too.

This week, I've gotta get my house ready for holiday visitors. Over the next two weekends, our immediate families are coming. That means I need to be de-catting the house this week. I hope I can do it. I hope this cold goes away, too. It's doing better, but I'm still hacking up a lung every now and then. I've been using Breathe-Right strips the past couple of nights, and they're pretty sweet. I may kick this thing yet. Plus, I just took the last of my Z-pack this morning, so this thing better get going.

Last night was our Christmas dinner for work. We, of course, got another photo taken there. I'll be sharing that soon (once we get it).

To all you kids taking finals right now, good luck. Thank God I'm not in your shoes. Teehee. I wouldn't fit in your shoes right now anyway (well . . . unless you are Christopher, and in which case, I could still probably go skiing. Oh, wait. No I can't. Nevermind.).

Dilly out!

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.

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.

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:

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.

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.