Can you say flibity-jibit?

(Originally written 07/25/12)

I have been on cloud nine this entire week!   I’ve been so consumed with joy that I haven’t paid attention to anything.  It’s almost comical the things I’ve been doing since we found out we are pregnant.  I carried the remote control upstairs and into the bathroom with me.  I’m not sure what my subconscious thought I needed it for in there.   I also found my bra on the kitchen counter the other morning but I have no clue when I took it off and left it there.  Then, while carrying gifts to my friend at her baby shower, I was day-dreaming about our own baby and knocked over a metal lawn decoration that made a huge crash.  If things continue this way, people may need to hide their T.V. remotes as well as anything breakable for the next nine months.  I’m guessing your bras are safe but who knows at this point. 

I don’t have many symptoms yet.  Just some tender ta-ta’s and a sense of smell that seems to be in full gear.  I’ve always had the nose of a Bloodhound but it seems to be even more sensitive than normal.   My husband mowed the lawn and the grass was a little damp as it usually is around here.  Once he was finished he put the lawn mower back into the garage.  The next day as I pulled my car in the garage I smelled a foul odor coming from outside my car.  The minute I opened the door I started gagging.  “Gross! It smells like something died in here.”  

 I asked my husband to go check on the smell in the garage.  He responded “I don’t smell anything.  What does it smell like?” 

“Come here.  I’ll show you.”  I walked to the garage and opened the door.  The smell hit me between the eyes and I started gagging again.  “You really don’t smell that?”  

“No, I really don’t smell anything” he said, “but I’ll take care of it”. 

When I came home the next day my husband was out front hosing off the lawn mower to help fix the smell.  He’s so thoughtful!  I’m really lucky to have such a sweet and compassionate guy. 

I can’t wait to shout our news from the rooftops.  I'm looking forward to everything.  I want to experience every pregnancy symptom out there.  I’m sure I will regret saying that in a few weeks but right now I am so overjoyed and thankful for this, that I’m looking forward to everything that comes my way. 

Third Times the Charm!

(Originally written July 2012)

I love the saying “The third times the charm!”  Why?  Because it usually holds true.  After a long road and several months working with the fertility clinic, we just received the best news of our lives.  Guess what?!?!

It was Thursday afternoon on July 19th.  I had been especially irritable that week but I didn’t really know why.  I mean, 5-alarm butt-head!  Things that wouldn’t normally set me off seemed to really get me fire me up.  I got into it with the IT guy at work three different times, I interpreted an email from a friend to be a personal attack and “spoke my mind” about a few things, and then there’s my poor husband.  We rarely find anything wrong with one another but for some reason even the way he pushed a shopping cart around the store was irritating.  He kept pushing it diagonally and wouldn’t walk in a straight line.  I know, the audacity!

What was wrong with me?  Why was everyone around me so annoying?  Then it dawned on me.  It had to be because I was expecting “the phone call” with my pregnancy test results in a few days and I just knew it was going to be negative again.  So much so, that my husband and I had a long conversation the night before on what our next step was going to be if this didn’t take.  After all, the doctors said this was our third and final try and if we weren’t pregnant then we needed to explore more extreme measures.  I knew in my heart it was negative.  

I was completely shocked when the voice on the other end of the phone said “Its positive”.  

I responded sadly, “oh, okay.  WAIT. WHAT?!?  Did you say it was positive?”

“Yes, its positive”. 

I started bawling on the phone.  The nurse could barely understand me after that.  She said I would have to go in again in two days and repeat the blood test to be sure it was a viable pregnancy, but as of right now everything looked pretty good.  I called my husband and was still crying when he answered.  He’s gotten this emotional sobbing wreck of a phone call two times before so his first words were “oh babe, I’m so sorry.  We’ll just try again”. 

I replied, “no, sniff, sniff, its positive.  We’re going to be parents”.  There was silence on the other end of the line and then we both burst into tears and laughter. 

  

After a very long two days, we headed back to the clinic to repeat the blood test.  We've never been so nervous in our lives.  Hours later, we still hadn’t received a phone call so we tried to keep busy.  We were in a parade that morning and then we headed to the local farm to pick up some produce.   My husband ran inside to get a watermelon while I waited in the car.  As he came out, watermelon in hand, I gave him a big two thumbs up.  His face lite up with excitement and he mouthed “Really?”  Then I realized why he was so excited.  “Oh crap, NO, NO, NO,” I said, while waving my arms back and forth.  “They didn't call.  I was giving you thumbs up because you picked out a great watermelon.  Good job!” 

   

“Geeze babe!  Don’t do that to me.”  He said.  

“Oops, sorry.  I was just really excited about the watermelon.  It looks like a good one!  Hahahaha.” 

When the call came in, we got the news we were hoping for.  However, since my “positive” levels were so low with the first blood test they wanted us to come back in another two days for a THIRD blood test.   Three blood tests?!?!  Couldn’t I just pee on a stick like everyone else?  The third blood test was also positive.  After a long year and a half of hoping and praying for a baby, our prayers have been answered.  But of course, I still had to pee on a stick to see for myself!

I Wonder.....

• Why do you get deodorant balls in your armpits? 
• Why do people find it necessary to take a poo in the middle stall of an empty bathroom? C'mon, at least try to quarantine your stink in a corner stall. 
• Why do hang nails hurt so badly?  I'd take a giant gash in my arm over a hang nail any day.
• Why is it so hard to fart when you are sooo bloated and NEED to fart? If just one would come out it would make the world of difference.  But alas, they don't come.  Sigh. 
• Which brings me to my next question. Why do they call them farts?  That's soooo not a pretty word. 
• Why is the last part of a bar of soap the part that lasts the longest? 
• Why do some mammals mate for life (dolphins, penguins, etc..) while some of the so-called smarter mammals (aka humans) can't stand each other for more than a week? 
• Has anyone actually ever eaten a kumquat?  What is it? And where do you buy them?
• How come your feet get stinky in shoes but your hands don't get stinky in gloves?
• Why is the bathroom the dustiest room in the house?
• What is that smell that comes from the AC in a car?
• Why do we have eyebrows?  What's the point of these hairy face catipillars?

What is up with the universe?

Is it just me or are people acting more disrespectful than normal?  Is there a full moon on the horizon or something?  I swear, about 90% of the people I've encountered this week are dillholes and its only Wednesday.  And so I will rant......Maybe my patience is running thin but I really think people are just completely oblivious to the people around them.  Guy who tried to run me off the road yesterday and made me cry for a half an hour?  Dillhole! (Although, you deserve more colorful language!)  Lady who tried walking past me and shoulder slammed me because apparently I was walking to slowly for her?  Dillhole!  Lady who saw me rushing towards the elevator but didn't hold the door when I was 5 feet away?  Dillhole!  Numerous people who won't let you over in traffic?  Dill....er, never mind.  I guess I'm guilty of that one too sometimes. :)

Seriously though, what is wrong with people? At least the guy at my favorite lunch spot gave me a free item today just to see if I liked it.  That totally made my week and possibly restored my faith in humanity!  That's all it took.  Just someone being nice during a week where everyone has been rude.

Only one more day to go and then a nice, long 4-day weekend. That reminds me.  I really need to paint my toenails so they look nice for the wedding this weekend in Cali. What color should they be?  Hmmm, decisions, decisions.

*Update:  I meant to post this last week but totally forgot to hit "post".  Oops.  The wedding in Cali was amazing!  And I really think that last week people were just down right cranky!  This week people are so much nicer!  Keep it up.  Keep it up!   I still need to paint my toenails.  Dah!

Project Yard, COMPLETE!

We moved into our house in 2008.  In 2009 we built a fence which has been amazing at providing a sense of privacy (I say "we" built a fence but we all know I didn't have much to do with it).  Since then we haven't done much with our backyard. And when I say we haven't done much, I mean, we haven't done anything.  We didn't even water it.  Occasionally my husband would take the lawn mower out back into the dust storm and mow the foot tall weeds, but that was the extent of our yard work.  All of our attention was focused on the front yard.  We knew we wanted to re-vamp the backyard but it would take a few years of saving and planning before we could do what we wanted.  Well......I'm proud to say that after four years of dreaming of a yard we would want to spend time in, Summer 2012 was that year for us!  We now have a wonderful backyard to enjoy for years to come!

A big thanks to Vick Landscaping for their hard work and dedication to giving us a beautiful backyard!  

Before

Before

Before

Before

Before

Before

Even the dirt is an improvement from before

Setting the pathway

Laying the foundation

The paver process begins..

Ta Da!

Lesson Learned. Just Keep Driving.

What a stressful week this has been!  Monday, while driving home from work, the traffic on the freeway came to a dead stop.  Not that it was moving briskly before, but now it was completely stopped.  I should preface this with the fact that it has been really hot the past few days.  All of the sudden I see smoke billowing up several hundred feet in front of me.  Then I look in my rear view mirror to see a fire truck approaching.  "Great.  You've got to be kidding me" I think to myself.  Some yahoo's beater car has overheated and is now engulfed in flames.  "GAH!  This is such an inconvenience!"  I know that I should feel compassion for the poor schmuck whose car is on fire but I really have no patience for it anymore. There are so many beater cars on the road these days that its literally a weekly occurrence to sit in worse than normal traffic due to a stalled vehicle....Sorry.  I had to vent.  Back to my story.  So I notice that I'm right near the exit that will put me on a straight shot all the way over to I-205.  "Sure, this has got to be faster than waiting for the fire to be put out," I think.  So I take it.  I'm driving along when all of the sudden the car in front of me flips on her blinker to turn left at a green light.  I switch lanes to avoid having to slow down while she yields to oncoming traffic.  She slows down slightly and I see her car shake back and forth as if she's hesitating to make the turn.  I think to myself "don't do it.  Don't do it".  Then she does it.  She never stopped and proceeded to turn directly in front of the oncoming car.  SMASH!!!! She t-boned the other car and sent them spinning past me.  I quickly turned the corner at the intersection and pulled into a parking lot so I could run to see if the people were okay.  The driver was stuck in the car and there was glass everywhere.  His arm was covered in blood but overall he looked like he was okay.  By this time, his wife had gotten out of the car and was yelling inappropriate comments to the driver that had hit them.  I assumed it was just shock and I tried to calm her down.  Then I went over to the other gal who (I thought) caused the accident to make sure she was okay.  Her airbags had deployed and she clearly had a broken arm.  She was pretty beat up and completely out of it.  She was close to my age and I felt so badly for her.

Once the police showed up, I gave my statement.  To me, it was very clear that the gal didn't yield like she was supposed to.  Then, another witness who was sitting at the adjacent light comes up to me and says the light was yellow and the car that was hit tried to "beat the light" and ran a yellow.  "What?! The light was totally green," I thought and just responded by saying "I don't recall it happening that way."  Later that night, I got a call from the traffic police wanting my statement again.  So I recanted the details of the crash.

The officer responds by saying "not to discredit what you are saying, but I have another witness who says the light was yellow and that the BMW who was hit ran a yellow and was at fault.  You do know in Oregon that running a yellow light is the same thing as running a red, don't you?"

I respond.  "Yeah, but wasn't this other witness sitting at the adjacent light?  How could he have seen it was yellow?  I was not slowing down to stop because the light was green.  It never turned yellow because if it had I would have been slowing to a stop.

The policeman goes on, "well, just for future reference, I want you to know that it is illegal to run a yellow in Oregon".

What the crap?!?! Is this dingle-douche really giving ME, the witness, a lesson on what's legal and what's not? He's treating me like I did something wrong in this scenario.  Of course I know its illegal to run a yellow light.  Duh!  That's why I was proceeding through a GREEN light.  Is he really taking the word of someone who couldn't see what color the light was over mine, the person who was actually driving through the light?  AND I might add, this other witness couldn't even recall his own phone number at the scene because in his own words he was "so out of it".  Do you really think he was sitting at a red light, saw a huge accident occur before his eyes and then looked up and processed that his light just went from red to green?  I don't.

Seeing the accident was pretty traumatizing.  However, being questioned and talked to like I did something wrong was even more frustrating.  Its no wonder that people don't stop to help more often if they are going to be treated this way.  I learned my lesson.  Way to go Portland police.  You just lost another Good Samaritan.  Next time I will be sure to keep on driving.

Gray is here to stay!

I love gray!  Pretty much every color combination with gray is fantastic. Gray and yellow?  One of my favorites!  Gray and pink?  Of course.  Gray and red?  For sure!   Its a neutral color without being too neutral.  AKA boring.  I don't know what it is about this little shade that makes everything look a bit more sophisticated, but I'm happy to see that it's finally starting to catch on.  For the past two years, its been difficult to find any gray textiles or furniture.  I would go shopping and there would be no gray to be found.  Finally, about a year ago during one of my many trips to Lazy-Boy.....It's true.  One of my weaknesses is to visit the furniture and fabric swatches. They know me by name now. Nerd alert.  I know!....Anyways, the designer said that by summer 2012, gray patterned upholstery should start to show its face and retailers would start to catch on.  I just needed to be patient for a year or so.  It was on the horizon.

Finally, its now summer of 2012 and guess what?  Gray seems to be popping up everywhere.  Even Ikea is on board with their new Gray-Brown Collection!

Espresso has been sidelined.  Gray-brown is pulling ahead. Next time you aren't sure what color to go with, as a base or even an accent, I urge you to give gray a try.  Its classic, yet contemporary.  Modern, yet traditional.  Where we live, most people think that gray = gloomy.  When you look outside, you're right.  However, there are so many different shades of gray to choose from.  It goes with almost everything, and if done right, can give even the gloomiest room a cheery makeover.  

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S99892233/

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/90192047/

http://www.overstock.com/Home-Garden/Hand-tufted-Gray-Zandoline-New-Zealand-Wool-Rug-5-x-8/6578367/product.html