Thursday, February 28, 2008

Hair Thursday

There is this website and every Thursday the author takes readers pictures and helps them with hair dilemmas. After many months of waiting, my best friend, Chunk, is on the site today. Please stop by and vote for the hairstyle you think she should try.

Check it out!

PS Chunk is the second one down with the long blonde hair.

Friday, February 22, 2008

Prenatal Yoga

So, I went to try once again to "touch the peace between my thoughts," and a newer girl (kind of rough-looking with a tongue ring, but very nice and friendly. Did I mention that she was wearing jeans to yoga? oh yeah...and they weren't maternity jeans, just regular jeans unbuttoned and unzipped. I hope she had clean underwear on...) sat her mat down next to mine. We began chatting. She was explaining why she wasn't at yoga last week, and the reason was that she was in the hospital with "explosive diarrhea" (I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried).

As the story went on, the people in the ER thought she was in preterm labor and admitted her. They wanted to give her a shot of something to stop the contractions because she is only 7 months (and is showing less than I am, of which I was a little envious). She said absolutely not! She went on to tell me and others listening that she likes to do things all naturally. When she was giving birth to her first child, she had no drugs. She also said she kicked the doctor when she tried to approach her with scissors to prevent tearing. She wanted everything to 100% natural.

I am not one to judge; any woman can give birth however she wants. I myself plan to partake of any drug offered during delivery. I am even considering an elective c-section...we'll see. I guess I am not a natural girl.

So, she continued on about how horrible the on call doctor was in the ER and how poorly she was treated. She said, "Do you know what that lady had the nerve to say to me? She told me that the shot they wanted to give me was less harmful the the nicotine I already put in it. I couldn't believe she said that." She then said to me/us, "I know they aren't the best thing for you while you are pregnant but I still smoke a lot."

I tried to suppress my giggle. She had just been on a tirade about how she was a 100% natural girl, but then she tells us about how much she smokes. Do you think she understands how funny she sounded?

Monday, February 18, 2008

Another Wild Weekend

Saturday, Lee and I went to a small town about 20 minutes away to look at our favorite antique store. Sadly, we left that store empty handed. But don't be too sad, we made a quick stop by the local "home, farm, auto" store. It was my first trip to this store. Lee said that he felt he had dressed the part and really fit in while shopping. We needed to pick up some ice melt for the impending snow storm, but that isn't all we left with...
Lee has been wanting a gun for quite some time and I am not too supportive of that dream. He thinks that chaos in America is not too far away. He said that if someone breaks into our house, the Maglite next to our bed won't scare the intruder. So, he found a machete locked in the gun case. We went back and forth for awhile about said machete. In the end he bought it ($9.99) with the agreement that when the baby is old enough to crawl it will be locked somewhere unaccessible.

Lee enjoyed posing with his new toy. He even added the "bandana" so he looked tougher.
Sunday morning the snow was coming down steadily. Tuni begged to go outside, but by the time she was ready to come back inside, I thought she looked like a frosted mini-wheat.
Nanny would not be deterred by the predicted blizzzard conditions, so we made our way to the airport so slowly. I was not convinced she would make it off the ground, but after6 hours in the airport, her flight took off.

This was the view from my front windows after the storm was over.

School was cancelled today due to hazardous conditions. I thought I had planned this baby-thing well, but it looks like I am going to be in school until I pop. I thought I would have almost a month off before the blessed event, but we are going to have to make up 6 days so far. Ugh!

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Updates

The bedding is not pink; the bedding it red. It is unisex. I tried to take a couple of pictures of the crib with the bedding. The pictures are an embroidered farm scene. So, no, I have no idea if I am having a boy or a girl and we are not going to find out!

Lee arranged the stuffed animals; can you tell? They are all sheep (minus Thumper) and the two sheepdogs have them herded them into the corner. Are we dorks or what? If you looks closely at Baaaaaaastard (he is the sheep on the far left. He was born at the Stonehenge gift shop and named on the spot), he is wearing my present from Tiffany's.

It is the silver bead necklace. I love it. Good thing my strangulation symptom has mostly passed.

Friday, February 15, 2008

Valentine's Day

One of Lee's love languages is gifts. Mine is not. Lee is always very thoughtful. He thinks about an occasion ahead of time and comes up with something great. I am not like that at all. For example, this chair was my Christmas present. He went to four different stores and sat in every glider rocker he could find to see which one was the most comfortable. This is the one he decided on. He said he got the one with good padding on the arms and behind the head because he thought I would be falling asleep in it often.

He also has a belief that Valentine's Day is a day when boys get girls presents and not vice versa. I love him.

Did I mention that wrappting presents is not one of his strong points? So...we were on our way out to dinner last night and he ran inside to get my present. When he came back out to the car, he handed me this:
Ummmmm, I wasn't expecting beer for Valentine's, but...I was curious. Apparently he thought this box was good presentation as well as a good hiding spot. He had stuffed the box with recycling items and I never even thought twice about what was in it. It was just sitting next to our kitchen garbage can waiting for grabage day.
Fortunately for me (and him), there was not beer in the box, instead my favorite kind of box was awaiting me buried in the bottom. Hurray! He said he splurged because it would be the last year he would be able to spoil me.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Updates:

The bedding is not pink; the bedding it red. It is unisex. I tried to take a couple of pictures of the crib with the bedding. The pictures are an embroidered farm scene. So, no, I have no idea if I am having a boy or a girl and we are not going to find out!
Lee arranged the stuffed animals; can you tell? They are all sheep (minus Thumper) and the two sheepdogs have them herded them into the corner. Are we dorks or what? If you looks closely at Baaaaaaastard (he is the sheep on the far left. He was born at the Stonehenge gift shop and named on the spot), he is wearing my present from Tiffany's.
It is the silver bead necklace. I love it. Good thing my strangulation symptom has mostly passed.

Monday, February 11, 2008

Fun-filled Weekend

My husband, Lee, sometimes thinks he is still in great shape. He signed up to play in an indoor soccer league. His team signed up for the "Men's Open" (aka toughest) division. They are playing against teams that are made up of college guys and people who exercise often. His first game (and first exercise) was Friday night.

This picture is taken just before the collision. Lee and Mr. Orange Socks were guarding one another and got a little physical. Lee and Mr. OS were going for the same ball and Lee ended up doing a summersault forward over Mr. OS and the ball. Fortunately he caught himself on his left arm and not his head. He was back on his feet in a flash and looked to take it like an athlete. Only later that night did I learn that his arm was numb for the remainder of the game.


So, Saturday morning (my birthday) he couldn't rotate his arm or raise it very high, so a trip to the ER was deemed necessary to rule out any broken or chipped bones.

We got it x-rayed and the doctor said that there were no broken bones. The diagnosis was that he hd a contusion (a bruise). He is supposed to keep it elevated, immobilzed and rested...at least until his game this Friday night. He also has problems turning the steering wheel, closing the driver's side door, and buckling his seatbelt. I think he should make a full recovery.

I didn't really think much about it until Saturday night as he was taking off his shirt. I looked at his arm and it looked a little smurfy. It was blue and puffy from 6 inches above his elbow to a couple inches below. Yuck!

PS he said I could only post a picture if he was flexing...

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Iowa Snow Storm

Tuesday we were told to prepare for a major snow storm. It began late Tuesday afternoon. We had gotten about 5 inches when it stopped around 8pm. That is a lot of snow, but nothing we couldn't deal with. They were predicting more later that evening, but by the time I went to bed there was still no snow falling.

When I woke up it was coming down hard and they had cancelled school. So, about 10:30am I tried to take some pictures (without going outside). We probably had about 9 inches on the ground and it was still come down steadily. It finally stopped around 3pm with a grand totoal of 13 inches of snow. It is really beautiful to see if you don't have to drive in it.











Oh...and today we had a two hour delay. Plenty of time to blog about the snow...

more snow

Most normal families understand that if it is too dangerous to have school, you probably shouldn't be on the roads, right? My family always said, "It is a snow day; what should we do? Where should we go?" So, I wasn't surprised when Nanny called to see if I wanted to go to Panera's. Of course I went. This was the view from our booth at Paneras.
Lee even got to come home early from work. We took a little couchnap, and Helmet wanted to join us.
I think he kind of looks like Jabba the Hut in this one, don't you?
Miss Petunia loves the snow. Our only probably is cleaning her off when she comes back in. With snow this deep, she walks around a little looking for a good spot, then she settles herself into what looks like a nest. She has been outside for 2 hours already this morning. I am not looking forward to picking snowballs off of her paws and stomach and face and...

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Belly Pics-20 Weeks-ish

Here are the long-awaited pictures. I think it might just be taken from a good angle. Monday one of my students said, "Man, you are getting huge..." Thanks. Isn't there a nicer way to say that?

A speacial thanks to Brenda for taking the pictures. And thanks to my "Bella Band" for keeping my pants on when they no longer button.
Brenda felt that since the belly was getting so much attention that the booty might be feeling neglected. We did get some funny looks from people in the office while our photo session was going on.
Strangely...my prom date from 1997 walked into the office and we had to have our pictures taken for old times sake, right?
Also, Brenda was slightly concerned because she thought she was allergic to her lip gloss. She had purchased some lip-plumping gloss and was a little worried about the excessive tingling.
Don't you guys wish you worked in our building?

Monday, February 4, 2008

Superbowl Party

Lee and I were invited to a wild and crazy party to watch the Superbowl. Just take a look at these crazies.
Nanny and Papa were bonding with their favorite granddog, Petunia.


Nanny really just likes her big, furry feet. She thinks they looks like mittens. We have taught her to smile for the camera, are you impressed? (Tuni, not Nanny)

This picture of Lee was taken during the first half, when the Patriots were still winning. You can tell, because there is a faint smile on his lips. Toward the end of the game, that smile disappeared and turned into ranting and raving.