Update...

We've officially done all we can to move along the job process. We even drove a half an hour to a police station for him to voluntarily fingerprinted for the background check, as our station only does it on Thursdays...for whatever reason. Those sheets and signature pages are in the mail, so now all we can do is wait.

Sweet, helpful and protective...

I have to say, my hubby has made quite a change in the last few months. Not that he hasn't always been a good guy, but it's kind of like when I had my appendix out, he didn't quite hover, but he was always trying to make sure I was okay, doing things for me. That's how he's been with the pregnancy. The rounder I get, the more he offers a hand up from the floor (don't ask why I sit on the floor, I just do), etc. Which is really nice. I appreciate it, and in exchange I try and keep him as happy as possible, do as much for him as I can. This includes encouraging him to do things without me, that don't focus on the baby, buying him beer and special snacks that I won't eat -- without him asking for it, and just in general making him feel like he's still central to my life.

He's also been helpful with his buddy. This is a holiday weekend, and my hubby has spent a lot of it over at his bud's house, scraping and most likely today, painting this guy's house. We know his wife, have only met a few times, but really like her. Which is nice. She lives in PA, unfortunately and is in med school, so, we only see her when she can get rounds in this area. Needless to say, we remember what it is like to be young and newly married (also have done the long distance thing), and I figure if him spending some time over there male bonding with beer and paint fumes will not only fill his 'burp and fart' needs, but help out his bud, and the wife of course will get a nice surprise when she is back (which I think is next month), then I'm all for it. I know I can't be everything to him and I'm really glad he feels like he can do his own thing and not worry about me.

I have to admit, I haven't always been like this. As a newlywed, I was very protective of my hubs and the time he spent with anyone else. I was jealous because I wasn't sure that all in all he'd love me forever and ever, and that any time he spent with anyone else meant that he'd find something 'better'. Now I'm smart enough to know that he WON'T find anything better. Oh and he told me flat out that he wasn't jealous of me and that I better get used to trusting him. In a serious tone of voice. Needless to say, I guess that kind of changed my mind. That and time. We were both young and inexperienced as newlyweds. I just had to get in my groove and figure out this whole wife thing. It took back and forth conversations, and actual work, of course to get it figured out. It helps that we're honest with each other and I think all in all that's made this whole pregnancy thing very simple to deal with.

Yes, I have had symptoms, yes, he's had to deal with me snapping at him once or twice and tears rolling down my face during GAC master's series on tv, but all in all, his positive attitude, willingness to admit when he's wrong and say he's sorry, has made it go pretty smoothly. No worse than we've ever dealt with in 'real life' (because we all know pregnancy is not anything close to real life). There's been no overt insanity, no midnight pickle and ice cream runs, no huge fights. Really, it's been, calm. Which is kind of funny. I figured that pregnancy would be so up and down and left and right and turning in circles, but really it's been more like a pleasant stroll in the park, emotion wise. All in all, I've had a fabulous man to hold my hand, whisper 'chocolate ice cream' in my ear and tell me how much he can't wait to meet the baby. Who could ask for anything more?

Contemplating my navel...

I know that contemplating your navel is supposed to be a bad thing. Supposedly it means you're too self-introspective, too focused on your own problems to see what is around you. But literally, lately, I'm been contemplating my navel.

Specificially, is it going to turn inside out on me. At first, I thought, no way, no how. It's way too small to turn inside out, only big ones do the flip. Well, let's just say my belly is now stretched so tight that my navel is getting even smaller, it's almost flat it's so small, and the outsides are beginning to bulge up. I think it may go inside out after all. Which will be weird, because it will get washed for like the first time ever, YES, it's really that small. Can't get a pinky finger in there even to wash it out. Occasionally I've used a Q-tip with water or alcohol on it with the hopes of getting out any crud that may be lodged in there, or drying it out if it happens to be wet.

So, yes, I'm contemplating my navel. Will it survive the next few months, or will my innie become an outie?

Poetic License...

Robin over at Pensieve is hosting another poetry party of sorts. This month's submission is in the form of 'pensieve' (a cool style made up by her) and deals with 'Back to School'.

What is a Pensieve? - A titled, five-line poem; each line correlates to one of the five senses--sight, sound, scent, taste, touch--and describes the subject (title). The goal is for the reader to take on the poem as his own, being able to "experience" your subject through your words, by seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and feeling what you described.

Riding the Players Bus, First Football Game of the Season

School colors, banners flying, pom poms tossed carelessly, jerseys poking out of hastily packed bags, bitingly bright chip bags and soda cans line the aisles.

The tinny blaring of headphones mixes with the cacophony of girls' giggles of gossip, gutteral prayers and groans; and pops of flexing old injuries in preparation for new with the rattle of helmets on squeaky bus seats.

Old sweat never quite washed out of decades old uniforms, innocent perfume and fruit lotion combined with the burning odor of plastick-y seats, Speed Stick and the overwhelming mix of bubble gums.

Pheromones flavor the air.

Sexual tension and pre-game nerves are palpable, rayon crinkles and cotton glides over sweat soaked skin, the scant breeze blowing in the windows doing nothing to block out the oppressive heat of bodies pressed close.

Where do we go from here?..

So now that Biden is on the VP ticket for the democrats, where will Hillary go? What do you think? Will she boot Condi out of her place? Take over for secretary of health or education? A commission for women's rights?

Aaron Stecker still on Saints roster...

Around this time of year is when the football major leaguers make their cuts, so off I scuttle to the NO Saints website to see if my fav. player has managed to hang on. After the year he had last year, they better keep him! I was pleased to see this nice little blurb which basically says how awesome he was for the team last year. I totally have to agree. Is anyone EVER going to join the Aaron Stecker fan club with me?

No? Well, fine. But I still think he was one of the best players my alma mater ever had and made every game exciting. Boy, could he run. Even my parents still ask about him from time to time and call when they see a game on and that he's played. Guess he made an impression on more than just me.

Anyway, I'll be checking out as many Saints games as I can this season. Won't you join me?

some news...

We do have paperwork, it is 99% filled out and hopefully will be ready to send back tomorrow. Just need a couple of addresses. Also, that just means we're in for more waiting, it will be several days before they are done with this part of it. Hopefully after that, we'll know something.

Oh and the Cubs may just go all the way 100 years after the big win in 1908, the Bears are sucking it up and I swear to goodness gracious last night I felt a finger about penetrate my uterine wall. Apparently we have 'poke' as a new skill, besides kick, roll, and 'paint with whole fist'. Responds well to food. Just like parents. Go figure.

Fun Monday 600th Post--(Un)forgotten Trivia...

Mama Drama is our host for Fun Monday, and the topic for today is: What funny trivial fact do you remember that you probably should have forgotten a long time ago?

Every time I catch a show like Discovery or National Geographic, I wonder if it's going to show those big powerful lions hunting down a gazelle. Then I snicker because I know that most of the time, unlike what is featured on those shows, THE FEMALE LIONS ARE THE MAIN HUNTERS, while the males stay home waiting to be fed and ignoring the cubs. All in all, those big maned beasts are pretty worthless.

Now go see what everyone else remembers...

Why I am communing with Garfield...

I'm communing with Garfield because I'm so round it's not even funny. My bellybutton is in serious danger of becoming a thin line and nothing else. On the other hand, I'm the perfect size according to my due date, so anyone who says I'm fat can lump it, cause I'm not!

Oh and as an update to yesterday:

• the lasagna was excellent, stop by for leftovers, we had them for lunch and they were excellent as well
• the rabbits adore wilted lettuce leaves, old carrots, and ear corn
• squirrels are happier too
• have some candy corn, very very very happy
• no it wasn't a craving. I always want candy corn this time of year, as much as I want football, real football to start at this time of year

Mmm... Lasagna..

I feel like Garfield, except not as furry or catlike. But I have a lasagna in the oven and can't wait to have some of it. Sure, it's hotter than hades in here now that we've got the oven on in August, but hey, it's going to taste really yummy fresh out of the piping hot oven.

We put out some semi-wilted lettuce leaves, carrots and then some ear corn and misc. birdseed to feed everything that happens across our patio. So far the rabbits have been scarce and the squirrels who have been ignoring us because we ran out of ear corn are back and practically knocking on the door.

I'm glad the Presidential election will be decided before I go into labor. I'm glad once I turn on the tv or the radio with a new baby that I won't have to listen to the ads. But it will be a long couple of months. My folks, who happen to live in a state where a nominee 'hails' from, haven't heard diddly, while our airwaves have been full for the last few weeks.

I'm glad that it's preseason and football, real football, is just around the corner.

For once I wish the friggin stores would set out Halloween already so I could have some candy corn. A whole bowl full.

New specs...

I ordered some new glasses yesterday. My eyesight is so out of whack due to the pregnancy that when I tried to drive for an hour the other day my eyes were literally closing out of protest from having to work that hard. I don't usually drive that much but I figured if they were that bad, I should probably go ahead and switch to the new prescription, at least until they start changing again.

The best thing is that I got a heck of a deal. I picked out frames that were completely covered by the insurance, even though they were marked up a little higher than our allowance, decided to just have the edges rolled and polished instead of upgrading to thinner lenses, with the new frames I doubt I will feel much difference in the weight anyway, and I also decided to try the transitions lenses, which go from clear to grey for the sunlight. Right now I have regular glasses and spare sunglasses with my prescription in them, which I leave in the truck. With these, I won't have to change them out when I get in and out of the vehicle or when it's overcast or changes to sunny really quick or what have you. All in all, it's a good time to try all this out, because I will only be wearing them for until the baby is born and then probably for a little while afterwards. The good thing is with the insurance we CURRENTLY have, I'm eligible for another exam and new lenses come January. So even if I hate the transitions and the lenses are really heavy, I would technically only have to put up with them for a couple of months. Of course I would use them until my eyes 'go back' to whatever they'll go back to, but that's beside the point. Oh and the deal? Well we'd already paid in some because we didnt have our insurance figured out at the time of our exams, so we had a credit. And THEN, lenses were completely covered and as I mentioned the frames, so with our copay and transitions minus the credit, we only had to pay $29. Steal of a deal, eh?

Less worried...and other stuff...

I had no phone call today, which is supposed to mean that I'm diabetes free. That's a good thing. Also I do not seem to have any lasting effects from taking an iron pill today. Also a good thing. I try not to worry too much, but let's face it, diabetes runs in my family and having GD would put me at an even worse position for the future. But, apparently nothing to worry about now.

Also, the Bears seem to be having a good football game overall (Yeah, Orton is starting over GROSSman!) and I'm enjoying watching so far this year. Even with the awful neckbeards. I'm not pleased at the fumbling that's happened, but so far overall we're shaping up pretty good this year.

Oh and by the way, I have 5/7 of my MIL's present done now. I finished 2 today. The last 2 are more complicated so they may take a bit longer, but we will see. It rained all day today so I didn't go out for a walk or anything, unlike yesterday where I took a 2.5 mile walk and the night before my hubby and I did the same walk, plus yesterday walking from the hospital to the doctors office and then kind of around doing stuff and I ended up with almost 4 miles for yesterday. Overall, I'm supposed to have 30 min/day and those measured ones were 50/walk so I should be right about on track for the week.

Sorry if these posts seem so boring. Hope to have more 'real' news soon. Right now though I have to be patient. So please be patient with me.

Meeces...

I have a baby update over at the meeces and quite a few other new posts there as well. I'm really concerned about my overall health at this point in time. Not paranoid, but still a tad bit worried. I'm less healthy than I thought and it just bugs me a bit.

Shop til you drop, or click and save?...

It's that time again. I know, I know the SUMMER Olympics are still on TV, the kids are just now going back to school, and Halloween is not yet set in the stores (just you wait!) but it's already time for us to start thinking about Holiday Shopping. Gasp! I know, I know. But especially with the baby arriving mid-November if everything goes according to the usual routine, and the lack of ability for us to do a whole lot of traveling come winter time because the baby will be so small still (and who wants that many snotty noses around a month old baby, right?) we will have to do our holiday shopping early.

This year we were smart and used what's called a Christmas Club account through our bank and we have saved $25 each paycheck (we deposit it just like we are paying a bill), usually it starts in November of the year before and you get a payout in October. My mom has done this for years and so she has always asked for ideas early. Therefore, usually, I start thinking around Halloween time about who we need to shop for, and what I'm going to get, so that I have some firm ideas in mind by the time the day after Thanksgiving rolls around. Normally there's also an 'extra' paycheck in October which we carry over for holiday spending but this year we should not need to do that per se because of the savings account.

This year I may either shop REALLY early or do some shopping online, taking advantage of a website like black-friday.net which would show all of the deals and steals (a bit early) and allow me to sit at home and still get the great deals all those people out at 5 am standing in line at Staples are getting. We did that last year, and I don't think I could do it again. We got to the door and what we wanted was gone. Ridiculous. At least shopping online you get a fair advantage, versus little old me a little over 5 ft, getting shoved to the back of the line. The site even sends out emails to let you know when your favorite store has posted their deals, whether that be Target, Wal-Mart, JC Penney, or Best Buy, you are sure to find something to get you through at least a little bit of your holiday shopping, without dropping! So how do you do your shopping, and when do you have it planned all out? Or are you one of those last minute Christmas Eve shoppers frantically wrapping with tape stuck to her forehead the next morning? Oh and just to be inclusive, if you celebrate another holiday, please feel free to assume that I want to know about it, just insert your holiday where it says 'Christmas' -- all holidays may not be celebrated the same, but everyone gives presents and I'm interested in hearing just how you do it every year.

Random joke...

Okay this is totally against all my rules, but I am posting a joke, an e-mail forward joke, in it's entirety, on my blog, because it really IS that funny.....

With all the sadness and trauma going on in the world at the moment, it is worth reflecting on the death of a very important person, which almost went unnoticed last week.

Larry LaPrise, the man that wrote 'The Hokie Pokey' died peacefully at the age of 93. The most traumatic part for his family was getting him into the coffin. They put his left leg in. And then the trouble started.

Shut up. You know it's funny. Now send it on to someone else and make them smile.

The most boring job at the Olympics...

Nope, not talking about the field cleaners or the bleacher sweepers... I'm talking about the guy who has to sit in the birds' nest at the track and field events and say 'SET' into the microphone for the beginning of every race. Not only does he sound bored, he sounds.... German? What's up with that? Anyone else notice?

Cute Cards...

I found these at Wal-Mart and decided to use them for any gifts that I may receive in the upcoming months. Aren't they cute? They were about half the price of the ones specifically made in the shapes of diapers and bottles and if I have any left I can use them for other things. Sure I had some PLAIN ones already and my hubby couldn't imagine why I was getting something when I had plenty at home (he was right of course, it's totally out of the norm for me, but I had intended to get the baby type ones, but these are a nice compromise)... oh and eh hmm please excuse the BELLY. It wouldn't get out of the way...

Fun Monday: Where we pose a question....

Lisa is our hostess for Fun Monday this week, and she asks: What is one thing you would like to ask your readers? Come up with a question to pose to your visitors and throw it out there on Monday. As we’re all visiting each other’s Fun Monday posts we should answer the various questions we come across.

So here's the deal, I have 2 major things happening or possibly happening in my life. So I will give you an either OR question and that way it's not technically cheating. If you have time and read down a little bit you'll find out that I'm A. about 7 months pregnant and B. may be moving in the next month or so (fingers crossed) for a new job for my hubby. So. With that in mind...

Give me your best piece of prenancy/labor related advice OR
Give me your best MOVING advice --(especially if it pertains to being pregnant--besides taking it easy, I GET that, thank you very much)...

Diversion tactics....

To divert you from what you obviously want to know and I don't have an answer for yet...

I have THIS and THIS and THIS. Enjoy!

Think good thoughts...

Matthew thinks (knows, in fact) that everything went well. That's all I'm going to say. Stay tuned next week for more info.

In the meantime, we met my parents for lunch and got a bunch of goodies (fresh canned tomatoes, fresh canned green beans), a dozen or so ears of corn, potatoes and tomatoes, as well as a few peaches they got on the way over. The rest was out of their garden. We're thrilled. Had green beans, potatoes and tomato out of there for dinner. Can't wait to have some corn, just didn't feel like fixing it after the day we had. So yummy, though!

To keep busy, today I...

Cut up and food processed all the onions we had and put them in a container in the freezer. Fruitlessly scrubbed at hands to try and get onion smell off.

Made 2 apple pies.

Make turkey noodle vegetable soup.

Did one load of laundry.

Washed dishes.

Finished one towel for my MIL.

Started reading a book.

Went to Wal-Mart and did not buy baby things. Bought candy for EVERYONE but ME! Also bought ice cream that I WON'T eat so I will be forced to eat lower calorie fudge bars. Scale says MOO!!

Rinsed my cans and otherwise took care of all my recyclables.

Forgot to take my books back to the library (oops).

Watched Olympic coverage.

Sang and read to the baby. The story was a kid's story, the music is whatever is on iTunes.

Blog-hopped and composed.

Took a bath and shower.

*Update, the plane landed.

News, kind of...

My hubby made it to his job interview and apparently got through it today, but his plane is delayed. Heaven help me if it's delayed any further, because we're supposed to meet my parents tomorrow halfway between their house and ours for lunch. I can't imagine trying to explain why I can't meet them without telling them why.

However, the good thing is, we have no way to lose. If he gets a new job, sure it's going to be distracting and flurrying and I'm going to be insane, but we'll manage. And if he doesn't, well then we keep going the way we are.

The news I got was very brief. It seems there are a LOT of jobs open and the few people that went in today for a plant tour interviews, etc, were not necessarily being interviewed for jobs they applied for. Sorry for ending in a preposition, I'm just too lazy to fix it right now. What I took from that was that they are on a hiring binge and are pulling/pooling all their resources to get them filled. Employees being resources, yo.

Stay tuned. More to come in the future. I guess how early you get it depends on if I can sleep or not. Oh and they are FEDEXING an answer yes or no by Monday. Guess who is going to be pacing on Monday and trying desperately to stay out of the bathroom so she can reach the door? Yeah, that would be me.

Snow White's Mama I'm Not...

But I sure do poke my fingers a lot when embroidering. Check out #1 of 7 for my MIL's Birthday. I started it late last night and finished it just a minute ago. She LOVES lighthouses. I picked the 7 best patterns out of 8 for the 7 towels I have.

Coming up Gold...and Silver

When the Olympics come around, I pay attention to gymnastics. I was a cheerleader (shock, I know), so their sport is of much interest to me. I couldn't stay awake to watch the all-arounds last night, but was happy to see Gold and Silver hanging around the necks of 2 of our Olympic athletes this morning. (Full coverage will be on NBC tonight at 7 PM Central time).

In particular, while watching the Today show, I was thrilled to see the calmness and sense of security and happiness on the face of Shawn Johnson (Iowa native) who gave her teammate all the credit for winning the gold, and said she just wanted to give the performance of her life to finish her Olympic Games off well and that no matter how she placed, how her scores came out, that it turned out the way it was supposed to. She was meant to have silver. This, from a 16 year old. Maturity, humility, strength, and a beautiful face (though while made up for TV was NOT covered in too much make-up and looked very natural) from a young American girl. Shouldn't we all be proud of them? Whether we follow sports or not, whether we have much interest, we should all be proud of how these girls have presented themselves to the world. Sure, they are the elite, but they are also role models for our kids, our nieces and nephews, ourselves. Shouldn't we have as much dignity in our everyday lives? If they can present a united front to the world, while in the midst of intense competition, why can't we?

More books...

I've added to my list of 'books read' under the link on the left. There are still a few more than need to go on there, as I'm cramming like I have a midterm for the time when I won't have a chance to read a book without pictures or furry animals involved.

One author I happened on by chance is Jane Moore. So far I've read 3 of her books. They are all funny fiction, of course. One about getting on with life and making decisions about dating after divorce, another about dealing with the first wives of the husbands you married, whether you stole them away or not, and of course one about internet dating. These are sensitive topics, but she puts a spin of humor on them and makes them a good 'chick lit' pick. The cast of characters is varied, oh and it's set in England so you get bonus vocabulary words out of it. So if you're looking for something to read, I do recommend her books. The only other one mentioned in the covers is 'the ex files' which I haven't read. But I'm sure it's as good as the others.

How healthy are your finances?...

I just went to a site and took a quiz on finances to see how I rated. After taking the quiz, I learned that my "IQ score" is 90%. Pretty good, right? Well, then I started looking to see where I could improve. The lowest 'section' for me was 'wealth' -- although I have a retirement plan (and I fudged a little because technically I'm not employed right now-but if I WAS, then I would contribute to it every month, and my husband DOES do this), I do not yet own a home so we're 'blowing' money on rent, and I do not have life insurance or a plan for how to invest my 401K. We were aware of these issues to begin with, but for the uninformed, this website may just be what you need to kick your tail and remind you to step up to the plate. As far as that goes, though, everything is pretty good. We do have these things 'in the works' it is just that we are not quite there yet. But we ARE working on it. There are positives, though, that we have taken steps towards in the last few years. We purchased a vehicle that we will keep for a long time. We have established good credit by always making our payments on time and paying off loans to a financial institution early and thereby making them LOVE us. We also have kept credit cards to less than 2/person and made plans to pay them off as soon as possible. We don't buy anything we know we cannot afford. Usually, we try to only put things on there that we can pay off each month. We take advantage of short term credit opportunities that offer 0% interest and no payments for a year, and then pay the items (like furniture) off in under a year and thereby avoid the interest that would have built up on a credit card, and make manageable payments, which allows us to focus on our BIG bills such as student loans. Needless to say our finances are healthy. Which is what the quiz shows.

The quiz was easy to take and did not ask for any personal information. There are offers that might lead you off of their site (for example to look at your credit report), but you do not have to do them if you do not want to. Use your own judgment on that. Do you need credit counseling or just to pay more attention to your bill due dates? That's something you will have to decide for yourself. Take the quiz and see your Bills IQ!

Thoughts on the Olympics...

- Why on earth do they pan so close to the faces of people who have JUST lost? Are you trying to humiliate them as they struggle not to cry? These are TEENAGERS folks!

-The Chinese putting a 'pretty' girl out to lip synch while the 'less pretty' girl stood behind the scenes and sang beautifully--what a bunch of garbage. Just another reason to promote human rights in that area of the world. Not only do they have to be extremely lucky to be born and be accepted by a family (infanticide, anyone?), but then if they're not 'perfect' they're shunned. Anyone else think maybe if they allowed more little girls to be born they'd have some more 'perfect' specimens? Argh.

-I love that a lot of the coverage comes on when the news would at night. It's the perfect time to get in bed and relax and root for your team. Disappointment falls away with sleep and excitement lets you work out any anxiety before sleep as well.

-Some of the commentators are SO picky. Shut up already.

-The USA is leading in medals. Awesome. Now be happy for the ones you have and chill out on the hype and 'pestering' of the silver and bronze medal winners later. You should be proud and not disappointed that we have athletes that are on top of the world, literally. Who cares if it's first second or third? (this to the media intent on dissecting every last detail)...

-Wish I could do that....or that... or that..sigh!

Thank you to my husband...

Who has made the hard decisions in the last 5 months as to what to do about the situation below:

Addition to my blogroll...

Hey, I just want to give a shout out to Regina, she found my blog a while back and has visited despite the pathetic banter on here the last few months, and has commented a lot on my baby blog as well, so I wanted to give her some props. Check her out.

Water water everywhere...

Here's a few lessons from our recent flood:

• Everyone has their own idea of what 'conserving water' is
• You CAN conserve more than you already do, really, you can!
• No matter how hard you try, people will still break the rules or take advantage of ugly situations
• There ARE good people everywhere, and they ARE looking out for the little guy
• If one of you takes a FAST shower, the other one can sponge off easily with what's left in the bottom of the tub
• You can easily wash and rinse your hands many many times in one partial sinkful of water
• People do have good hearts and smarts (even the most expensive bottled water was marked down during the 'emergency' to a low cost-the same as the 'generic')
• People's hearts are really big, even in a big city
• Corporations care, and they DO follow the rules to try and help out
• You CAN cook without water, you just have to use your imagination (or bottled water)
• Unfortunately, it IS tough to eat/clean up without water, and you have to use disposable plates and silverware, which is bad for the environment, but an evil necessity at the time

Brought to you by Lotus and Project Support Beauty in Nature.

Power Tools...

The power tool I've used most often is probably a drill. I have used routers from time to time as well, but I have used both cordless and corded drills to help my husband work on his truck and for home improvement projects, to put together furniture, and in general fix things that are not working.

Black and Decker is a brand that we can usually find fairly easily and is pretty inexpensive to purchase at mass merchandising stores. Their design is usually fairly simple and easy to operate. That's why I like them a lot, you can glance at the instructions once and know how to use them, or just experiment a little bit and voila, you know exactly how to use them. Currently, we prefer to use the mass marketed brands instead of paying out big bucks for those with more features that I probably would not use for my purposes.

My husband uses his drill for all sorts of projects, most of which I can not fathom. I for one have helped him with his 'truck' projects several times. Several times, I have used a drill to help him remove parts, and then of course later, to put them back on, making sure to hold onto the screws in the meantime. A plastic baggie or container, notated properly, can help you figure out where they go back. All in all, Power Tools are much more efficient than regular hand tools, and can save time and saving time saves money.

Fun Monday....Picture This...

AOJ is our hostess for Fun Monday! I'm SO EXCITED to be back as a player! The assignment is: Show me your favourite photograph and tell me why it's your favourite. It can be one you've taken yourself or one someone else has taken, a snapshot or a more professional image. Is there a story behind it? Do you love it for the memories it gives or just because it's pleasing to the eye? Show me and tell me!

Okay this one is my FAVORITE favorite! You've seen it before. Me and my hubby on the big day.

This is a brand new photo, taken just this weekend. It's a desperate ploy for 'Wow you look greats!' and visits to my baby blog, please visit! I'd love any comments, especially helpful ones on any questions I have!

Do you see what we see?...

http://picasaweb.google.com/matthew.shoemaker/DeerBackyard

eh hm, and we live in a suburb, of a city. Granted, there is a nature preserve just three streets over and across the 'highway', but really? In the middle of the day?

We're not sure if she's confused, or just ambling around. She's been eating, she came back around again to nibble a bit, took off down the wide backyards, and then came sprinting back to hide in our foliage. Wondering if she got scared off. Ooops and now she's running again. Hopefully she'll make it back over to 'safety'.

Oddities...

Umm, why, pray tell, does an ATM in the middle of cornfield midwest, whatever, have a BRITISH accent? Is it supposed to be comforting, or is the U.K. slowly taking us over by hiding in our ATMS and taking our deposits?

I don't get it. Anyone else run across a similar phenomena?

Olympic Torch lighting...

We watched the torch work its way around the stadium and being passed off from one athlete to the next. The funny thing is, while my hubby and I were watching, it turns out we both had this mental picture of what would happen and how the torch would be lit, and it was NOTHING like we thought--but we both had the same idea. The stadium they built is like a 'bird's nest' -- we thought they'd touch the flame to the top of it and set the whole rim of the thing on fire so it would glow and it would somehow light the torch and the whole building would have a 'ring of fire' so to speak.

Of course it didn't happen that way, but it's funny that our minds were that much alike. Despite the fact that we do different things for a 'living', that we're of different sex and pretty much probably think about different things all day long, we still had the same concept.

It was a nice bonding moment, too, just relaxing at the end of a long week and as a 'family' watching the torch being lit. Awesome. The baby got in on the action, letting 'dad' feel just how hard the kicks are getting. I love seeing his face, the harder they get the bigger the smile. (I think he just wants to raise a quarterback to take over the Bears offense--and that DOESN'T mean we're having a boy--let's just say we're equal opportunity fans--we'd love our girl to play football if we have one)... :-)

Next to last day...

Tomorrow is my last day of work. I will be very happy for that. Not sure if I will search for another temp position or not. I'm tempted NOT to, just so I can get some time to do whatever I want for a while before the baby comes.

Tonight football is on, both on the radio and tv, we are watching one, listening to the other. Follow that? I'm excited, I love football season, even if my teams aren't winning.

This afternoon we went to dairy queen for their treat day or something, basically the idea was if you bought a blizzard, all the proceeds went to the Children's miracle network for children's charities. Ice cream and feeling like you did something good? Priceless.

Holy crap! Did I mention it's time to open up the Aaron Stecker fan club again? He just FLEW over the goal line and got a touchdown for the Saints. Awesome. I screamed and clapped my hands over my head. My throat hurts I just screamed so hard. Oh, I went to college with Stecker, he's kind of a smaller pro-football player and doesn't get a whole lot of playing time compared to some of the hot-shots, but he is a workhorse. He always did really well for my alma-mater and could run like you wouldn't believe. The Saints usually only play him on special teams and to give their starters a break and/or to get the starters CLOSE to a touchdown. He almost NEVER gets the touchdown opps, and he just literally jumped and flew over the line for the TD. Awesome. Okay, I'm calm now.

Time for the rest of that ice cream I didn't eat this afternoon.

Poked, prodded, and flat worn out...

This morning we went to the dentist. A new dentist. I'd been going to the same one as long as I remembered. Apparently I had not been since Jan. of 2007. Apparently we were due just as we moved and I had proscrastinated in getting in. Of course I couldn't get xrays, and they say my huge filling is crumbling and needs a crown (not a shock). The hubs had to have a bunch of cement from his braces removed, and has a tiny cavity which he will get filled next week. No biggie.

I warned the hygenist that I had a strong gag reflex. She didn't get me. Almost, but she took the stupid mirror out. She was very very thorough. I felt like I'd been assaulted almost. Not in a painful way, but in a "can we get this over with" way. Then she sat me back up. My head had been lower than everything else. About 60 seconds later, I was thumped back down because the doctor came over. Not so good for the early morning. The baby whacked me nice and hard for the disruption in its' nap apparently, it just made me dizzy. So dizzy. But I did have a thorough check up and cleaning.

Back to work and then to the eye doctor in the afternoon. My eyes were SO tired. And I found out, not as a big shock, but that I couldnt read with my left eye, at all. So much fluid has gone into my eyes from the pregnancy that it's pressing on my astigmatism. Like a child, I laughed until my butt fell off (see, all gone!) and then pulled myself together enough to say, it just looks like a dot. Imagine reading the line and it looks like this, K, dot, dot, dot, Z. What do you say, besides dot? And then laugh about it? Well, anyway, no real problems there, although leaning over to look into the instruments I did get a huge whack in the gut for that too.

I may get a second pair of glasses (besides the 3 year old pair I'm wearing, I mean) in a funky shape or whatever for the next few months. Just to be sure I'm seeing well enough to drive and such with the pregnancy. Then go back to my first pair. It may seem silly, but I really can't see out of that eye very well.

Matthew may go get a Lasik appointment. I can't go get mine right now and I'm fine if he wants to go see if he's a candidate.

Cooking...

Hey, check it out, I found a new place to store recipes online, at Key Ingredients you can easily search through other people's recipes too! Typing in Chili came up with not only the dish itself, but also neat recipes like chili rubbed salmon, mashed potatoes with cheddar cheese and poblano chilies, and and ancho chili remoulade.

The idea being, that it searches by the KEY INGREDIENT in the recipe. Awesome, right? So if your helpful and well-meaning neighbor gives you a pound or twelve of rhubarb and you have no idea what to do with it? Well then key ingredient is the perfect place to go, because by simply typing in rhubarb, you get almost 100 results, including sorbet, sauces and crumbles! You could make a whole rhubarb themed meal and invite that neighbor over to dinner. Make a friend and get rid of some of the stuff in your pantry while you're at it. Which is another great idea. Buy an impossible too big box of something? Search with key ingredient and voila! Find hundreds of ways to use up those pantry items before they spoil. Like other websites, you have to join to start your own collection, but being able to search by the ingredient is just genius! I've tried that on several other sites only to be disappointed at the results.

Chili...

is kind of like salsa, the longer it sits with peppers in it, the hotter it gets. I added ONE can of tomatoes with chiles (10 oz can?) and boy was it warm for the second go round come FOOTBALL time Sunday night. Can't wait to see what it tastes like for dinner one night this week. Or maybe we'll just freeze it and get a surprise later on.

The good thing is I didnt get heartburn or any other problems from eating it.

Did I mention it's almost football season? Yeah! The Bears play this week. Not sure if we get it on TV or not, but we can always get radio. Too bad Favre won't be traded to the Bears (I wish).

Soda intake..

My soda intake has drastically reduced. Of course because of my condition it was forcibly limited, but I find that it takes me a while to drink that much 'sugar' so I only have about one can a day. Mostly 7 up so no caffeine. Occasionally an orange or rootbeer and that's about it.

We've only been buying it when it's on sale and that's been working out okay. Wish the CFD pepsi was on sale a bit more. I'll live. The 7 up seems to calm my stomach, the rootbeer goes well with pizza or pasta, and the orange is just a complete treat. Like liquid candy.

Mmm.. Candy.

Accomplishments...

Do you ever have those days when you only get a couple of things done, but you feel like the world has been conquered because of it? Even if your laundry is still piled sky high and you havent taken recyclables to the center in 2 months?

Yesterday we...

• Visited the hospital where we may (if we still live here) have our baby. We liked it.
• Made the rounds to Matthew's company picnic
• Cleaned the 'baby's room' (swiffered all the corners, vacuumed the whole floor)
• Got the crib set up
• Painted some more shower favors
• Got the crib set up (just had to repeat it)
• Narrowed our baby names down to 9 (3 girl and 6 boy, not sure how that happened so we may need to actually buy a stinking baby name book to be sure we haven't missed anything)
• Practiced with the baby's toy horse getting the side slid down on the crib one armed and putting the horse in (needless to say my belly still gets in the way, but it's doable)
• Cleaned up the living room

Anyway, it wasn't much but it certainly made us feel a whole lot better. Now today I can focus on the rest of the house and trying to find actual food to feed us. Grocery shopping has gone way downhill the last couple of months.

Life is too short...

Hey guys, it's not every day I get up on my soapbox, I'd like to, but I don't. I try and save the speeches, but here goes:

Life is too short, sleepless nights are too long and you have everything in this world to live for. My husband lost a classmate this week (self inflicted gsw to the head if rumor is correct), because his wife was stepping out on him. He left 3 little girls at home. This same thing happened in the tiny town where we grew up a few years ago to another family as well. It's a tragedy.

Years ago my husband was ostracized by his classmates (a mother wouldnt invite him to a classmate's birthday party-and told the youngster who repeated it out loud) because his father was no longer in the picture. This guy, as young as he was, probably about 8 at the time, stood up to the naysayers on my husband's behalf. He's never forgotten it. Once I heard about it, I couldn't either. I didn't know this guy very well, just didn't run in the same circles, but it breaks my heart all the same. What kind of guy must he have been to be so young and have a clearly defined right and wrong that even adults couldn't step up to the plate with? Losing a young person is so tragic, especially in cases where it seems so unnecessary. So wrong. I hope someone sticks up for his girls the way he stood up for my hubs when the chips were down.

Please, if you know anyone going through a similar situation, talk to them, help them get counseling, stay up all night with them if you have to. Life is too short to just walk away. RIP RK. Our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family during this difficult time.