It's been way too long

Life has been an interesting road to follow these last 9 days...it's been going from dull slow to fast, fast, fast! Chris and I are feeling well. I'm on vacation, but we're trying to buy a house, and there has been a lot of phone calls, looking at houses, making appointments, doing mental math...blah, blah, blah.

Last week is also is the week where I woke up one morning and my pants just don't fit anymore. I finally look pregnant and not just chunky.



On a happier, more fun note I am on vacation and I'm hoping to get a ton of sewing done. I'd like to start the alien baby quilt this week plus a few other minor projects. Nothing big.

The last thing I want to share is the lovely, lovely, lovely orchid I bought myself at the bulk buying club I belong to. the quality of this orchid is incredible...it has 3 branches of buds. I got it for 15.99...anywhere else it would have cost upwards of $35.

Where does the time go?

Sorry I haven't been around recently...I had about a million meetings after school this week, so by the time I got home, I was exhausted...so I sat around and did nothing. Not a thing. Sad, because I really should be purging the apartment of things we don't need because we will eventually have to make room for this baby if we don't find a house. And even if we do find a house, we're going to have to purge before we move just to make things easier.

To make it up to anyone who visited and was disappointed, I took pictures this week for your entertainment.

This is especially for Marta who requested a picture of Reuben in his new hoodie.

Reu will whimper when he's on his dog bed if he's cold...the result is a snuggle up with a blanket. Sometimes, when we're lucky, he gets up and walks around wearing a cape for a while.

This is the fabric that I stashed away to make a baby quilt with. I actually bought it when my friend CA was pregnant and I wanted to make her baby a quilt. I think that whether I have a girl of boy...it's my kid and it will probably love aliens as much as I do...right?

Thanks for stopping by!

See number 48 in the last post

How psyched am I that Tom Petty sang American Girl for the first half time song? Uhhhhh....can we say super psyched? Psychodelically psyched? Monsterously psyched? I just don't know!

Meme from Marta

I need to be dong something while I watch the Superbowl. I grew up in a track and field house...I didn't understand football at all until I was in high school. Yikes!

1. Do you like blue cheese? Yes!
2. Have you ever smoked heroin? Nope. 5th grade health class gave me a healthy fear of herion and LSD.
3. Do you own a gun? No, but one of my brothers owns 3. He's a cop, so I guess that's allowed
4. What flavor do you add to your drink at Sonic? Sonic? We have no Sonic anywhere near me!
5. Do you get nervous before doctor appointments? Only before I go to the Obgyn and only recently because of the baby. Otherwise, it's not a problem.
6. What do you think of hot dogs? They might be my favorite food. I love them..especially the dirty water hotdog you buy at carts in NYC. Good God, those are heavenly.
7. Favorite Christmas movie? A Christmas Story. I love it so much, when I taught in NYC, I would show it to my English classes on the last day of school just for fun.
8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? I used to drink Starbucks religiously, but now it's OJ.
9. Can you do push ups? Yes, more than 10, but less than 20. All the girly kind.
10. Why is there a missing questions here?? I don't know, Marta, but there is.
11. What's your favorite piece of jewelry? The only pieces of jewelry that I wear are my wedding ring and engagement ring.
12. Favorite hobby? Sewing, reading, watching the tube.
13. Another missing question, whoever came up with this one can't count! Even thought that's really not a questions, I agree (LOL)
14. Do you have A.D.D.? No, but it does run in my family.
15. What's one trait you hate about yourself? My avoidance of things and situations that make me over-emeotional. I should just learn to deal instead of avoidance!
16. Middle name? Janet.
17. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment... I wish I looked pregnant instead of just chunky, why isn't there any ice cream in the freezer? How many people are on Warcraft right now instead of watching the game?
18. Name 3 things you bought today... toilet bowl cleaner, a hoodie for Reuben, maternity pants.
19. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink? seltzer, gingerale, orangina.
20. Current worry? Will I ever feel the baby move?
21. Current hate right now? Crazy, over dramatic, twin carrying co-worker who has sent more than 10 emails since Friday morning.
22. Favorite place to be? Martha's Vineyard or Maine. Acutally, any place where I can hear the ocean, thank you.
23. How did you bring in the New Year? At home watchin' season 2 of Lost with my husband.
24. Where would you like to go? New Zealand, India, Ireland.
25. Name three people who will complete this? Chai, Zumba Kim, Trixie Belden
26. Do you own slippers? Yes, they look like sock monkeys.
27. What shirt are you wearing? A seafoam green t-shirt
28. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? Nuh-uh. Jersey or flannel, thanks.
29. Can you whistle? Really loud...I used to walk the halls of my high school whistling the Andy Griffith theme song. Fun!
30. Favorite color? Blue
31. Would you be a pirate? Maybe for a job in between jobs...might be fun to do for a while.
32. What songs do you sing in the shower? I usually don't sing in the shower.
33. Favorite girl's name? Eabha (pronounced Eva), Edan, Caitlin
34. Favorite boy's name? Ronan, Decland (Chris hates all my fav boy names)
35. What's in your pocket right now? lint
36. Last person that made you laugh? My husband...because Reuben looked so awesome in his new hoodie.
37. Best bed sheets as a child? Disney's Snow White and the 7 Dwarves. My mom made them into curtains once they got a little thin, too. Thanks mom!
38. Worst injury you've ever had? Pinched nerve in my shoulder.
39. Do you love where you live? I love NY! Although, Maine is my favorite state.
40. How many TVs do you have in your house? Two...the living room and the bedroom.
41. Who is your loudest friend? Quite possibly CA
42. How many dogs do you have? Cats? 1 dog but no cats...Chris and I are both allergic, but we looove cats.
43. Does someone have a crush on you? One of the kids at work does.
44. OK, ANOTHER one mising - someone messed this meme I think. Hmmmmm interesting, I wonder what those questions were? I think the missing questions should be: If you were a type of cereal, what kind of cereal would you be?
45. What is your favorite book(s)? A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving, Sabriel by Garth Nix, anything by Janet Evanovich because she makes me laugh so damn hard.
46. What is your favorite candy? Reese's Peanut Butter cups.
47. Favorite Sports Team? Team? There are no teams in triathlon or track. Humph!
48. What song do you want played at your funeral? American Girl by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. (I knew there was a reason I was watching the game)
49. What were you doing 12 AM last night? Sadly, I was watching Sleepaway Camp on Monsters HD.
50. What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up? Why did I stay up so late watching Sleepaway Camp?

That was fun...is Tom Petty on tv yet?

Double Cootie

Chris is feeling tons better. Thank goodness. We got a phone call this morning from his doctor's office. I couldn't figure out who was calling so early, and I really wanted to know who hit me in the back with a two by four. The phone call wasn't all that early. It was 9:3o...which is really late for me to sleep. We were informed that Chris' flu sample came back negative...so apparently Chris just had some kind of bacterial thing. Gross. Not only that, but as a result, I've got Bronchitis...again. When I got up for the phone this morning, I started coughing a bit and called my doc once I got off the phone with his doc. I'm now on mild anti-biotics (that are pregancy approved) because I want to nip this thing in the bud. I saw what Chris went through and I can not go through that. I think body aches and a slight fever are enough for me to handle considering all I can take is Tylenol. Blah. I've already called in to the library tomorrow, although I'm sure I'll be feeling better, I don't want to be in that panic of trying to reach someone from the library on a Sunday morning...it's nearly impossible.

I hope all of you are doing well out there in BloggerLand!

Cootie Box Central

My apartment is cootie head quarters. Poor Chris has the flu. I took him to the doctor on Tuesday. Since then, he has gotten worse. He developed a horrid sore throat and a choking cough...plus his fever has gone up from an average of 100 to 102. Not cool. I took the day off from work to keep an eye on him because I've never seen him so sick (scary!) and I took him back to the doctor. Doc put him on anti-biotics because he's afraid Chris might be developing a secondary infection so the anti-biotics are a precaution. Meanwhile, Chris has to sleep on the couch (doctor's orders) and I'm not allowed to spend time with him. And if I go near him, I have to wash my hands (obviously). As a result I have old lady hands. I'm serious. My hands do not look a day under 80 years old. I've been using Gold Bond Foot cream on them. I figure if it can soften crack feet, it'll do a number on my hands. It does work.

So, I've got Chris on the couch, I've got Reuben who wants to be on the couch, but can't because 1) Chris is taking up the entire couch and 2) I'm Reu's primary caretaker, and sole caretaker now that Chris is ill and I can't have influenza cooties on the dog who will be sleeping with me because I'm the best human ever in his eyes.

I hope all these precautions are going to keep me form getting the flu because apparently, there is nothing that pregnant women can take for the flu...except for tylenol. Chris is miserable with alka-seltzer with tylenol taken intermittenly with advil. Can you imagine having an extra horrible flu and all you can take is plain tylenol? Not even Tylenol Pm so you can sleep through most of it? Frightening.

So as a result of all this I canceled all our plans for the weekend. Out for Mexican with my parents? Canceled. UFC at his boss' house? Canceled. SuperBowl at CA and Mikes (with Baby Kyle)? That's a super big CANCELED! Who wants to feel responsible for giving an infant the flu. Not me.

Hope all of you are well...or are on the mend, Marta!

Eating better

Just like when I wasn't pregnant, I'm struggling to eat healthier. Ugh. Today I made Black Bean Quinoa salad that I totally stole from the Zumba Queen herself...Kimberly. It's right up my alley and if you can eat it slow enough so that it's four servings...it's core.

I think I'm going to try to going back to eating core...more of it and ignore the flexies...but I think I need to fill up my dietary day with more fruits and veggies rather than bagels, butter, and candy. Seems to make sense to me.

I'm also not used to this hormonal stuff. I never really had bad PMS (curse at me if it makes you feel better) but I left work "sick" today because I was afraid a library patron would come in and make me cry...I was *that* on edge all day. I just do not feel like myself today and it make me feel yucky. I think it's a combo of stress, looking at houses that Chris and I can't agree on, and the fact that I'm not sleeping so great. To remedy all this, I set up an appointment for a prenatal massage tomorrow. I told the appointment lady that I didn't need the special table, but I needed someone who was certified in prenatal because the rumor is...if you're massaged "wrong" you can have weird stuff happen like dizziness, headaches and in rare cases...contractions. It's an extra $5 but I think it'll be well worth it.

And Marta, I never responded to your comment, so I'm doing it here. We're not going to find out what the baby is (aside from human) before it's born.

Isotonic v Hypertonic

I've been doing a little sinus rinse research (of all things) and discovered that with my rinse kit I can do 2 types of rinses: isotonic or hypertonic. Isotonic has the same salt levels as you body and is good just for a general rinse and stimulation of cilia. Hypertonic is more salt than your body and is recommended if you're having sinus issues or if you want to wash out pollen, dust or mucus from your sinuses. It'll also relieve inflammation. I've done isotonic for 2 days now, and thought to myself, "Hey! If isotonic is doing a good job, think of what hypertonic could do for me and my disgusting snot filled sinuses"

I read the instructions on the box for making the hypertonic solution (easy...3 packets instead of 1). Proceeded to prep the water...waited for it to cool. Jammed the sinus thing in my nose and BURN! Weird,I thought to myself, same temp as last night's isotonic. I told myself I'd wait 5 minutes for the water to cool. So, 1 minutes later (I was reading blogs) I rammed the nasal thing in my nose and BURN! Ummmm, it didn't occur to me that more salt would burn. Duh! I am feeling clear and my nose running like a champ complete with sinus clear out. Yes!

Moral of the story...although hypertonic rinses don't tickle and actually burn like sticking a soldering iron in your nose, it's well worth it when you're suffering anyway.

I woke up with a bit of sinus pressure/pain this morning and I thought to myself, "Crap!". I don't want to be on antibiotics again this early in the pregnancy. I had bronchitis last month and had to take strong antibiotics. Bleh. I decided to try the sinus rinse route after talking to a coworker who is a frequent netti pot user.

I don't usually watch Oprah, but I do love Dr. Oz. On a recent show, Dr. Oz recommended the netti pot, and my coworker swears by it, so I thought I'd give it a shot. Unfortunately, Mrs. Green's was out, so I ran to CVS and got the Ayr sinus system. I ran back to work, and used it right away.

I have to tell you, squirting water up one nostril and having it run through your forehead and out through the other nostril, is an experience to be had. It did not, at all, feel like I was drowning. The running water did tickle, and depending on which nostril I had the bottle up to, the corresponding eye would twitch a little bit, which made me laugh.

So here I am, at school, in the bathroom with the door open, squirting water into one nostril, having it pour out the other, eye twitching and me giggling like a mad woman.

I will say this...my head felt tons better after using it. My nose was running, weird stuff came out. (I know: TMI). I think that this product, if i use it daily from now on, it will probably be a big help once my allergy season sets in...you know March through November.

Changes

I can feel this blog slowly changing into an annoying mommy blog...at least for the time being, the only things I've got going on are the pregnancy and house hunting...so that's what I'm going to be writing about...sorry.

Today I went for a Down Syndrome/chromosome screening. I sent in blood work months ago and today I was scheduled for an ultrasound. Very cool. I was instructed to eat something sugary about an hour before the appointment. I love eating ice cream for breakfast! As a result of the sugary breakfast, the baby was wiggling in the ultrasound. It was the coolest thing I have ever seen. My mom came with me and got to see my wiggly baby and hear the heartbeat. She filmed it on her cell phone. Yeah, I've got that kind of mother.

The cool thing about this screening is that the doctor sees you about 10 minutes after he analyzes the ultrasound and the blood sample. He told me that my screening couldn't go much better. My risk for Down Syndrome at this point is 1 in 6,000 and for other chromosome abnormalities I'm less than 1 in 10,000. Those are much better odds than those associated with my age (1 in 304 for each!). I'm supposed to do another one of these during the second trimester, but it's seriously painless and since you get instant results, it's even better.

Guess What...

Evil coworker is also pregnant and is due two days after me. She has always said that she doesn't want kids, but her husband does...and the deal they have is that she'll have a baby and he'll take care of it. That way she can continue to be focused on her course work (PhD) and career, and he'll leave her alone. Well, she's pregnant with TWINS! Fate has it out for her. The rumor is her pregnancy plan is to only gain 15 pounds....with twins. With a singleton you're expected to gain 25-35 pounds. She's a bit twisted...don't you think?

Confessions

I have to confess to all of you in blogland that I have not been doing WW for ummmm...like two months or so. I have moments of uncontrollable hunger, slight nausea, fatigue...it's unlike anything I've ever experience before.

Yeah, you guessed it. I'm pregnant. I'm due on August 6th. I'm hoping that once the baby is born I'll be back to tri'ing like I get paid by the hour and not turn this into a mommy blog whose title has been changed to Cry Like You Get Paid by the Hour or or something equally obnoxious.

So there you have it...now you all know why I've been mostly absent and evasive when I actually have posted. Sorry for the delay! Now that my big secret is out in the open, I think I'll be around more often as I'll be able to share more freely.

Chris and I are also house hunting, so this is a time of exhaustion and stress! Nothing like making 2 major life changes at the same time, right?

Woah!

I am a really selfish blogger...I read your blogs on a daily basis and I amd totally bummed when ya'll take a day off and here I am posting once a week! I think I've got way too much going on at the moment. My school had a terrible thing happen, which I can't talk about at the moment...but I'll set up a link or something soon, if I can. We're still interviewing for new reading people, but we had a really great interviewee this afternoon and our administrator is trying to get her to come back tomorrow for a second interview. Yay! I've also got some other small things in the works that I can't mention right now, but I promise I will soon!

I am off to make cookies for the reading department baby shower! Woo-hoo!

Happy New Year!

Hey all! I have to go back to work tomorrow...boooo. Don't get me wrong, I love my job, it's just that this has not felt like a vacation to me. I have bronchitis...I've been coughing since the day after Christmas. I can't be too upset. I have a week off in February, so I can relax then...especially since there are no big holidays attached, except for Presidents Day, which is not a high pressure family style holiday...so I'm good.

I have not decided if I'm going to have resolutions for 2008. I'm going to have to ruminate on that a bit longer. No worries...I'll keep ya'll updated.

Playing Catch-up

The holiday season is a killer, don't you agree? I think this is the first free moment I've had a in a week. Even at the library I've had very little time to do anything but read a blog or two...literally. It sucks. But I'm back, so there you go. There are about a million things I want to share, but now that I'm here I can't seem to remember it all, so I'll see what I can do.

The Friday before Christmas was Ian's last day as a 1:1 at the elementary school. He just couldn't take working with kids who have so many problems so young. During the last week of school he shaved his beard differently each day to entertain the kids. This one is my favorite.

My BFF, Julie and I entered a raffle outside of Trader Joe's a few weekends ago and as I result I won a new orchid. Yay for me!

Not only did I win the new orchid, but the orchid that I got as a gift last June has new blossoms on it. It'll probably take months for them to actually bloom, but it's still exciting.

I also got some cool stuff for Christmas: quilting books, a book on how to use old socks to make stuffed animals, a new coffee grinder, a french press coffee maker, lots of DVDs, new pajamas, and a book on living green.

Sadly, although I know I have more to share, this is all I can think of at the moment. Boo.

A week?

Jeezie creezie! I can not believe it has been a whole week...no wonder my stat numbers are down. Yikes!

This is my last week of work before Christmas vacation (officially Mid-winter break...but being a non-practicing Catholic, it'll always be Christmas vacation to me). I think my shopping is done. I've finished 2 of the 3 sock monkeys...and sock monkey #3 body is complete...he just needs things like eyes, ears and a tail. Nothing big. Another hour, maybe.

Food, as I'm sure it is for many of us, is just getting harder and harder. I've been trying to eat a series of small meals many times a day so that I never get hungry enough to binge on holiday treats..but it doesn't seem to be going as planned. It's not terrible in that the small meals keep me from binging but don't keep me from passing on them. I guess I'll take what I can get.

Chris and I are gearing up for the big holiday. We went to my work dinner last night, we have one with his extended family tomorrow night, and then Thursday night is his holiday work dinner at Morton's Steakhouse. After that I'm hoping for a quiet weekend. Christmas will be as follows: Christmas eve: go to my father-in-law's for a "picky dinner" where we just graze for a while. Christmas morning: My parents house for brunch and gifts with my 3 brothers and my BFF Darth Bruce. Christmas dinner is done at my mother-in-laws house. The day after Christmas? Sleep and play with my new toys.

Should be an interesting end to this year. I'll try to be "good" until then, and update sooner than a week!

Golden Compass!

I can't wait to see this movie! I loved all the books in the series.

Drowning in Christmas

I think I might literally be drowning in Christmas. Chris and I did about 25 Christmas cards...mostly family and extended family. We're going to finish up the last bit tonight, plus we need to go over our Christmas lists and see who still needs gifts. We are also going to try to decorate our tree tonight, but we may have to put that off to another night. Exhausting.

Our weekend was nice...a ton of good food and dozens of great people. Fun, but tiring.

Work has also been busy. With the upcoming vacation, my students are getting more and more stressed out. They hate coming to school, but they really hate spending time with their flesh and blood more. A number of them are acting out for that reason alone.

I personally can not wait until vacation...9 more school days...or calendar days. Woo-hoo! Then I can sleep for 3 days straight and still have more than a week to do whatever I want. Whoopie!

Yikes!

I have not been here in about a gazillion years. (gazillion = 1/52 of a year, or one week) I don't know where this week has gone. I've been working on Christmas cards, trying to get Christmas shopping (online so far) under control. I attended two meetings after school hours this week (Quality Improvement and Reading Department). I am beat as a result.

My hands are also crazy dry. 129 year old lady dry. Cracked mummy dry. At night I've been putting Gold bond Foot cream on them and then wearing gloves and that seems to do the trip, but by the end of the day, my hands are dry and red again. Must be winter or something. I think that I'm going to have to go on strike when it comes to the dishes for a little while...which means that our dishes will pile up for longer than usual. Bah.

I wish that I could say that I've been doing a ton of sewing...I have a list of things that I would like to make for people for Christmas, but can't seem to get the energy up to get it done. I think I'm just going to have to suck it up and try to get it all done. It's going to be tough, as I've got a lot going on this weekend, but I think I can squeak some time here and there.

To Do:

1. Iron new fabric that I bought last weekend at JoAnn Fabrics (which is the second one to be closing shop within my driving range...the closest one will now be 90 minutes a way)
2. Make templates from the internet patterns I bought from FutureGirl, and for the infant shoes I want to make for my friend CA's unborn baby who we affectionately call Jumby (Jumby is due on Christmas Eve, so the kid need Christmas presents !)
3. 3 sock monkeys: one for my father-in-law who was caught walking around my apartment with Chris' because he loved it so much, one for Jumby, and one for my work Holiday dinner where we have a "Chinese Auction" (sorry to anyone who is offended...I just learned what this was and I have not other name for it). The auction has a theme of "thing with 4 legs"...so a sock monkey it is.
4. Lunch with Chris and my college roommate.
5. Dinner at Lyndhurst Castle with the 'rents...we don't actually get to eat in the castle, but we'll be in the carriage house...which is lovely. The old horse stalls have been changed into booths, and the tacking room fits about 15 tables. It's really beautiful...and I've even saying this as someone who used to waitress weddings at this place. The worked sucked, but the ambiance was always gorgeous.
6. Work at the library on Sunday.
7. Indian dinner with Chris and my father-in-law on Sunday night.

Yeah, I'm a tad busy this week.

First Snow!

I am happy as a proverbial clam...we had our first snowfall this morning! snow is one of my favorite things. It's crisp and white and puts a nice chill into the air. And it's right in time to make it feel like the holidays are actually on their way!

The unfortunate side is that later on we're supposed to get sleet and rain...nothing good can come of that...perhaps a 2 hour delay for school tomorrow morning, but not much else.

In personal news: I still have no voice...in fact it's gotten worse. I'm working at the library as I type this and I've had a number of people grin when I've tried to speak to them. Great.