Mel's Marvelous Musings

I'm Officially Old!

2006-09-06T20:30:00.000-05:00

Today in the mail, I got an invitation for my 5 year college reunion. I am officially old. Not as old as I will be next year when I will receive an invitation to my 10 YEAR HIGH SCHOOL REUNION. It seemed so far away only a few days ago! Oh well, the good news is that I have a big weekend with the recruits during my homecoming weekend this year so I can pretend like it's not happening and that I haven't really been out of college 5 years already (in reality it has only been 4 since after I got my bachelors, I did another year of classes to get my teaching certification). Yes, that makes me feel oh so much better! ;)

I'm a Lucky Ducky

2006-08-31T20:40:00.000-05:00

As much as I loved my little Mustang, getting Cooper in and out of it was becoming QUITE a chore. I was getting increasingly worried how my back was going to survive, and especially worried about what would happen if he could no longer use his baby car seat because of weight but still hadn't reached the 1 year mark and would have to sit backwards in the convertible car seat which would be installed and not taken in and out like the baby car seat. So......I started researching and trying to figure out if I could have another car what it is exactly I would want. And I fell in love with the Chevy Equinox. I had previously thought about a Ford Escape, but it wasn't anything super special. The Equinox is in another world of its own even though it is also a small SUV. However, the room inside with the moving back seat is incredible and there is still tons of back/trunk space even when the seat is fully back. For all the gadgets and gizmos I could possibly want, the price was amazing, and I was hooked.

Of course, I figured since I had done a red carpet lease on my Mustang, I would not only be stuck in my lease until January 2008, but I would also be screwed out of all the money I had paid toward it because by that time and with the extra mileage I now put on a car since we moved to our house, my car wouldn't be worth much more than the remaining amount when the lease was up and I had the option to trade it in/buy it. But I thought it wouldn't hurt to at least find out and off I went on Monday afternoon to the Chevy dealership my father-in-law uses to buy trucks for the company and where he also was thinking of purchasing a truck and whose dealership they bought my mother-in-law's Tahoe and my brother-in-law's H3. At least there was history and not me stumbling into the greedy eyes of a random car salesman. Since right now (due to the short distance I drove it the past two years up until February when I only drove it a few weeks to work before going on maternity leave for 3 months) there wasn't very much mileage for a car that was two years old and I had luckily kept it in nearly perfect condition, I was able to get an AMAZING amount for my car compared to what I owe which allowed for a down payment. I also received several incentives from Chevy since they are trying to clear the 2006 models before the 2007 models head in. All that said, I ended up being able to work a deal where our car payments for the new car are practically the same as they currently are (which was already a low amount compared to the typical car payment). Plus I could take the next 1.5 years paying payments to a car that I will now OWN after a few more years rather than spending 1.5 years paying into my mustang only to turn around and have to spend another few years paying a different car. It was the perfect time and the perfect deal, and I went to pick up my new car this afternoon.

It still feels like a dream or that I'm driving a rental car or someone else's car around. But I love it!!! It is dark silver, has light grey leather interior, a sunroof, XM radio, OnStar, and all kinds of other cool gadgets and sweet things to make my driving experience so much better. And this time I feel really good about my purchase because I know this is a car that I can drive for the next ten years if need be. I am so happy and I can't wait to drive it around more this weekend! :) It's kind of sad because Austin had tickets to the Cowboys game tonight so he only briefly got to see it (he wasn't with me on Monday either when I test drove it because he left work later and then went by to pick up Cooper). But I'm sure we'll enjoy trying it out this weekend!

I'll try to take some pictures this weekend and post them. Yippee! I'm definitely feeling like one lucky little ducky! And my parents will finally be happy when they come in a few weeks because I can actually pick them up and drive them around in MY car! :) Hope you all have a great weekend, and enjoy your day off on Monday!

Picture Time

2006-08-15T09:34:00.000-05:00

As promised, here is a picture of Cooper's updated room:

And one of the cutie pants himself in the process of learning to crawl! :)

Where Does the Time Go?

2006-08-14T15:10:00.000-05:00

I find myself asking this very question multiple times a week (sometimes multiple times a day!). My little Cooper is five months old today. It doesn't even seem possible that he could be that old already. He's getting to be such a big boy! Our furniture came from Florida on Saturday so our house is finally getting the finishing touches set up. Along with the other furniture, my old crib was in there to use for Cooper. Austin and his dad put it together yesterday afternoon, and we decorated it all with Cooper's cute bedding, and it is just adorable! Cooper spent his first night in his crib last night, and he did great! When I first put him in there, he thumped his little arm on the side on the mattress kind of testing things out, but soon afterwards he was fast asleep as always. He is such a GOOD boy! :)

Other than that, not a whole lot else new. My interns' last day was on Friday so it was a busy week last week. This week and next week should be a little more tame, but then it's right into the busy fall recruiting season! I'm supposed to sit down with my boss this week and discuss when/where I might have to travel so I can prepare Austin and his mom in case of long days and even one or two overnights. The most I'll have to be gone though will be one night which isn't terrible. Not my favorite right now with my little cutie patootie at home, but I can manage! :) I'm just glad that I have a few weeks/weekends to veg! Not that I'm really vegging at work because I still have lots to do to prepare for the fall, but at least it is a little better than last week! ;)

Guess I'll end this boring post for now. I will try to take pictures of Cooper's finished (finally!) room and him with his teddy for his 5 month birthday and post them tomorrow. Talk to you later alligators! :)

Weird Dreams

2006-07-26T09:17:00.000-05:00

Last night, I had some weird dreams. Actually, at this point, I can't even remember the first one, but the second one was even weirder because I thought I was awake from the first one but really wasn't until I actually woke up from the second one. Strangeness! Of course, I was EXHAUSTED last night and fell asleep on the couch at 8 pm. Luckily, Cooper was sleepy too so he slept most of the evening, and then Austin was a sweetie and fed him and I put him to bed and then put myself back to bed. I feel much better today though so I guess my body needed it!

Other than that, not a whole lot else going on. Last weekend was pretty chill - nothing too exciting, mostly just errands and laundry and stuff like that. We did manage to sneak into the movie theater to see You Me & Dupree which I thought was pretty funny. Cooper was an angel and slept through the whole movie. Good timing on our part with his schedule! :)

This week is dragging by pretty slowly because I'm anticipating our vacation next week. We leave on Saturday morning to drive down to Port Aransas. We go every year and rent a house with Austin's family, and it is so much fun and very relaxing. This year, Austin & I both took off the whole week so we are staying from Saturday until Friday (they have the rental place Saturday to Saturday but I have to come back by Friday because I have to work a waterskiing event on the second Saturday). Needless to say I am DEFINITELY looking forward to it, especially after our last little mini-vacation turned out to be far from relaxing and rainy the whole time we were there practically. So I'm torn at work because I want to get stuff done to make sure things run smoothly while I'm gone and to get everything ready for the busy week I will have when I get back (last week of our intern program), but also dreaming of being at the beach and wanting to do nothing but pack and hit the road. Only today and two more days of work and we're out of here!!!!

Hope you all are having a great week! Talk to you soon! :)

It's Been a Blur

2006-07-17T09:58:00.000-05:00

Sorry I have been so MIA lately. It's just been crazy the past couple of weeks. I've had extracurricular activities going on for work, my parents were in town for 9 days, we went for my company offsite retreat to Fort Lauderdale for three days, and Cooper celebrated his 4 month birthday! It's been a whirlwind two weeks! :)

Everything is great, and I don't want to bore you with details so I won't. I will have to post one of the cutest pictures EVER of Cooper. He went to the doctor on Friday for his four month checkup, and he now is 27.5 inches long and weighs 17 pounds 7 ounces. He looks like he is quite a bit older than he is, but it's okay. He's just so long!!!! He is cuter than ever, and I love how his little personality is developing. We also tried rice cereal for the first time on Saturday, and he isn't too fond of it yet. Yesterday's cereal went a little bit better, but still not great. We'll see how it goes - my dad says it will get progressively better as time goes on.

Other than that, not a whole lot else to report. I have two full weeks of work and then I'm off for a week of vacation at Port Aransas. I CAN'T WAIT!!!! It will be Cooper's first trip to the beach, a week of fun in the sun and relaxation, and a great time as always I'm sure. Enough of my boring life - hope you all are doing great, and please ban Weight Watchers for being complete jerks (see Sara's blog)!!!!! I could kick their collective butts! Happy Monday! :)

Happy Fourth of July!

2006-07-05T12:12:00.000-05:00

I was super fortunate enough to have both Monday and Tuesday off so I had a nice four day weekend with my little one! Unfortunately for him, Austin had to work on Monday and to top it off got in a tiny fender bender as well so it was not a good day for him to say the least. :) Luckily, there was barely any damage and no one was hurt, so that is a good thing for sure! Other than that, our weekend was PACKED from beginning to end with stuff going on. We painted Cooper's room and got it all set up (except for the crib which should be here in a few weeks along with the rest of our furniture from Florida!). Did a little shopping although still really in need of a dress to wear the second night we are in Florida for my company trip. Hopefully I can pick up something this weekend in between all the million other things we have going on! I swear it never ends! ;)

Here is a picture of Cooper on his first Fourth of July. I think I scared him a little with my new camera! :)

I Ate Enough to Last Me Until Next Year

2006-06-27T10:32:00.000-05:00

So last Thursday was my birthday - 27 years old. I am getting much closer to 30 than I care to be. But as one of the guys I work with said last week (he's a whole 24 years old), at least I am married and have a child already! LOL

Apparently when you get older (or act older as I guess we do), you celebrate your birthday by going out to meals (lunch or dinner) with friends to visit rather than going out for drinks. As such, I ate so much that I thought I would never have to eat again. All of the meals were great and amazing, so I really can't complain but I really don't have to eat much of anything again until next year. Especially when I have to fit into a bathing suit in front of my entire office (that's another story) in a few short weeks. Oh well! Here is what my weekend consisted of:

Thursday lunch: Sushi with my boss and co-worker & Paciugo (yum!) for dessert
Thursday dinner: Salt Grass with Austin (and Cooper!)
Friday lunch: Ridiculous amount of food from Truluck's with my co-worker while tasting the menu for an upcoming dinner party
Friday dinner: Benihana's (my FAVORITE!) with Austin's family & Joey
Saturday lunch: CozyMel's with Diana & Bern and Austin & Cooper
Saturday dinner: Shady Oaks BBQ with friends
Sunday we finally took a break from eating a bit and grilled salmon for dinner so I could detox a bit. Today, I am having my final birthday meal with another co-worker and then I'm done with the eating for a little while! :)

Other than that, my birthday was great! I wanted to get a newer, smaller digital camera so I asked for money/gift cards and was able to get an AWESOME camera with the help of my family and Austin's family. Plus I had gotten clothes and scrapbook stuff from my parents, a beautiful necklace and tickets to Oklahoma from Austin, and lots of other great things. I was very blessed and loved! :)

Now if only I could convince myself that working out was as fun as going out to eat! ;)

Happy Father's Day!

2006-06-18T17:22:00.000-05:00

Just a quick post with some pictures as I promised last week. This first one is of Cooper on his three month birthday (6-14-06). He was feeling very serious at the time although lately he is all smiles! :)

Here is one of Cooper & his daddy! Happy first Father's Day Austin! This picture was taken yesterday so not officially on Father's Day, but close enough! I just think it's hilarious since Cooper was partway in and partway out of his onesie before his bath! Hope you had a great weekend and to all the fathers, have a great day!

3 Months Old!

2006-06-15T09:05:00.000-05:00

So, we did actually take some pictures last night to commemorate his 3 month birthday! However, I did not manage to load them onto the computer so therefore I can not post one of them here. But hopefully tonight I can motivate myself to do that so you can see how big he has gotten!

Yesterday was a really hard day for me. It was the first time since I've been back to work that I was really really really sad and missing Cooper. I mean I've been sad and missed him every day. But yesterday at one point when I was thinking about him, I almost teared up a bit, so it was a little more extreme than previously. When I picked him up yesterday afternoon from my in-laws, I just held him super tight and hugged him and told him how much I loved him. I guess what made it so hard was that it was his first "birthday" where I haven't been with him all day long. I know he doesn't really know the difference, and that he has a fun time playing with his grandmother (and grandfather when he gets home) but still. I missed him and wanted to be with him!!!!!

I'm also kind of annoyed with myself because although I've been really good about appreciating my nights and weekends and really spending good quality time with him and Austin, I have been neglecting to take pictures as frequently as I did before and that sort of makes me sad too. It was much easier when I was with him nearly 24-7 to grab the camera when he was doing something cute or sleeping in a funny position or whatever. Now I just forget! I made Austin leave the camera out on the entertainment unit so we can grab it more frequently now so hopefully I can start motivating myself to take more pictures again because I love having them and seeing them, and it helps to brighten my day when I can look through pictures of him.

That's all for now I guess. I am just so in love with my little Cooper I can't stand it. He is at the cutest stage with his "talking" and standing up and sitting up and checking out his hands and all of that fun stuff. Too cute! Hopefully tomorrow I can post a picture of his royal cuteness! LOL Have a good rest of the week! :)

Traffic

2006-06-13T09:02:00.000-05:00

Traffic is the bane of my existence. But somehow living in this metroplex (Dallas-Fort Worth area), it is a part of my daily life. There are VERY FEW people who have the luxury of living near work or being able to avoid traffic completely. For a few months, our apartment was very close to my work, which was far from the norm. It was just coincidental when I got my job last August that it was in Las Colinas and that we lived on the edge of the area. Of course the houses in this area are like 3 or 4 times as expensive as the one we bought, and since we didn't win the lottery recently, we couldn't exactly afford to live in this area once we bought a house. So needless to say I get to deal with traffic.

In reality, unless you live less than a mile or so from work, you are going to hit some sort of traffic. You just can't avoid it. There are just too many people in the area driving too many cars on too small of roads. I asked Austin yesterday if we could get a flying car for me when it's time to trade in my Mustang! :) I only wish!!!! In Los Angelese, they have six lanes on each side of the highway. Granted, their traffic is even worse so that all six of their lanes are packed. But if we could get six lanes each way here, traffic should in theory flow fairly smoothly. Or maybe they need to start assigning times when you are allowed to get on the road so that there is a set number of cars on each road at each time of the day. That would take a LOT of planning though so probably not the best idea.

It take me about 40-45 minutes in the morning to get into work, and 45-60 minutes (usually on the 60 minute side) to get home in the afternoons. It sometimes makes me sad because I think about how I would love to have that two hours back to spend with my son and husband. But it is what it is, and for now, I just have to buck up and jam some tunes in the car! :)

Other than that, not a whole lot going on. We had a great weekend last weekend even though it was busy with running errands and laundry and cleaning the house since I'm not home to do any of those things any more. But it was still great because we were all together and had fun still even though we had to do some things that weren't quite as fun! Tomorrow is Cooper's 3 month birthday - can't believe it's already been three months since that little guy arrived, but I love him more and more every day. He has discovered his hands now which is so cute when you see him staring at them and he is trying to figure out how to get them into his mouth now too! Too funny!

Hope you all have a great week, and I will try to post more frequently! :)

Officially a Working Mom

2006-06-07T09:11:00.000-05:00

So I have survived the first two days back to work and am starting in on my third day. So far so good! Even though I miss Cooper TREMENDOUSLY, it has gone more smoothly than I imagined. I'm sure there will be some days when I'm having a tough day where I just want to leave and go snuggle with him, but for the most part, I'm managing okay. I try not to think about the fact that I am away from him during the day, and I've been pretty busy since I got back with the interns starting and all so that has helped keep my mind focused on other things and makes the day go by quickly.

We had a great weekend last week. Cooper was super happy and we laughed and had a great time. We even went swimming again on Sunday, and while it's not quite yet his favorite activity, he is slowly warming up to it. He loves his baths now, so if we could get a heated pool, I'm sure he would be fine. I think the cooler water is just a shock to him. He is growing like a weed and is so strong. I can't wait for all the fun times ahead with him, and I appreciate my time in the evenings and weekends with him even more now that it is a little more limited.

Other than that, not much to report. My birthday is two weeks from tomorrow so that is something to look forward to (I guess!) even though I'm getting older now! Sara and Jay will be in town not this weekend but the next so we'll get to see her and meet Jay which should be fun.

Well better get back to work - enjoying my new office (they did construction while I was gone and redid the breakroom and expanded the recruiting office so I could share it with the other coordinator. So it's nice especially since she and my boss are out this whole week until Friday. :) Hope you all are having a good week!

Quick Post

2006-06-01T21:34:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to write a quick post to let you all know that we had a great time in Florida and all arrived there and back safely. I am trying to enjoy these last few days with Cooper before I go back to work on Monday. I'd be lying if I said that I was excited about going back - I love my job and will enjoy having more adult interaction again, but at the same time I am definitely going to miss seeing this little guy all day long. But we will have our nights and weekends, and I can appreciate those even more at least! So just wanted to say hi and that's about it for now because I want to spend every moment I can with Cooper! I'm sure I'll post next week - Monday might be busy with it being my first day back at work and the interns starting the same day too. But both my boss and my co-worker will be out next week (except Monday morning) for a national meeting so I should have some time on my hands and can hopefully write more then. Hope you all have a great weekend! Ttyl alligators! :)

A Picture Before I Go

2006-05-20T09:34:00.000-05:00

At the request of several people, here is a picture from last night of all of us before the wedding. Cooper looked so cute in his little tuxedo, and he behaved wonderfully! :) We will have to put him in the tux again for picture purposes before he grows out of it since we didn't have time to get a ton of pictures last night, but here is one for now! Have a great week!

It Finally Caught Up With Me

2006-05-18T15:32:00.000-05:00

I'm not quite sure how this happened and I didn't previously think it possible. But apparently the stomach bug that is going around the area can wait weeks before attacking someone. Two weeks after Austin had it (or anyone else I know for that matter), I had the joy of participating in the stomach bug as well. Luckily for me, it only took me about 24 hours to get it totally out of my system and even by yesterday evening I was feeling better but just tired. I'm praying that Cooper is still going to be in the clear! Needless to say I haven't had a very exciting past 24 hours. But it was somewhat of a blessing in disguise because Austin was able to stay home from work with us yesterday and got to spend the entire day with Cooper which he hasn't really gotten to do since he was born. Since I didn't want to breathe on him while I was still feverish, Austin got to play Mr. Mom all day long. And since Cooper and I leave on Saturday to go to Florida, it was good timing for him to have a little daddy/baby time.

Today we are taking it easy. We went to the mall to get a baby tuxedo for Cooper for the wedding we are going to tomorrow night and had to pick up a few other little outfits that were on sale! He is so well dressed - lol! :) We are going to spend the rest of the day relaxing and recuperating, have some yummy dinner tonight, and get a good night sleep so tomorrow we can get a lot done. We have to start with one last load of laundry for anything I want to bring for me or him that we have worn recently, pack everything up except for the few things that will have to be done Saturday morning, and get everyone ready to head to the wedding tomorrow night. Then Saturday morning we will get up, have a good breakfast, and head to the airport for our flight at 1:15.

All that to say that since tomorrow will probably be a pretty busy day making sure I have everything we need, this will probably be my last post until possibly after we get back from Florida. I might try to post once or so while I'm in Florida, but we'll just have to see! Hope you all have a great weekend, week and Memorial Day weekend and talk to you on the 31st! :)

Mother's Day and 2 Months

2006-05-15T16:51:00.000-05:00

Cooper's 2 month birthday coincided with Mother's Day yesterday so it was a big day for celebrating! I had a wonderful day thanks to my loving husband and cute little son. It was kind of weird to have a holiday like that to celebrate this year for me and not just about sending cards and flowers and things to my mom and grandmother, but very cool and I can't wait until Father's Day in June to help Cooper celebrate his daddy's day!

I woke up yesterday morning and went out into the family room where Austin was holding Cooper in his lap on the couch. I looked down and in Cooper's hand was a card. I took the card from him and opened it up and it was a cute Snoopy card from Cooper to his mommy. The funny part was that I looked down at Cooper after I read it and Cooper was sitting there with the HUGEST smile on his face. It was like he was so proud of his card and that he knew that the card was supposed to be from him. I asked him if he had helped his daddy pick it out and he just kept smiling and laughing. It was so cute and made my morning. After that, Austin gave me a card as well and then took me to see my gifts. The first gift was a gorgeous flower arrangement that he had done with hydrangeas (my favorites) and some other really pretty flowers in a huge periwinkle pot that was our wedding color. It was so awesome! Here's a picture of it on our front porch - Austin is quite talented at this - I can't wait to come back from Florida because he is going to work on our flower beds next weekend while we're gone and he's home alone!

Cooper and Austin also got me the cutest little charm to add to my charm bracelet. It is in the shape of a diaper and has blue sapphires in it with a little silver heart. It is beautiful! Austin's parents also gave me a really cute silver charm of a little boy with a tiny diamond in it. Here's a picture of them both (although the picture doesn't really do them justice) - the one from his parents is on the left, the one from Cooper and Austin is on the right.

Other than that, we spent most of the day packing up my maternity clothes and Austin's winter clothes and getting out our summer clothes. I can wear the shirts for sure and most of the skirts and things. I am slowly trying on some of the pants/skirts to see, but even though I've already lost over 30 pounds and am only 3 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight, the place where it is left is right around the tummy so stuff that zips and buttons is still a little tight. I'm not worried about it though because it's only been 2 months, and I'm proud of how much I have already lost and know that I will continue to lose more because I started a walking program that I'm hoping will help (and now that we have a treadmill I have no excuse!).

Then we went to P.F. Chang's in downtown Fort Worth for dinner last night with Austin's parents and brother. It was SO yummy - we hadn't been there in a LONG time and it tasted so good. :) Cooper was the best and slept the entire time through dinner even through his normal scheduled feeding time (we fed him when we got home and he was just fine!). We took a few pictures, and I thought I would share this one of Cooper and his mommy!

Today, we went to see the pediatrician for Cooper's 2 month checkup. He got his first round of shots (other than the Hepatitis shot he had in the hospital already). He got 5 vaccines in 4 shots. He didn't like it much, but he wasn't as bad as I thought he might be and I handled it well so that was good! The good news is that he seems to be doing great and is very healthy. He weighs 13 pounds 9 ounces (no I'm not kidding), and the craziest part is that he is 25.5 inches long!!!!!!! Our pediatrician predicts that based on Austin and my height plus the family history that he will probably be anywhere between 6 foot 4 inches to 6 foot 7 inches when he is grown up! We are going to have one tall boy! And since we are big Mavs fans, Austin says he is putting a basketball in Cooper's hands as soon as he'll take it so that he can prepare him for the future - I'm still rooting for professional golf although professional basketball wouldn't hurt either! LOL

Sorry for the long post, but I had a lot to say! Cooper is laughing now every so often which is AWESOME and smiling like crazy which he has been for a few weeks now. Such a cutie but I'm biased! That's all for now - we leave on Saturday for Florida so I have a lot to get done this week before we go, but I'll definitely post again soon! :) GO MAVS - BEAT THE SPURS!

Thanks Jes!

2006-05-09T15:26:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Jes for updating my banner for me. I really appreciate it! :)

No real news to report for now - we had a good weekend, everyone is feeling better now, and we even managed to sneak in a viewing of MI3 (which despite my recent hatred for Tom Cruise. the movie was great - JJ Abrams rocks!). I'll update more later! :)

Sunny Outlook for the Weekend

2006-05-05T11:14:00.000-05:00

After a few days of storms (real and otherwise), it looks like this weekend may turn out okay after all! Austin's parents were able to leave for their trip this morning so hopefully they can enjoy themselves. Cooper and I are doing well - so far so good and I'm hoping since we are still feeling good at this point, we have hopefully dodged the bullet. My pain in my breasts is getting much better and after strapping them in hard-core for the past few days and through the weekend, I will hopefully be back to normal (or at least close) by Monday. At least now I can pick up Cooper and hold him again without too much pain. Austin is feeling better too. Yesterday afternoon, after it had been over 24 hours since he had had a fever, I told him he was allowed to see us again (LOL). So I had him wipe down the bathroom and the phone and the bedroom with that Clorox Anywhere stuff to kill the germs, we stripped the bed and washed the sheets and comforter in warm water, and sprayed Lysol around the room. He was able to eat dinner with me last night and watch TV for awhile and then I sent him to bed around 9:30 although he woke up when I got in bed around 11 after Cooper's last feeding. This morning he was still feeling a little woozy, but he went to work anyways and luckily he seems to be feeling better as the day goes on and he gets more fluids in his system. I think he'll be able to make his 8 hours at least so that will help!

I am a little sad because this week went by so quickly and was so rough, and I realize now that I only have four more weeks with Cooper before I have to go back to work. Austin thinks I should talk to my boss when I get back about possibly working only until 4 each day, drive home before traffic gets too bad, and then work from home in the late afternoon/early evening so that at least I can be home with Cooper, hopefully get dinner ready, and be able to work the hours I need to without having to sit up in my office for so many hours a day. I could easily do it because my job really doesn't require that I be in the office (there are only a few rare occasions where I really need to be there actually), but I don't want to push my luck so we'll see how it goes in the beginning and then go from there I guess. I'm just going to cherish each and every second with Cooper from now until June 5th!

Other than that, not a whole lot else to report. Hoping to have a good weekend - maybe even catch Mission Impossible 3 if we can manage it. Need to pick up some cards for the moms and grandmoms in our life for next weekend and return some shoes I picked up at Dillard's last weekend before I found another pair at home that I could use instead. I'm getting lots of laundry done today at least and hopefully on Monday (if not this weekend) I can tackle the pantry to clean it out and organize it and also organize everything in the kitchen since I haven't really had the chance to do that since we moved in. Cooper and I leave two weeks from tomorrow to go to Florida for 10 days and Austin will join us three weeks from today (he has to work that week but will be with us for a long weekend over Memorial Day). My parents and grandmother (she hasn't gotten to even meet him yet) are really excited about it, and I'm hoping it will go well.

Guess that's all for now - no need to babble on unnecessarily! Hope you all have a great weekend! :)

You are Now Entering the 7th Circle of Hell

2006-05-03T19:05:00.000-05:00

You know how they say "when it rains, it pours"? Well in our case it was coming down in bucketfuls last night! Today is a little bit better, and hopefully will continue to improve. But I need your thoughts and prayers right now to get through all of this craziness!

Here's what started it (possibly TMI but sorry):
I have posted some about the pain and suffering I have been experiencing for the past three weeks while trying to breastfeed. The weird thing is that starting by the end of our hospital stay up until these recent problems, I was completely shocked and happily surprised at how well breastfeeding was going and how much I enjoyed it. However, when I was experiencing massive amounts of pain every single feeding (6-7 times a day), it got to be a very frustrating and sad experience for me. I tried one round of antibiotics to no avail, an anti-fungal cream for thrush treatment which didn't work either, and then started a second round of a different antibiotic. Nothing was helping, there was no change, and sometimes it even felt worse. I believe the problem has something to do with a circulation issue I was having where my nipples were turning white on the ends (basically losing color and blood in the tips) which was causing the extreme pain. This is something I may run into again when we have a second child or it may be the way that Cooper was nursing as he got older. Needless to say, it was not something that could be treated except possibly with a circulation medicine which both myself and my family felt was not good for me to be having to take when I'm not having any heart/circulation problems. Because of the extreme pain I was in, I would seriously sit there STARING at the clock trying to will it to go by faster so I could at least allow him to nurse 10 minutes on each side. And as a result, Cooper was not getting as much milk as he wanted/needed at each feeding, and therefore becoming fussy from being hungry. It made me so sad to see him like that, and even more upset thinking about having to feed him yet again with the pain.

All that to say that by yesterday around noon, I just couldn't take it any more. The whole point to me of breastfeeding (besides the obvious nutrients which he hopefully got the majority of since I did nurse him for 7 weeks) is to have an emotional bonding experience with your child and provide to them. When that relationship is compromised where it is a painful and stressful experience for both me and the baby, I just don't think it is worth it any more. I know some of you may disagree with me or think I'm a horrible person because I had to stop, but it was the best decision for me and my son, and I am proud that I stuck through it as long as I did despite the pain and problems and glad that Cooper will now be getting enough milk and is a much happier boy able to sleep more often and for longer periods of time. I had wanted to breastfeed at least six months to possibly a year, but it just wasn't in the cards. Hopefully you all won't judge me, and I totally respect people that can continue it and will try again with our next one, but it just wasn't something I could justify continuing with Cooper when we were both suffering.

Little did I know that I apparently was making quite a lot of milk, and with the sudden stopping of having the milk taken out, by last night, my breasts were so sore I was in tears yet again. They were rock hard and so painful all the time with throbbing and aching pain shooting through. It was miserable. It was worse than any pain I suffered from the c-section because at least with the c-section pain, the medicine helped and as long as I stayed still in bed, I could get in a comfortable position to watch TV or sleep or just relax. With this, I couldn't get comfortable AT ALL, and as a result, I slept a total of one hour last night. I have since taken about three hours in naps today and plan to get a good night sleep tonight because I am feeling a little better. I talked to my doctor's nurse today about it, and she recommended 4-5 days with the following wrapped around me 24-7: green cabbage leaf (there is something in cabbage that helps with engorgement and drying up milk if left on for a long time), sports bra, ace bandage, second sports bra. Since doing this around lunchtime today, I have managed to alleviate some of the pain, and I can function now at least. It was so hard because I couldn't hold Cooper near me or burp him or rock him, but I have managed today to find ways to accomplish all of this, and I know things will get better from here with that.

If you thought that was all, I am not done unfortunately! In addition to the chaos that was me last night, Austin started with a stomach ache after dinner. He was trying hard to help me, but didn't feel well at all. It was a terrible situation because I was so worthless because of my pain and inability to hold Cooper against me, and he was sick. Of course at about midnight or so as we were trying to fall asleep, Austin got sick to his stomach. It happened again an hour later, and through tears of desperation, I got up and went into the family room to try to rest on the futon so that I could try to avoid the germs. Apparently there is a stomach bug going around here - Austin's brother had it Saturday night and we have purposely been avoiding his family since then so as not to be exposed to the germs. Of course, it had to bite us in the butt because two people in Austin's work had the stomach bug too so he must have picked it up from them on Monday (one of the most frustrating things about where he works is that it is a lot of men that work there and men typically do not go to the doctor when they should and come to work sick even when they shouldn't only to pass it along to others especially Austin because of his weakened immune system due to his diabetes but that's another story).

So far (knock on wood), I am feeling okay other than the boob pain! But I am just hoping and praying that I will not get sick, not for purely selfish reasons but because I have no idea who would take care of Cooper then because Austin's parents who usually babysit for us have also been exposed to it (although neither of them have got it so I'm hoping I will be so lucky) and also are leaving on Friday morning for their anniversary trip to Santa Fe. Above that, I am hoping and praying that Cooper does not pick it up because he is so little, and it would be so hard on him. I'm hoping we dodge the bullet on this one, but we'll see! Austin had a low fever this morning, but luckily did not get sick again since 1:30 last night so that's a good thing. I picked up a prescription for him today and he seems to be feeling better although the medicine makes him tired. But it's good so that he can just get rest and hopefully fight off the bugs in his system. I have been washing my hands like crazy and spraying Lysol and Clorox Anywhere all around the house so I'm hoping that will help.

Tonight I am going to sleep in our guest bedroom so I can hopefully get a good night's sleep and avoid germs. The doctor told Austin to rest for two days so he'll be home from work again tomorrow (grr, and he gets NO sick days so his paycheck next time will be lower), but hopefully he can go back to work on Friday and as good as he was doing today for being sick just last night, he can hopefully function more tomorrow. It's just lonely for me because I'm used to him coming home and spending time with Cooper and me in the evenings, but I don't want to expose either of us to any more germs than necessary so I have pretty much left him be in the bedroom all day other than to bring him drinks occasionally and medicine.

Sorry for the long post! I told you I was lonely! LOL Hope you all had a better evening and day than me, and here's to hoping things get BETTER instead of worse. At least there is a new Lost on tonight to keep me company! :)

Go Mavs!

2006-05-01T16:57:00.000-05:00

The weekend was good although I am still having troubles with pain. I started a new antibiotic this morning so we'll see how that goes. I'm supposed to wait until Wednesday morning to see how I'm feeling, and if it is still not working, I have to go back in to see her either Wednesday afternoon or Thursday. Hopefully this will work, and we can move on!!! :)

The Mavs won in overtime on Saturday, and we're hoping they will go ahead and sweep Memphis tonight! Here's the Mavs newest fan! :)

Caught On Camera

2006-04-28T16:35:00.000-05:00

Even though we caught Cooper's first smile on camera on April 11th, it was a blurry picture because it was unexpected and he was in his swing at the time so the movement made the picture come out blurry! So it wasn't worth posting or printing really. Since he turned six weeks on Tuesday of this week, Cooper must have had some switch in his body pressed that it is now time to smile and coo more because he has been doing it like crazy. It has been so cool for both Austin and me and Austin's parents when they come over to see it. However, as soon as the cameras came out, he stopped doing it, and I was bummed.

Today I triumphed and caught him on camera. So here are two pictures of smiley Cooper! Hope you all have a great weekend!

Oh and FYI, things got better after the medicine on Monday and now have gotten worse again so I had to call again today to get different medicine. Now we are going to try treatment for thrush and see if that works instead. I should know more on Monday when I get to try a different antibiotic if the thrush medicine doesn't work. Yippee!!! LOL

Oh the Joys!

2006-04-24T20:40:00.000-05:00

Warning - this post may be TMI for some of you - if so, I apologize but it's my blog and I need to vent! :)

The good news: we caught it early! The bad news: I am in the early stages of mastitis in BOTH of my breasts. Oh the joys of breastfeeding! For the past weekend, I have been having some pretty intense pain every time I feed my little one and additionally afterwards. The pain is like someone taking my nipples, pulling them up and twisting them, and then scraping them with needles over and over. It's a lot of fun, let me tell you! LOL It even radiates into my back and kept me up this morning after his early morning feeding.

I called my doctor yesterday hoping to get some sort of relief, but the doctor on call said I couldn't get any medicine or do much until I saw the doctor today to see what I had really (I actually thought maybe it was thrush since I hadn't developed a fever and my breasts didn't have any red streaks or lumps). So this morning as soon as they opened at 8:30 I called and explained what was going on. Of course, I got sent to the nurse's voicemail. I waited until about 11:30 and called again. Again, I was put to the nurse's voicemail and no return call. Now, don't get me wrong - I ABSOLUTELY love my doctor and her nurses, but the head nurse for my doctor who is the one that returns the phone calls is a little less personable and not my favorite!

Finally, at 2 o'clock, Austin had had enough after he talked to me and knew how much pain I was in after having to feed him. So he called - got a hold of the nurse finally and after she made some excuses, she agreed to get me in today. She called me about five minutes after Austin talked to her and got me a 3 o'clock appointment to see my doctor's nurse practitioner. She gave me an antibiotic to take for 5 days, advised me how much Advil to take and how often, and told me to use ice for 10 minutes before I fed him and put cold cabbage leaves on after I fed him for about 15 minutes. That should help the engorgement I was having and the pain. She also asked me to also go get measured for a new bra that had more support and may be the right size. I actually am feeling better this evening and able to nurse him better which is great. I took my first antibiotic pill tonight so that should help prevent the worse symptoms of mastitis from taking hold.

So that was my fun adventure for the day - Cooper and I have had a rough day, but we survived. Tomorrow morning I have to go back to my doctor to have the IUD placed in and then go to get fitted for new bras. So that should be the last of the recommendations to finish up.

Hope you all had a better Monday than me! LOL

Some Laughs for Your Friday

2006-04-21T15:03:00.000-05:00

I don't know what it is about this picture, but it makes me crack up laughing every time I see it so I thought I would share with you all too! I guess I must be scary when I take pictures - LOL!

Tonight, we are going to have another date - dinner and a movie - while Cooper spends some time with his GiGi and Pops. Since Austin is going hunting tomorrow with his dad and brother and will be gone all day Saturday, Saturday night, and come back on Sunday around noon, we figured we should get a little night out together since it's been a couple of weeks since we've gone out just the two of us and a REALLY long time since we've gone to the movies which is very weird for us since we used to go all the time. So we are looking forward to that. I'm a little sad because I am half way done with my maternity leave, but also happy because I still have another six weeks with my little man! Yippee! :) Hope you all have a great weekend, and here's another picture from Easter that is cute so you don't think Cooper always looks silly!

Happy Easter!

2006-04-16T18:29:00.000-05:00

Bliss

2006-04-12T10:29:00.000-05:00

There are so many wonderful things that I have to be thankful for and it is such an amazing time in my life right now. I'm just sad at how fast it seems to go by! Last Friday, we ended up taking Cooper to the pediatrician because he was having serious tummy pains in the middle of the night and we weren't sleeping and he wasn't sleeping, and we wanted to see if there was something we could do to help him. The pediatrician said he had a mild form of colic (if you don't know what that is, it basically means that the baby's stomach is not able to keep up with the gas collection because of immaturity of the system and it causes it to back up and cause a lot of pressure and pain and therefore make the baby cry). I also had this when I was a baby, and I think like 1 out of 4 babies get it.

Luckily, he recommended this remedy called Baby's Bliss GripeWater. I was a little hesitant at first because it's basically an herbal supplement, and I'm sometimes wary of those, but it worked GREAT and it's not very expensive at all and has allowed us to get some sleep! :) Cooper and I have also learned that Cooper likes to sleep on his tummy while laying on his mommy, and I think the warmth helps the pressure and helps him to expel some pain. So we have figured out a system of things that seem to make life better for both of us! So for future reference, if your baby has colic, find Baby's Bliss GripeWater to make life better (they have it at drugstore.com or you can look up local stores on the Baby's Bliss website). They also make a morning sickness powder/drink which I wish I had known about before so I could have at least tried it. Oh well, maybe next time!

We had a good weekend although short as always. We got the entertainment center set up (although we may have to change some of it again), got a nice glider bench for the back porch, set up new lights Austin got for his birthday in the front yard, and had some good meals with family and friends. Monday, I went back to the doctor for my 4 week post-partum checkup. She said that everything looks good, I was cleared to drive (yippee!), and when I go back in about two weeks to get my IUD placed, she said she will clear me for regular activity so I can exercise (I can walk now which I'm doing but cardio and stuff like that).

Yesterday was Austin's birthday. Cooper and I took our first adventure on our own to visit Austin at work for lunch. We also spent the afternoon running errands to get the birthday gifts all in order, and everything went well, and I think he was really surprised and had a good day. We went to dinner at Pappadeaux last night which was YUMMY. I love being able to buy things and do special things for him - I need to do it more often!

Other than that, things are pretty much the same around here. Today and tomorrow, I need to work on the baby announcements and laundry. Friday, I'm going to bring Cooper to my work to meet everyone and to have my annual review. Of course, I will already know what my bonus and raise are before my review because they will direct deposit into my account on Friday, but that's okay! It will be nice to stop by and show off my little cutie! And it's Cooper's one month birthday on Friday too so we are doing to do a little dinner and I'm going to make cupcakes to celebrate! :) I can't believe he is already going to be one month old. It just doesn't seem possible. Last night, we were taking pictures of him because I had dressed him really cute to go see his daddy, and he smiled for the first time. A real smile - not a gas smile or in his sleep! He looked at his mommy and heard me talking to him and smiled....he did it several times actually and we even caught one on camera. It was so awesome!

I am so blessed that I was given off this much time from work and fully paid. However, I'm already starting to get anxious about having to go back to work even though it's 7.5 weeks away! I just love spending time with my little one, and even though I don't think I could just be a stay-at-home mom, it would be nice to just have to work part-time or work from home full-time. Oh well, I'm sure I will get back into the swing of things when the time comes. Just got to treasure every moment I have with him and look forward to the nights and weekends!

Hope you all are having a great week - tty soon! :)

Wonderful Weekend

2006-04-03T13:00:00.000-05:00

I am the luckiest woman in the world because my husband is just so wonderful to me. Last week was a more difficult week for me since my mom left and I no longer had any help, and Cooper was experiencing a growth spurt which made him hungrier more often and fussier (luckily, I think we are out of the woods on that at least until 6 weeks when he is going to have another one!). So Austin, being the super sweet and wonderful husband that he is, arranged a special evening for us Saturday night to have some time to ourselves and something fun and happy to do. I had gotten my breastpump on Friday to use as necessary and then daily when I go back to work, so I pumped a bottle for his 8 o'clock feeding and after his 5 o'clock feeding we dropped Cooper off with Austin's mom and off we went to downtown Fort Worth.

One of our favorite restaurants in downtown Fort Worth is Riata's. We have gone there on several occasions alone and with family, but we have never gotten to sit upstairs. Austin made special arrangements to have our reservation for upstairs, and we got to sit in the glass dome and look out on downtown while we enjoyed our dinner. It was beautiful. After a yummy dinner of bacon-wrapped shrimp, grilled chicken with pan gravy, mashed potatoes, and green beans, and a vanilla and Grand Marnier custard, we walked around in the outside area of the restaurant and took some pictures. The view was great, the weather was beautiful, and we really enjoyed ourselves.

Austin had another surprise in store for me though before we headed back to our little one. We walked a block down the street to the hotel in downtown and were picked up by a beautiful white horse-drawn carriage. We spent the next thirty minutes being pulled along downtown, seeing all the people, enjoying the beautiful weather, and just enjoying being together. I have never been on a carriage ride like that, and it was such a great treat!!! Austin was just so sweet to plan everything, and it definitely gave us a much needed break and an enjoyable time. Yesterday (April 2nd) was our "1.5 year anniversary" of being married, so it was special that we got to celebrate it! We came home happy and relaxed, picked up our beautiful son, and relaxed the rest of the evening at home before heading to bed.

Other than that, Austin also did a TON of cleaning and unpacking this weekend which was great, and we went grocery shopping together yesterday morning as well. We had dinner last night with his parents and Joey followed by new episodes of Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy. It was a great weekend, and I feel so blessed to have Austin in my life to plan little surprises like that. It makes the lack of sleep and emotional adjustment so much easier to take. I only wish the weekend didn't have to end so quickly!!!!

Hope you all had a great weekend too - talk to you soon! :)

Healthy Baby Boy

2006-03-29T15:20:00.000-06:00

We went to the pediatrician this morning for Cooper's two-week checkup. My mother-in-law took us because I'm still not allowed to drive. Cooper did well although he was hungry by the time we got there because he woke up last night at 3:30 and 6:30 and by 9:30 he was hungry again! But we managed to get him home and back on his usual schedule. The pediatrician said he's going through a growth spurt right now (usually occurs between day 10-14 and lasts for about a week) so this might be a tough week with broken sleep, but I'm lucky to have such a good baby so that I can get through it.

Cooper has regained his birth weight plus a few ounces (he weighed 9 pounds, 4 ounces this morning) and gained 1/2 inch (he's 23 inches now). His height-to-weight ratio is in the 55th percentile and average. He just weighs more than most babies his age because he's also a lot longer than most babies his age! It made me so happy to see that on the scale because that reaffirms that our nursing is working and that is getting enough even though the past couple of days, he's been hungrier than usual especially at night (growth spurt). I'm going to go on Friday to get a pump to introduce a bottle occasionally so that he can get used to that before I go back to work and also for the occasional time when Austin and I go out without him and we don't want to rush back real quick to meet his feeding schedule.

His heart sounds great and everything else was good, so we had a good report this morning. We go back again on May 15th for his two month checkup where he will get a ton of shots, but at least I'll feel more comfortable about him being out in public places once he gets those. Plus he and I are going to Florida to visit my family on the 20th and Austin will come the 26th for the long weekend until the 30th, and with all of the germs on planes, I'm really glad that he will be all immunized before that!

Other than that, things are going well. I survived my first morning without any help, and Cooper and I are getting along well on our own with help from Austin in the evenings and help from Austin's mom when I need it. I was just VERY sleepy this morning, but luckily after we got home from the doctor and fed him and put him down, I went to sleep too so I'm feeling a little better now. :) Hope you all are having a good day - talk to you later, alligators!

Happy 2 Week Birthday Cooper!

2006-03-28T14:23:00.000-06:00

I can't believe my little boy is two weeks old already! Time sure flies when you're having fun! It kind of scares me a little that the time has passed so quickly because he will grow up so fast and also before I know it I will have to go back to work again. But I will still get to see his precious face every morning and evening and all weekend long so that's all that matters, and we're blessed to have Austin's mother-in-law as our "daycare" so that I don't have to worry because he will be in excellent hands.

As I sit here and type this, my mom's plane is about to take off from the airport to go back to Florida. She has been here just over two weeks (they came in late Monday night before his birth) and although normally that would seem like a long time and I'm grateful to be able to have some Austin/Melissa/Cooper time, it still made me sad to see her go. I guess it was just comforting having her around to help out with things especially when I wasn't feeling so well. Luckily I'm feeling pretty good now, just working off a few Advil a day for pain and only real pain is when I sneeze! I'm not 100% now but I sure feel better than I did when I got home from the hospital even. With Austin having to work, it was nice having company during the day and she would even get up with me at night sometimes to help calm him or keep me company or just to make sure I was okay. I know I will be fine, it's just going to be a little scary tomorrow morning when I wake up alone and have to get myself and him fed and ready to go to the pediatrician's for his 2-week checkup. I just hope we get good news that he is still gaining weight well so that I won't keep feeling worried that he is getting enough milk, etc.

I love this little guy more than I knew that I could love anyone - motherhood is such an amazing blessing and Austin and I are so lucky to have such a beautiful and loving baby boy. He is so good compared to other babies his age and I am so grateful for that even when I get cranky from the occasional lack of sleep or when he gets his occasional fussy spells from air bubbles. Since I have a delicate stomach, he comes by that naturally I guess! :)

In honor of his two week birthday, I figured it was about time to post Cooper's birth story since I hadn't done it before. And now that I'm on my own during the day, I'm sure I'll post more often even if it is just boring little stuff! Hope you all are doing great - I've been sneaking on to check out your blogs at least! Talk to you soon!

Tuesday, March 14th, 2006:

We woke up at 4 am that morning to get ready to go to the hospital. My parents arrived the evening before and their flight was delayed so by the time they got here (my in-laws volunteered to pick them up so we could rest at home at least even though we couldn't sleep because of excitement/nervousness) and we talked briefly, it was basically midnight before we attempted to sleep. It was cold when we got to the hospital and we had to enter through the ER because the woman's center entrance was still locked. We got there and checked in and went immediately into the pre-op/recovery room for the c-section ORs. I changed into my hospital gown, met my nurse that would be with me throughout delivery, and was hooked up to monitors to check Cooper's heartbeat and check to see if I was having any contractions (which I wasn't). They hooked up my IV and started the fluids (you have to have so much fluids before you can get the anesthesia). Luckily, Austin & my parents were allowed to stay with me during that initial 1.5 hour process. I got REALLY nervous when they asked me about whether or not I had a living will or if I wanted to be an organ donor and explained the procedure and anesthesia. But we got through it and although I was incredibly nervous as 7 o'clock approached, I managed to walk into the OR to start the process.

Austin had to wait in the room until after I had my anesthesia. They gave me the spinal which didn't hurt nearly as much as I thought it might, and I immediately began to feel the numbing sensation. It was really strange. They hooked me up to all kinds of monitors, put blankets all over me to keep me warm, and put my catheter in when I was laid down. They put up the sheet and I started to feel dizzy and not normal. My blood pressure had dropped really really low so they gave me some epinephrine and I felt much better. But it was kind of scary because there I was not able to move and Austin wasn't allowed to come in yet and here I was trusting this guy I had just met to pump meds into me to make me normal again. I also had a problem with the anesthesia going up higher than it was supposed to and thus my arms had pins and needles in them as well (which was not supposed to happen) so I spent the entire procedure moving my hands open and closed to make sure I didn't lose feeling in them completely so I could hold my baby when he was out.

Finally, Austin was allowed to come in, my doctor came in and started talking to me and things started to get better from there. I didn't feel a thing until they went to take him out. The pressure from them pushing and pulling to get him out was pretty intense especially because he hadn't dropped at all so they were practically up against my lungs, but Austin was great and helped me through that scariness. The anesthesiologist was standing over me watching over the curtain, and when they brought him out, he said "Damn that's a big baby! There's no way you would have been able to deliver him any other way!" And then I heard Cooper cry and it was so wonderful. Austin could see him and had the biggest smile and it made everything worthwhile. They weighed him (9 pounds, 2 ounces), and wrapped him up and let Austin bring him over to see me. We took our first pictures and I got to cuddle with him. Then I let Austin go with Cooper to see the family and get Cooper his first bath and all of that. They finished me up with no real problems (I heard the staples going in but other than that it was just like I was lying there listening to them talk on the other side and no idea of what was going on).

They wheeled me over onto another bed and brought me back into the recovery room. My parents were allowed to come in to see me and make sure I was okay. And Austin came back eventually with my dad. I got itchy from the morphine they gave me with the spinal but they gave me medicine to help that and I was allowed to leave the recovery room an hour later just when they brought Cooper in. My dad and Austin were allowed to push him down the hall and my nurse pushed me down the hall and off we went to my room. The rest of my experience was pretty normal I guess. The second day was by far the worst (Wednesday). My morphine had worn off and I was in a TON of pain. The IVs were finally taken out and they left me alone more (the first night they checked me like every hour which didn't help because I didn't get to sleep!) and the catheter was out which was good I guess but then I actually had to get up and walk to the bathroom which was not an easy task. But Austin and my parents and my in-laws were all really great and took turns hanging out at the hospital with me to keep us company and help me. By Thursday morning, I was able to take a shower and walked around the floor a few times with my dad and Austin. And by Friday, I was able to go home which was great although tough still getting around.

Well, guess that's about all for now - gotta feed the little one again! Talk to you all soon! :)

Welcome to the World Cooper

2006-03-19T22:03:00.000-06:00

I am too tired to post a lot tonight, but I wanted to update you all and let you know that we are all doing great! I promise to post more later this week. I am so in love with our son and am sure that you all will quickly get tired from hearing about him. He is truly amazing, and I feel so blessed to be part of his life. Austin & I can only grow from this experience and we will learn so much from Cooper while teaching him so muh as well. Our love for each other has already grown as well.

Here are the mini-details:
Cooper Riley was born at 7:20 am on Tuesday, March 14th.
He weighed 9 pounds, 2 ounces and was 22.5 inches long (my doctor said we made the right decision to do the c-section and do it early!)
He has straight brown hair and blue eyes which we hope will stay, and he is absolutely beautiful and sweet as can be! :)

I managed through the c-section fairly well (more details to follow), and we got to come home on Friday around lunchtime. Things at home have been going fairly well so far, but we luckily have had the help from my parents and will have my mom stay another week to help as well (my dad has to leave tomorrow morning to go back to work). That is all for now because I am tired and need to feed the little one soon! :) More to follow!

Here's a picture for now - we have many many more!

Embarking on a New Adventure

2006-03-13T09:28:00.000-06:00

Well here it is....in less than 24 hours I will be holding my little man in my arms. I am SO excited (and a little nervous too)! Our weekend was a lot busier than planned - it seems like there is always SOMETHING that needs to be done still, but other than getting Austin to change the litter box tonight and help me put our clean sheets on the bed tonight, we are pretty much as ready as we are going to be. He is going to get off work at 4 this afternoon (8 hours) and come home so we can have a nice dinner and relax tonight. I can't have any food or water after 7 pm so we need to eat an early dinner and then just veg and watch TV tonight. My parents arrive at 9 pm but luckily my in-laws are going to pick them up at the airport so that we can at least rest (doubt I'll be able to fall asleep that early even if I tried but at least we can wait in bed and relax while waiting for them). Then tomorrow morning we have to leave the house around 4:30 or so to get to the hospital for the pre-op and c-section at 7 am!!! I can't believe it.

I've had a few moments lately where I'm nervous and scared. But the more I think about it, the more excited I am. It's just weird to think it's already here even though it's something we've been waiting 38 weeks for! All the people that keep telling us "your life is going to change" and "enjoy your freedom while you still have" just make me laugh. I know things won't be exactly the same, but to me, I think they can only change for the better. Austin & I have an amazing relationship and are very blessed by all that we have....this is just another chapter in our life to begin and is going to open up even more wonderful and exciting memories. Austin is going to be an amazing father, and I hopefully won't be too bad of a mother ;) and no matter what, our little one will be so loved and cared for by us and the people around us that he is a very lucky little guy!

Other than that, not much else to say. I need to do one load of towels today so Austin has some clean towels for this week, and I have to pack my suitcase for the hospital with my stuff and Cooper's stuff and some magazines to entertain myself although luckily I think I will have plenty of visitors to keep me company. I'm also going to try to make some peanut butter cookies and some cinnamon cream cake so Austin and my parents have a few little snacks around this week. So pretty easy day! Hope that you all have a wonderful week, and I will try to post (or get Austin to post) this weekend when I'm home again! Be thinking about me early tomorrow morning! :)

For those of you that want to see belly pics, I decided to be brave and post this one at least because it's just too darn cute! I love my husband! :)

Last Doctor's Appointment

2006-03-09T13:39:00.000-06:00

This morning I went for my last doctor's appointment until after Cooper is here! Of course, she was running late because a delivery took longer than expected, so I was there about 2 hours. But everything went well and we are all set for Tuesday morning. His heartbeat was good, my blood pressure was good, and he's still "way up there" so it's good we are doing a c-section and not trying to induce because looks like if it was up to him he would be sticking around in there for awhile longer!

I'm home now waiting to do one last conference call for work (at least I'm at home and comfortable!) and waiting for the paint people to come touch up one of the door frames in our hallway. Then I need to go through some paperwork, make sure all the bills are set up for payment or taken care of before next week, and do some shredding but other than that I should be ready to just relax this weekend. Pretty much everything else is set and ready to go other than having to pack my bag on Monday I guess! :)

I will write again at least one more time before I go into the hospital. Hope you all are having a good week and if I wait to write until Sunday or Monday, hope you have a great weekend too! Can't believe my baby will be here so soon! Yippee! :)

Cooper's Birthday

2006-03-05T20:02:00.000-06:00

So we have a birthday now for Cooper. We will be meeting our little boy bright and early on the morning of March 14th! So only a little over a week to go. Even though I'm definitely ready, it is a little weird to realize there is a concrete date set and we know when he'll be here! Very exciting though! He weighs a little over 8 pounds now, and my doctor thinks he will be 8.5 to 9 pounds when he is born (he'll be born about 10 days early). The kidney thing is even better which is great news so hopefully we won't even have to worry about that much. My doctor also requested that I stop working and get some rest for the next week since I've been working so hard and am so big now. So I get to take the week off and just veg at home which will be nice. Especially since I am covered so I still get paid and I don't have to go back to work until Monday, June 5th! It will be very nice!

Other than that, not a whole lot going on. I'll try to post this week even though I won't necessarily have much new to say. I go back to the doctor Thursday for my last office visit and my parents come in next Monday to be here for Cooper's birth and to help out afterwards. Hope you all had a great weekend - talk to you soon! :)

Updates Again

2006-02-27T17:21:00.000-06:00

Last week, I was swamped with work stuff so I didn't get a chance to post and this week will be pretty busy too I am afraid! :) But I will try to keep everyone updated at least so you know what is going on, and I will definitely have some news on Friday although we have about 15 people coming into the office for interviews that I will be shuttling around so we'll see how much I get to post!!!!

House: Things are great - starting to get used to the commute. The evenings are worse than the afternoons but that was how it was when I was commuting in and out of downtown Dallas too. It's worth it though to come home to our nice, new house. Now if only the boxes would magically unpack themselves!!!

Baby: Went to my 36 week check up last Friday. Actually went to the perinatologist first and got to see the other doctor this time. He was really nice and quick, and I was in and out of that office in like 15 minutes which is always good. No time for scary Mary to come out and talk to me! :) The kidneys are actually looking a little better so hopefully that trend will continue so we don't have to worry much about it. Of course, he gained over a pound in a week though, and now weighs 7 pounds 14 ounces. Needless to say, we are going to probably schedule a c-section, and Austin will be coming with me to my appointment this Friday to pick the date and have one last ultrasound to check the weight and kidneys before our "plan" is developed. It's pretty exciting to know that he will be here in just a few weeks!!!! I will definitely let you know once the date is set. We also had our last baby class this weekend (and I did the breastfeeding class last Wednesday) so we are all set as far as that goes. Now, this weekend once we know when he will be arriving, I can work on packing a hospital bag, getting some nursing bras and other necessities to bring to the hospital, and doing the baby laundry so he has some clothes to wear and blankets to use! I'm so excited!!!! :)

Life: Otherwise, things are going really well. Work has been good even though busy. And I don't have too much longer to go before I will have 3 months off! My parents are in Hilton Head this week - I'm very jealous! ;) Hopefully we'll get to go with them next year and maybe even celebrate Cooper's first birthday out there! LOL

I think that is all for now! Hope you all had a good week and weekend and talk to you soon!

A Few More Weeks

2006-02-17T16:08:00.000-06:00

Today I had my 35 week checkup. Despite the fact that I was at the doctor's office for about 2.5 hours (apparently today was the day to be born if you have my doctor as your ob!), it was a good visit. Cooper is doing well - healthy and big as ever. He is now 6 pounds, 14 ounces!!!!! That is bigger than I was when I was born, and I was 10 days LATE! Needless to say, it is almost definite now that they will be bringing him into this world early one way or another so that I don't have to deliver a 9.5 pound infant. So in about 3 more weeks, we will get to see our precious little boy! I can't wait!!!!!!!!!! :)

Other than that, his kidneys did not get any bigger which is good because it's the first time ever that they have not grown between ultrasounds. That is definitely a good sign. His heartbeat was great, I could see the fuzziness on his head which is hair, and everything else was good. I had to do the glucose test again because the neonatologist requested it since he was in the 90th percentile again. But I survived! Next week I go back to the neonatologist (but luckily no more genetics counselor!) and then to see my doctor for my checkup. Then in two weeks, I will have another ultrasound at my doctor's office to determine his size and probably make a decision about whether or not they can just induce early or if we will need to schedule a c-section. I'm supposed to stay off my feet this weekend because of my foot pain and see if it gets better so we'll see if that works or not. It's supposed to be a cold dreary weekend so that's okay. Just need to get out tomorrow to run some errands and then I don't mind being curled up in the new house with some good movies and maybe season one of Grey's Anatomy! :)

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend - I will be off work on Monday and since our Internet is not "guaranteed" until next Wednesday, I probably won't be on again until Tuesday! Talk to you then!

Updates!

2006-02-15T17:01:00.000-06:00

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile. I have been quite busy at work, and we still don't have Internet at the new house until probably next Wednesday! But here are a few highlights and updates.

House: The house is GREAT! Moving went fairly well this weekend - the movers were really great, quick and careful with our stuff, and reasonable which always helps. Now if only we could get the last of the things out of the apartment and get everything to magically unpack itself at the house! At least it is liveable and we have some of our kitchen and bathroom stuff out and ready to go so we can function. Hopefully we can get a lot more done this weekend! :) Just need to get used to the commute again into work since I had such a short one for the past few months, but at least it's not too bad and worth it to have such a nice house. I will post pictures once I a) find my digital camera and disk loader and b) have Internet at the house with which to upload the pictures! I was not allowed to do much of anything per my husband and family and friends, but still managed to hurt my foot somehow although finally today it is feeling better so I hope that trend continues and it stops bothering me so I don't have to go to yet ANOTHER doctor appointment.

Baby: Sunday we went to our first birthing class at the hospital. It went fine although it was long and rather boring, but I know it's necessary. We watched the video on natural childbirth, and Austin & I started dying laughing during the end of it (don't ask!). At least we can find entertainment in an otherwise boring class. Next Sunday we get to take the tour of the hospital which I'm looking forward to and find out more about c-sections which I want to hear about since it may become a possibility depending on his size! Yesterday we went to see the pediatric urologist, and he was very nice and gave us lots of good information about the plan for after Cooper is born and was very positive about things so that was definitely a good experience at least. Friday, I go back to my doctor for my check-up and have to take the 1-hour glucose test again. I don't have gestational diabetes (at least I didn't before and don't think it randomly popped up), but they want me to retest just to make sure since he is so large. So I will get to be prodded again on Friday after my syrupy drink! At least I'll have another ultrasound to see how things are going, find out more from the doctor, and see how large he has grown! I can't believe he'll be here in just a few more weeks!

Other than that, not a whole lot going on. At least this weekend I have a long weekend (Monday off for President's Day) so that will hopefully help me with the unpacking and organizing of the new home. Plus some rest too! It's like 80 degrees today and supposed to be in the upper 70s tomorrow, but there is a cold front coming through that will hit by Friday morning and all weekend it is going to be in the 20s, 30s and 40s with RAIN - I hope it snows at least - I HATE cold rain!!!! Oh well what can you do? I'm sure I'll write again at least on Friday afternoon if I have a chance after my appointment! Hope you all are having a great week! :)

We Have a House!

2006-02-09T12:11:00.000-06:00

Yesterday we closed on our new home. It felt really good to stop having to worry about the paperwork and finishing everything up. It doesn't quite feel real yet since we aren't moving until this weekend, and I'm sure it will take some getting used to waking up in the new place and driving to/from work, etc. But we are both really excited about it!!!! Now if only we can get through the move on Saturday! :)

Update on my friend, Phil: They transported him by ambulance yesterday to Philadelphia to the University of Pennsylvania hospital system. He is apparently in an extreme amount of pain from the pressure in his skull/brain, so he is on morphine and other drugs to keep him pretty much out of it. So I'm really, really glad that I got to speak to him on Monday night because who knows when I will get to speak to him again. They were going to try to move him down to Florida eventually, but they have now decided to go ahead and do all the tests and surgeries and everything there in Philly so we'll have to see. Hopefully after the surgery, he can go back to Florida for his chemo and radiation and all of that. Today they are doing a surgery to relieve the pressure and to do a biopsy and a bunch more scans and tests. So hopefully we will know more tonight or tomorrow about exactly what kind of tumors they are, what his prognosis is, etc. My friend, Ryan, is flying a red-eye flight tonight to Philly to be with him, so I know if nothing else by tomorrow night I should know more since Ryan is good about asking lots of questions and getting the info. Plus I can ask him to tell me what's really going on where I feel bad asking Phil or his mom about it because I don't want to upset them any further. So we'll see. Keep on thinking and praying for him! :)

Other than that, busy again today with more applications but it's good because it keeps me distracted. I am looking forward to the packing/moving stage to be over because we've been working at it for so long that it's time to get going. And it will be fun getting to set up Cooper's room and put together some of our new furniture and things. I can't wait! Hope you all are having a good week! :)

Thoughts & Prayers

2006-02-07T05:16:00.000-06:00

It is 5:15 in the morning, and my body has apparently decided that it has gotten enough sleep as of 4:45. So rather than sit in bed with a million thoughts in my head, I decided to get up and come out in the living room to put a few of them into writing. I will start out with the sad news first and then end with some happier thoughts because I am trying to stay positive! :)

I found out yesterday that one of my best friends, Phil, has two malignant tumors that are brain cancer. He had been having headaches and started having some cognitive errors and went to the doctor to figure out what was going on. After several MRIs, they have determined that it is brain cancer and that he will need to undergo surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation to even have a chance of fighting this off. Like I said, I just found out most of this yesterday afternoon and last night, so we are still not sure the extent of how bad it is or what his prognosis might be. He was attending Princeton for his PhD so luckily has gotten great medical care in the process at the Princeton medical center, but they have advised him to seek his treatment in Florida so that he can be closer to his family since this will be a long and arduous process and he will need his family close by. Luckily his fiance will be able to come with him as well, so they are now in the process of trying to find a great neurosurgeon and cancer center in Florida to transfer him to so that he can begin treatment as soon as possible.

I have known Phil since the 8th grade when he transferred into my school, and we have been good friends since. He stood on my side for my wedding with another one of my best guy friends, and he has been an important person in my life growing up from high school and into the woman I am today. It is still kind of shocking even to think about all of this and to accept the reality of the situation, and he and my friend, Ryan, are extremely concerned since we don't know the extent that the cancer has already taken over or what his prognosis might be. But I have my dad looking into doctors and facilities that he can transfer to so hopefully he will have a better chance of fighting this. When I talked to him last night, he luckily sounded in decent spirits and even though he knows he has a long road ahead of him, he was joking with me that I know how stubborn he can be so he knows he can get through it.

If you pray, please include him in your prayers today and for the months to come. If you don't, at least please think of him and his family in their time of need. It is a difficult thing to even fathom, and even more difficult because I feel so helpless to do anything. But I know that I can at least be a support to him via phone or however else I can manage, and I just have to hope that when I go to Florida again in May during my maternity leave that I will be able to visit him and see him recovering. He wants to see Cooper and was so sweet asking about him and how I'm doing on the phone, even though he's lying in a hospital bed in ICU wondering whether or not he has much longer to live. He is a strong person, and I have faith that he will get through this. But please include him and his family in your thoughts and prayers.

On a happier note, happy birthday to Kim! Also, we had a wonderful weekend this past weekend. Austin & I feel so extremely blessed that we have so many wonderful and caring people in our lives. Our little boy was showered with gifts on Saturday, and it was so great to have so many people we care about all in one place and all so excited about our new bundle of joy. They are so excited to meet him just like we are! We really had a great weekend - my parents were in good spirits and we all got along really well for a change, so I am very grateful for that. Things around here are almost completely boxed up, and I am so grateful that Austin has been able to do so much so that we can get prepared for the big move this weekend. Tomorrow afternoon is the big day when we sign off on everything, and I can't wait to get those keys! It is all coming together, and it is very exciting! Of course, it finally decided to be winter here this week and is supposed to be really cold this weekend, but since I won't be doing much of anything besides watching them move everything out and then making sure everything gets moved in, I can't really complain too much! :)

Sorry for the sad post at the beginning but I needed to get it out in writing and ask for your help. Things like this really bring home to me how short life can be sometimes and how much you have to let people know that you love and appreciate them because you never know what might happen. Hope you all have a wonderful day! :)

Quick Update

2006-02-03T15:08:00.000-06:00

Not in the mood for a long post but I just wanted to update you with my doctor appointment today! My doctor had an emergency c-section this morning so everything was behind, so we sat for nearly 2 hours waiting for the appointment to begin with. We did another ultrasound and Cooper is doing well. He is 5 pounds 12 ounces now! She said around 37 weeks or so, she would be able to make a better decision about whether or not we would induce early or schedule a c-section or what. She said we would only have to do the c-section if he was projected to be 9 pounds or more. Of course, since he is ina higher percentile (85th this week I think - last time he was 90th), I have to do my one-hour diabetes test again. Good times! Otherwise, everything looks really good - heart is good, brain and spine are good, kidneys are okay.

At least next week I don't have to go to any doctor's appointments which is good because it will be a busy week at work. The following week I have the pediatric urologist appointment and my regular doctor's appointment/ultrasound and after that I have to go see her once a week. At least my blood pressure is good and I haven't had much swelling or anything concerning like that. So things are going well! :)

Tomorrow is our shower so that should be a lot of fun! Other than that, not a whole lot going on. Hope you all have a good weekend! It's our last weekend in our apartment - yippee! :)

Walking Zombie

2006-02-01T13:30:00.000-06:00

So after a weekend of getting some sleep, my usual insomnia kicked in again last night. At 3:30 am this morning, I was wide awake and unable to even rest really. So I got up and went in the living room and got on the computer and paid a bill online and changed the address on a few of our magazines to our new address. I surfed the Internet for a bit, and then decided I should try to at least lie down and relax. Finally around 5:45, I think I feel back to sleep but since I could then sleep only another hour and a half (in and out of sleep at this point after Austin got up at 6:30), it wasn't very productive! So today I feel like a walking zombie. Luckily yesterday was busy but the rest of the week I can coast a bit until Monday again when I will be busy for two weeks straight pretty much. There is no one in my area today and my boss is in Philadelphia until Friday morning so I could probably fall asleep at my desk with no one noticing! But I won't!!!

I don't really have a whole lot else to say. But I do want to tell you all what a wonderful husband I have and how great he is. Despite my wanting to help with the packing/organizing process, he has obviously inherited the brunt of the work, and he has done such a great job! Things are really starting to get all ready for our move, and I am so grateful. I have every intention of working on stuff when I get home from work, but by the time I get home, eat, shower, and relax for a minute I'm ready to fall asleep. Oh well! ;) Thank goodness he is so good to me and is taking care of everything. He did the final walkthrough on our house yesterday and learned how everything works so a week from today we will be able to close as planned. Yippee! That is all for now - I'm going to go back to sleep-walking through my day! :)

Two More Weeks!

2006-01-30T13:29:00.000-06:00

Two weeks from today, we will have already spent our first weekend in our new house. I can't wait! We went by the house yesterday to check things out. Austin has the final walkthrough with the builder tomorrow, but since I'm already taking off a lot for doctor appointments and stuff, he and his dad are going to go so I don't have to take off more work. So I wanted to take a final peek to see if there was anything I noticed that needed to be fixed before we close on the house next week. It looks great! They fixed all the little things we had seen on previous visits, painted the door and put up the shtters on the windows, and everything looked really great! I can't wait to get our fridge and furniture in there and blinds and all of that. It's really going to be great!

This weekend was good - we did lots of packing and organizing and we're making some awesome progress. I'm really proud of us! Luckily none of the drawers in the furniture have to be packed up because our moving company is going to shrink wrap everything for us so we can just leave the stuff in there. That makes things so much easier! Just got rid of some miscellaneous stuff and packed up bookshelves and the entertainment center and all of that sort of stuff. This week the goal is to clean up and pack up our bathroom linen closet (hopefully getting rid of junk I won't ever use!) and the rest of the kitchen (except for a few things to cook with).

On Saturday, we picked up the changing table for Cooper and our kitchen table/chairs. Here is a picture of the changing table we got from Ikea. Love that store!

We also went out to dinner with Austin's cousin and his wife and Austin's brother on Saturday night and to see "The Matador." It was pretty good although I've realized that I'm getting more and more uncomfortable sitting in one place for long periods of time unless I can lay down and relax in bed or on my sofa or a really comfy chair and be wearing pajama pants or something else loose-fitting around my tummy! Getting big but luckily not too much longer! Less than 8 weeks and that's if we make it all the way to the EDD! So we shall see! Hope you all had a good weekend - things are going to start getting a little busier around work in the next few weeks with our intern recruiting, but I promise not to go MIA and still post. I am sure I can still sneak in a post a day or so! No doctor appointments this week until Friday when I have my regular doctor appointment. And my parents are coming in town Thursday night so they will go with me to the doctor on Friday. Fun stuff! :)

There's Something (Bad) About Mary

2006-01-27T13:51:00.000-06:00

This morning I went to see the perinatologist. My understanding was that I was going to see him so he could do a more intensive ultrasound and evaluate the kidney issue a little further since we weren't able to get into the pediatric urologist until February 14th. So I went alone to the appointment because I figured it was just a routine, easy appointment - no problem! I left there in tears because of Mary. But before I go into the whole thing, don't worry because everything is fine and Cooper is healthy and wonderful and still a big boy (this time his belly measurement was 4 weeks ahead and his weight was 4 pounds 15 ounces).

After filling out like five pages of paperwork, I went into the ultrasound room with the nurse. The doctor came in just a few minutes later and he's the one that conducted the ultrasound. He was a nice guy. He measured Cooper in all kinds of ways, said the heart looks great, the amniotic fluid is good, everything looked great. He gave me a cute picture of Cooper's profile and we got some good video of his face and legs and everything. I can't wait to see him in person! :) He said that he would do another ultrasound in 4 weeks to check the kidneys again.

After this, I got my stuff together and was ready to go and they were like "oh please wait in the living room for the genetics counselor." Um what?! Genetics counselor? Why?! So now I'm freaking out in the waiting room. The other patients consisted of either overweight pregnant women, older pregnant women, or women of other nationalities (there are some genetic disorders that are more prevalent for different races, etc.). And I'm the one that has to go to the genetics counselor?

So then they call me in there to see her. Her name was Mary. She was the genetics counselor. Apparently, enlarged kidneys can SOMETIMES be a marker for Downs Syndrome. But she proceeded to tell me how this was something that we needed to be aware of and how I could have a late amniocentesis. I told her that I had taken the quad blood screen and everything came back normal, and she told me that they needed to have the exact numbers to be sure. She asked if I wanted to have a detailed family history done to determine the percentages and things, and I said no because we have no family history of these things and I have passed the tests and never before have I been told that this is something to be concerned about. I just wanted out of there!

I made my appointment for the next time, waited for the elevator, got to my car, and started bawling. I debated on whether or not to call and tell Austin because I knew he would just get upset and worry. But I knew I had to tell him. After several attempts at telling the story, I finally got it out. He was furious because he didn't understand why they had told me all of that and what was going on and why our doctor had never said anything before if that was the case. He finally got through to my regular doctor (love her!), and she told him that we had nothing to worry about because I have had so many ultrasounds and that they would have seen other markers if something was actually wrong and how I had great results on the blood screen and to please not worry. She also said she would call Mary and let her know what she had done.

Mary then called me to "apologize" and say that she didn't have the test numbers earlier and that they were great - the lowest they could possibly be and that there was a LESS THAN 1 in 5000 chance for any of the genetic disorders and there were no other markers or indicators so there should be no problems with Cooper. Okay, could she not have told me that before and/or kept her mouth shut until she had the correct information instead of completely freak me out unnecessarily?!!!!

Needless to say, my blood pressure is still probably through the roof as I try to calm down again after the freak-out morning that I had. I talked to my dad about it, and he said that he had known about that in the beginning, but that both he and my doctor had talked before about the fact that there was absolutely NO reason to indicate that and that it was just a kink in the tube from position or the reflux thing that can be fixed after birth. His heart is wonderful which is usually a major sign and he is a big boy (which most downs babies are small) so there is NOTHING to worry about. But it was a very scary morning for me!!!!!

I refuse to see Mary again, and I'm going to tell my doctor that I will only go back for that appointment to the perinatologist on the 24th if they promise I don't have to see her too. :) Other than that, I'm just happy because my little boy is okay and it's Friday! Of course, I should have just called in sick because I'm super drained now and tired even though I actually for once got some sleep last night! But we have fun stuff to do this weekend along with the packing so it should be a good time. Hope you all have had a better day than me and have a WONDERFUL weekend! :)

Sleep Deprivation

2006-01-26T11:30:00.000-06:00

So I haven't truly gotten a good night sleep in about 10 days now, and it's starting to take its toll on me. For awhile, I was able to force myself to get out of bed just in time to get ready in the morning and get to work, and once I was up and awake, I could make it until a somewhat decent time in the evening before feeling dead to the world. But lately, I feel like a walking zombie all day long! ;) Good times!

Now I know everyone likes to tell me "oh well this is just nature's way of preparing you to be up with Cooper." That's all well and good, but 1) he's not here yet, 2) I'm having to sleep and rest for TWO right now, not just one and 3) when he is here, I will have 12 weeks in which to try to get him to sleep through the night (which hopefully he will do since both his father and I slept through the night after three weeks) and where I won't have to get up for work and be there all day long. So while I understand the idea of it all, I still would love to have at least a little bit of sleep and not feel like I'm dragging my big body all day long!

I really shouldn't be complaining - I know things could be a lot worse! But I'm just so sleepy all the time, and I feel so worthless because then I just lounge on the couch after dinner until I go to sleep and don't get any organizing or packing done. I need my "nesting" phase to kick in so I can get in gear! LOL Oh well! Hope you all have a good day - I just need to get through a full day today and then tomorrow will be a shorter day because I'll be coming in late from my doctor appointment. I'm sure I'll have more updates tomorrow on my mammoth (but super cute) baby! :)

Doogie Howser

2006-01-24T16:37:00.000-06:00

This morning, Austin & I went to "interview" a pediatrician that was one of the ones recommended to us by my ob/gyn. You would think it would be easy for us to find a good pediatrician because my father is one. But he is in Florida and the only one he knows in Texas is in Houston, so that didn't really help out much! And I guess it maybe is really harder than easier since I know how great a doctor my dad is and I want someone equally as good for my baby. :)

After many frustrating attempts to contact pediatricians in the area with no luck or various complications, I asked my doctor last week who she would recommend, and she gave me three doctor names to try. Two of them were in the same practice and right near the hospital I am going to deliver at, so I started with them. I super-researched them on every website I could find (American Academy of Pediatrics, American Medical Association, Texas Medical Examiners Board, google, etc.). I decided to make an appointment with Dr. Hopkins and got an appointment for this morning first thing.

Austin & I were really hoping this would work out so that we would have one more thing to cross off our list of things-to-do in the next month or so. And it was a GREAT experience. We both left there very happy with all the information we received, and we were very impressed by not only the staff and their helpfulness but especially by the doctor. He told us he is often called Doogie Howser because he started volunteering at Texas Children's Hospital when he was 14 years old! He is still quite young (around 33 years old and in practice for about 4 years), but he seemed super knowledgeable and was really personable which we both liked. He spent about twenty or thirty minutes with us which was a lot longer than I thought he would, and his office manager also spoke with us in the beginning about their office hours and after-hours care and all of that sort of thing. He was really excited because he apparently just found out today that his wife is pregnant with their second child (they have a 2.5 year old girl), and they had been trying for a second so he was all glowy - it was cute! One less thing to have to stress about, and I totally feel more comfortable about Cooper being in his care because he knows my doctor as well as he is good friends with the pediatric urologist we are going to see in February.

Other than that, I got a call from my doctor's nurse this morning to let me know that the test she did to check for pre-term labor came back negative so there is now only a 5% chance that I will go into labor before 37 weeks which is a relief because although I don't mind Cooper coming a little early, it would be good for me to get through all of February without worrying about his arrival because of all the stuff going on with the house and also being more busy at work.

They also set up my appointment with the perinatologist (sp?) for Friday morning to get the specialized ultrasound to check things out with this kidney issues. But the doctor today told us that it is a really common incident these days and that it is usually just caused by the position that the baby is inside the womb. And even if not, all should be resolved before 1 year of age so we should have nothing to worry about. As much as I am fascinated with medical technology and all that they can tell now, I have to wonder sometimes if we know too much now and unnecessarily worry ourselves as a result! But I guess it's worth it to help prevent complications from getting worse in the future and to catch things earlier so that it isn't a problem so it's a double-edged sword!

Today I got to go to a yummy lunch to celebrate my boss' birthday so that was good. Tonight we will be lazy couch potatoes since I slept horribly again last night and as a result Austin did too! But the rest of the week is slow and steady with packing up things here and there - it will make things so nice. Don't worry I'm not going to overdo it! :) Austin has been great about all of this - it's just nice to be able to help out and get rid of stuff we don't need to waste time or energy moving and to better organize things so we might actually have a chance of easily unpacking and finding things in the new house! Sorry for the long post (probably boring too) but these days it's lots of doctor appointments and house info! I'm sure it will get more interesting once Cooper is here to provide entertaining stories! LOL Have a good evening! :)

Showered With Love

2006-01-23T14:35:00.000-06:00

Today was my work shower, and it was GREAT! Austin was able to get away from work to join us, and we all had a really good time. We had pizza and salad and yummy cake. I got little advice cards that are really cute and great for the scrapbook I plan on making for Cooper with all his photos and other little things. And presents! We got the rug that matches his bedding set, the extra car seat snug ride thing, lots of cute little clothes and gifts, the booster seat, and the baby monitor set. It was great - I can't wait to get home and look at everything again when I have more time and not a bunch of people staring at me! LOL

Other than that, we had a good weekend. Saturday, we went and picked out our new bed - we are getting a king size bed as our anniversary/Christmas present from Austin's parents. We found one very similar to the queen we have now, and it was on sale besides so that made them happy! Plus, since we got it on sale, Austin's mom got us a beautiful comforter/bedding set for it with the extra money and for Valentine's Day so we are all set! We are SO LUCKY! They are going to deliver the bed on the 10th, so it will already be there when the rest of our stuff comes with the movers on the 11th, and we are taking our old bed and putting that in the guest room and giving the guest room bed back to Austin's parents for their guest room. So it all worked out nicely! :) Yesterday, we did a LOT of packing - I should say Austin did but I did help too! We got one half of our kitchen cleaned out and packed up (other than a few things we will need in the next few weeks), plus the entertainment center all packed up, plus took everything down off the walls and packed up what we could of that too. We are making progress - slowly but surely!

This weekend we get to pick up our kitchen nook table and chair set from the furniture store and the changing table for Cooper so they can be moved with the rest of it. Then lots more packing because it's our last real weekend to pack before the move because my parents will be out here that first weekend in February for the shower, and I hope to be able to relax and enjoy that weekend because of all the crazy weekends after that! :) We are going to "interview" a pediatrician tomorrow morning, and I'm hoping that will work out so that will be one thing off the list! That's about all for now - I ordered some baby clothes this weekend as a baby shower gift to myself! LOL Can't wait for those to come too - he's going to be the cutest baby ever! ;)

Amanda, This Should Make You Feel Better :)

2006-01-20T14:51:00.000-06:00

So I had my doctor's appointment this morning. I will be 31 weeks tomorrow. My due date is March 25th. Cooper, however, is in the 90TH PERCENTILE PEOPLE! He is already weighing 5 pounds and 2 ounces and is measuring for a March 5th due date!!!!!! Of course, they tried to tell me that there is always a growth spurt between weeks 28-30 so he may level out. But my doctor said that since Austin was over 8 pounds when he was born, Cooper will probably follow in his daddy's footsteps. So now the question is whether or not I can naturally birth a 8 pound plus baby!!!! ;)

I think at my appointment in two weeks, she will see how he is doing and talk about inducing early or c-section or whatever options she thinks we need to evaluate. She does not think I have to worry about pre-term labor and thinks I should make it to at least 37 weeks. But since he is large, he may be a little early so it looks like it will be beginning to mid March rather than the end of the March. I'm fine with that as long as he will wait until March 1st or later so we can get moved and finish our childbirth classes. :)

So all this to say - we have a nice healthy baby boy on the way but he's going to be a big one!!!! So Amanda you should feel better because you are supposed to be several weeks ahead of me and Cooper is already measuring almost as big as Itty Bitty! Next week, we are finally going to go meet with a pediatrician that I'm excited about and seems nice and normal and also am supposed to get scheduled to get a more detailed ultrasound done next week by the perinatologist to see what the kidney situation is looking like before we go see the pediatric urologist in February. Good times!!! :) I'm so glad that my work is so good about personal time!

Hope you all have a WONDERFUL weekend - we plan on doing much of nothing other than packing and cleaning some more. The movers are coming tomorrow to give us an estimate so we'll see how that goes. And Monday is my work baby shower - can't wait!

No Soup for You

2006-01-18T14:52:00.000-06:00

For lunch today, I brought my usual boring lunch of late - a can of microwave soup, applesauce, and today I had some leftover mac n' cheese from last night (yes we regress to children for our meals occasionally). I ate my mac n' cheese first and went over to the microwave to make my soup. It was a new kind I had never tried before (well I had tried the kind of soup just not that brand).

I went to pull back the metal lid thing so I could put back on the plastic lid and heat, and it sprayed soup everywhere. GRRRR. I was so annoyed because it splashed little soup droplets (of an orangish color) all over my pretty green sweater exactly on my left boob. Luckily there was no one in the kitchen at the time so I waddled quickly over to the table to grab some paper towel because surely it was on the surface and would come off easily. Of course not!!!! So I went back over to the mean soup, put the plastic lid on, started in the microwave, and proceeded into the ladies' locker room to see if I could fix the situation. I tried water (which I then had to use the hairdryer in there to dry my boob afterwards so I didn't look like I had premature leakage), but nothing helped. It is not bright orange at least and is probably not noticeable unless you REALLY look which hopefully no one will be doing anyways, but it still made me angry that the soup decided to spit on me.

So then I go back out and try to eat said soup. It was disgusting. I was so annoyed at this point that I gave up, ate my applesauce, and went back to my desk. I grabbed a pack of crackers from the stash of snacks we have in our recruiting office and a Kit Kat and finished my glorious "lunch." I sent an e-mail to Austin when I got back to my desk to tell him of my disastrous soup-boob incident, and he called me up laughing! Of course, I laughed too while telling him it wasn't funny! :) Blah!!!! Good thing I'm not hungry although I'm sure I'll be starved by dinnertime.

Other than that, not much else going on - working on getting all the utilities and things transferred, cancelled, set up, etc. for the new house so everything is in working order when we move on the 11th. I'm so excited that three weeks from Saturday we'll be moving to our new house!!! YIPPEE! Everything is coming along nicely. Hope you enjoyed my soup incident today - who knows what tomorrow has in store?! ;)

Good Long Weekend

2006-01-17T09:55:00.000-06:00

I had a nice long weekend this past weekend. It was really nice! :) I think every work week should only be four days long with a three day weekend. Or that schedule that some people do where they work 80 hours in 9 days and have every other Friday off. I could go for that!

Friday night, we went out to dinner with some friends to On the Border. It was quite yummy, and since the one girl worked there, her waiter friend gave us a discount so that rocked! Saturday was errand day. We hit the bank, post office, stopped by the house to check the carpet before they install it this week, marked the wedding photo albums to be fixed, etc. We went to dinner and saw the movie, "Glory Road." It was really a good movie - interesting story and one of those feel-good movies you have to see every once in awhile!

Sunday was cleaning/packing day! After breakfast, I went to the grocery store while Austin cleaned our bathroom. He has been such a sweetheart about cleaning since I need to avoid the chemicals right now. When I got home, we started going through some boxes we had brought up from the garage and got rid of some junk and reorganized some stuff. We also went through our entire desk and organized the paperwork, shredded the stuff we didn't need any more, and got everything organized and ready to go for when we get some boxes to actually start packing things.

Yesterday, I had the day off but Austin did not. So after sleeping in a little bit and some breakfast, I got up and went to have lunch with him at a BBQ place by his work. Then I stopped by the jewelry store to pick up my ring that was being fixed and drop off my bracelet to have a charm added. More errands (oil change, car wash, mortgage company) and back home for laundry and more mail organizing/shredding. It was a very productive day but relaxing which is always a plus!

Today, I am quite sleepy though because I didn't sleep very well last night and my whole back and neck are achy. I woke up with a headache which has at least subsided so that's good, but I think my ribs are achy because Cooper has been kicking and pushing on them. Good times! :) Hope you all had a great weekend - we just got some good news that the last recruit we were waiting to hear back from has accepted so it's a good morning! Yay for good news at work! Talk to you later, alligators!

I Passed!

2006-01-12T14:38:00.000-06:00

Yay for me - I passed the one-hour glucose test. So after all that worrying about the three hour test, I am not going to have to take it! Yipee! Since I still have a bruise on my arm from where the lady screwed up my blood draw, I'm glad not to have to be poked or prodded for a little while longer! And now I can still have my sweets which I enjoy! :) I was pretty sure that I didn't have gestational diabetes because out of paranoia, I had tested my blood on Austin's blood meter last weekend (he has Type I diabetes for those of you that don't know), and it was normal. But I was still afraid they would try to tell me I had failed the 1 hour like some people do even if they don't have diabetes. Thank goodness - I'm glad for the good news.

I am a little low on iron though from my blood test (probably because I've had somewhat of a meat aversion since pregnant) so in addition to my prenatal vitamin and DHA supplement I take at night, I now get to take an iron supplement in the morning. Luckily, my dad was able to recommend one that causes less stomach irritation and less backup if you know what I mean so I will be swinging by Target on the way home to pick that one up. Yay for having a dad that is a doctor! :)

Other than that, things are still pretty slow around here and probably will be for another two weeks. But it's okay because now that we have the closing date, I plan to spend a lot of next week getting all our utilities set up and transferred and all of that mess so it is done before I get busy and so we can get the dates we want for things to be turned on/off and all of that fun! And next week I have another doctor's appointment.

Oh and in other good news, I found out that the two people in my department at work are going to throw me a work baby shower on January 23rd. So that is really exciting! :) I love unexpected surprises like that. We are having a couples shower for friends/family on February 4th too so we are really blessed to have so much love for Cooper. That's all for now I guess - have a great rest of the day!

The Countdown has Begun!

2006-01-11T13:38:00.000-06:00

I'm so excited about our house and getting to move in that I thought I would create a ticker to track our progress to our move-in date. :)

Belly Button Bothers

2006-01-10T16:36:00.000-06:00

I have an innie belly button. Or I guess I should say I HAD an innie belly button until our little bundle of joy started to take over and pushed it out. It is not 100% out yet, but it's getting there, and I noticed today especially that you can see it through my shirt. I know some people think this is "cute" for pregnant women to have. My guess is that these same people have never been pregnant or didn't have their belly button pop out like a cooking utensil indicating it's done! Even though I still have 10.5 weeks to go by my due date (although who knows if that will change if he's still measuring big the next few times I go), I feel like the whole world should know that I'm getting done since it is half popped out. I guess the rest will pop out when I'm really done!

I might also add that not only is it embarrassing for me that my belly button is poking out now for the whole world to see, but it is also irritated. My belly button insides are not used to be bumped or rubbed up against by clothes. So even though it doesn't "hurt" it is not very comfortable and is a little sensitive. Oh the joys of pregnancy! :) I will not complain though because at least I'm not sick (knock on wood) like I was for the first half of my pregnancy so I can deal with a little aches and pains and getting up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. I just thought since those that can actually see me can also now see my belly button that I might as well share with the Internet that my belly button is now on its way out!

There Needs to Be More Than 24 Hours in a Day....

2006-01-09T14:37:00.000-06:00

and I also need the ability to stay awake for more hours in the day as well!!! There was a time when I could go with only a few hours of sleep and be fully functional. These days it is virtually impossible because of an ever-growing sleepiness associated with the third trimester. But even before being pregnant, I had found that the older I got, the harder it was for me to survive on little sleep.

I desperately need more hours in the day though. What with all these doctors' appointments and work duties and house appointments and packing and cleaning and all of this, there is SO much to do and not a lot of time to do it!!!! I am so grateful and lucky that my work is so understanding and doesn't penalize me for missing for doc appointments and the like, but part of me still feels guilty because I have so many right now! And the weekends go by SO QUICKLY that I feel like even though we accomplish a lot, there is always more to do! At least this upcoming weekend I have a three-day weekend and have next Monday off, so that will help. Just need to be more proactive about doing stuff during the week instead of lying on the couch like a lazy bum! ;)

At least I can be happy because we have a lot to look forward to in the next few months. And we finally got a closing date for our house and so we will be moving the 2nd and 3rd weekends in February which is a relief to know that that is finally set! Need to save up my energy for February because that is definitely going to be a BUSY month!!!!!

Don't have a whole lot else to post about but if you find a solution for how to increase the number of hours in a day (and also how to keep awake to get more done in one day), please let me know. :) Have a good one!

Sleepless Nights

2006-01-06T10:27:00.000-06:00

Now I know that in a few short months, my number will have come up for many sleepless nights of feedings and crying and everything else. But for now, I would like to get some sleep people!!!! It's bad enough that I get up at least once (sometimes twice) a night to use the restroom now because my bladder is the size of a pea. But last night, my dog felt the need to be wide awake and moving around and making a fuss at 4 am. GRRR!

Maddie is a sweet dog and has been so much better lately I have to admit. We have trained her to sleep in her dog bed on the floor on Austin's side of the bed, and we usually let her lay in bed with us for a little bit at night before we go to sleep and then she goes down into her own bed for the rest of the night. Occasionally I will wake up for my bathroom break or just to turn over and find that she has snuck up in bed with us again at the end of the bed, but she usually will oblige my requests and get back down into her own bed and go to sleep. Last night was a different story.

At 4 am, Maddie was all about being awake and wandering around the bedroom. She wouldn't lay in bed with us, she wouldn't lay in her own bed. She just wanted to walk around the bedroom looking at things, sniffing things, and being weird. She checked out to see what the cat was doing, and when he came into bed to sleep with me as he usually does, she stood by my side of the bed staring at us for awhile. She ignored my and Austin's requests to get in her bed and stay there and in general acted very odd. Finally at about 5 am when we had both had enough of her noisiness, we tried in vain one last time to get her into her bed and she finally obliged to at least lay down next to Austin in our bed and relax. I am still not sure what her problem was but at least we were able to get a little bit more sleep (of course, it took me another 30+ minutes to fall back to sleep after that).

Needless to say, I'm kind of sleepy this morning because for some reason I already had a hard time falling asleep last night initially (usually no problem at all for me lately!). Oh well! At least it's the weekend, and I can try to sleep in a little bit tomorrow. We don't have any big plans for the weekend - just things we need to do like work on the list for the shower invitations so they can go out on Monday and swinging by Babies R Us to make sure our registry is updated and ready to go and lots of throwing out/cleaning/packing of the apartment in the process towards our move. Fun stuff! Hopefully we will get to go see a movie tomorrow night at least for a break! :)

That's all for now - pretty boring post I'm sure. Hope you all have a GREAT weekend, and talk to you soon!

One Big Baby!

2006-01-05T15:06:00.000-06:00

After waiting quite awhile at the doctor's office, I am back from my checkup. Everything looks good, although our little guy is not so little. He is already weighing 3 pounds 5 ounces and is measuring about 12 days ahead of schedule. The doctor said that this is the biggest growth spurt period for babies though so he may have already experienced his early so we should know in about a month if he really is bigger than normal or not. My mom said that I was a big baby up until I was born and then I was pretty normal, and Austin was over 8 pounds when he was born so I guess it's in his genes.

I survived my glucose one-hour test. The stuff I had to drink was really not all that bad, and it luckily didn't make me feel sick or anything. The blood lady was in a hurry to go to lunch though I think, and she gouged me pretty good so I have a little bruise around the area which stinks, but I survived and they at least only took two tubes of blood this time. I now am at the point where I have my two week appointments so I go back again January 20th and do another ultrasound and doctor visit, and then starting at 35 weeks, I have to go once a week until the little guy is born. I turned in my pre-admission form to the hospital today while I was there so that's taken care of, and now I just have to wait to get the call about whether I will have to do the 3 hour glucose test. I'm really hoping not because I've heard that one is not so pleasant!!!!

Other than that, at least today is a short day! I LOVE the fact that my work does not make me make up missed time for doctor's appointments, so I can still leave at my normal time today and get paid my normal hours without taking vacation time either. Yippee!!! :) Hope you have a great day!

It's Like Doing 500 Sit-Ups Without Moving a Muscle

2006-01-04T13:40:00.000-06:00

Ladies and gentlemen of the blog world, for the past week or so, I have begun to notice the phenomenon that is Braxton Hicks. Don't be worried, it is completely normal especially at 28+ weeks. In fact, some women experience them much earlier on and other than one or two here and there, I have been lucky to not have them (or at least not feel them) before. Apparently, my body's favorite time to have them is first thing in the morning so that by the time I sit down at my desk at work, I am all uncomfortable feeling and wondering if it's time to drive to the doctor's office, and then again in the evening when I'm coming home from work and trying to eat dinner. It's fun times!

Like my blog title says, it feels like I just did 500 sit-ups even though I have been sitting here doing nothing. It doesn't hurt. It's just uncomfortable and weird feeling and strange. For those of you that are not knowledgeable about this lovely topic, Braxton Hicks are like "practice" contractions and are just part of the pregnancy thing as long as you aren't having 6 or more during a one hour time period. They can be brought on by being active or by being dehydrated or just by being. ;)

So now that you have had your medical lesson for the day, I'm sure you are feeling even smarter than you already are. I have another doctor's appointment tomorrow to get another ultrasound (regular 2d one this time) and my regular checkup, and I have to do the one-hour glucose test for gestational diabetes. Then after this appointment, I will be going every two weeks. Also need to pick a pediatrician to go visit soon and "interview" - too bad my dad is so far away or I wouldn't have to even pick! Got to get this stuff done now before I get too large and before the moving process begins and the baby classes in February. Busy busy from now until the end of March! :)

A Good Start to 2006

2006-01-03T13:49:00.000-06:00

Austin & I had a great weekend. We really did a lot of nothing, but we did it together and that was nice. I'm learning to cherish these last few months of just him and me time since I know soon we will have a little bundle of joy to take up more of our time! I'm getting a little anxious about being a mommy and hoping I can do a good job and balance all that that entails, but Austin gives me the confidence that everything will be great! Now if only I could stop feeling like I swallowed a huge watermelon!!!! ;)

I ended up getting to leave around lunchtime on Thursday because my boss came in and said that there wasn't any reason for me to sit here and do nothing. And since I couldn't get my work computer to connect until last night, I had the whole weekend without work. Austin came home early on Thursday because he had to pick up this new type of insulin from his doctor so I rode along with him. The stuff is great and his blood has been so much better because of it, and it makes me happy because now he will be able to take less of the other stuff and be able to lose some weight which he works so hard to do (the other insulin stores fat so no matter how much he tries and works out, it is difficult for him to do anything but stay the same).

Friday, Austin had to work, and I had to go to the dentist to get my teeny cavity filled. My dentist rocks though, and besides having to wait in the waiting room for about 35 minutes, the procedure itself took all of 3 minutes or something and didn't hurt a bit so I was happy! Then I went to meet Austin for lunch and vegged around the apartment until he got home. We went to see a matinee of "Fun with Dick & Jane" which was entertaining and grabbed some dinner.

Saturday, we took the Christmas tree down. Normally we would leave it up longer because we both love the holidays, but even though the tree did great for a really long time, it had gotten REALLY dry and it was becoming a fire hazard and dropping needles everywhere so it was time to take it down. Of course that involved much vacuuming with the shop vac by Austin afterwards because it proceeded to share its needles with us all the way down the steps of our apartment. We ran a few errands, got some Christmas goodies for next year on sale at 75% off at Target (love it!), and got ready for the evening. We went to dinner at Benihana's (I'm sure by now you realize how much I love that place) with Austin's parents, brother, and family friends, and we all had a really good meal and a great time! Headed home, watched "Herbie Fully Loaded" on DVD, watched Dick Clark, and managed to make it until midnight (quite a feat for a pregnant lady like me that usually is asleep by 10 at the latest and lately it's been earlier than that!).

Sunday was football watching day for Austin although it turned out quite disappointing as the Cowboys were shut out of the possibility to advance to the playoffs. There is always next year I guess! :) Sunday night, Austin's cousin came over for pizza, a few fun rounds of our new Scene It dvd game, and more football. Yesterday, we were both off so we ran errands, enjoyed a nice lunch outside in the beautiful (but oh so strange) weather, and made a yummy fish dinner at home last night.

Today, Austin found out that to help regulate his blood, they are going to let him go into work at a normal time (between 7:30 and 8) and just stay until 6 or 6:30 which is very exciting because he used to have to get up at 5 am to be at work by 6 am and still have to work until 4:30 or 5. I'm hoping it will help his blood and help his mood because getting up at 5 am is never fun!!!! :) All in all, a good start to 2006.....other than that, not much to report. Battling the afternoon heartburn that I've been getting lately (thanks Cooper for sitting on some internal body part and blocking things up!) and counting down the time until 5:30 when I can get out of here!

Almost 2006

2005-12-29T11:02:00.000-06:00

So here it is a few days before the new year. It has been an interesting year for me - that's for sure! :) But for the most part, I really can't complain because it has been a good year with just a few bumps in the road.

I am so grateful that I am healthy and that I have a healthy baby boy on the way! And I am SUPER grateful that I have finally found a job that I truly enjoy and a good work environment to be in. This year, I thought I made a good move the first time around, and it turned out to be even worse than the first situation I was in, so I am so happy that I was given a second chance in August.

I am so happy that we are able to build our new house and that we will be able to move in it soon after the new year. It will be so nice not to have to deal with pesky apartment issues and annoying neighbors blasting music in the middle of the night. Oh and the STAIRS! I can't wait to live all on one floor - no hauling groceries up and down. :)

I hopefully am going to be able to leave work early today, and I have off tomorrow and Monday (although I have to go to the dentist again tomorrow morning for a tiny cavity - boo to that!). So the next time I post it will be in the new year!!! I can't believe it's already 2006. I've decided though that 2006 will be a GREAT year - new house, new baby, new life. Thank you all for your support over this year and for allowing me to be MIA for so many months while I collected my thoughts and got some sleep! LOL Hope you all have a WONDERFUL New Year's Eve and New Year and please be safe! See you on Tuesday! :)

Pictures!!!

2005-12-27T14:37:00.000-06:00

Happy Smiling Baby! :)

Side profile and hand/arm

Our fun kitchen set - the leaves swivel underneath to make the table smaller which we LOVE!

And Now I Need a Nap!

2005-12-27T14:19:00.000-06:00

So I survived Christmas weekend. I say that so dramatically like I didn't think I was going to or something. I mean, I guess it would have been very possible for it to have gone badly, but luckily it was manageable. Now I'm just exhausted (physically and mentally) and ready to have some time to me and my wonderful husband and our pets. Thank goodness we have another long weekend this weekend because I need it to recuperate! :)

Let's see......Friday we got to have breakfast with our friends, Jen & Bobby, from D.C. It was really good to see them - the last time we saw them was their wedding in June - and spend some time talking. Friday afternoon was a trip to the jewelry store with my parents and then Friday evening was dinner with Austin's family and ours. Saturday was cooking and football, then a great dinner in downtown Fort Worth, and Christmas lights. Sunday was visiting our house (yes I will post pictures soon - need to load some new ones from this weekend) and Christmas gifts and lots of yummy food. Monday was errands and furniture shopping. We found the COOLEST table and chair set for our kitchen nook - I can't wait to get it! I will have to post a picture when we have it (of course with pictures of the new house) because it is just so cool!!! This morning was 3d/4d sonogram and back to work and my parents to the airport. Relief! ;)

The 3d/4d thing was SO cool. I will definitely try to load those pictures up tonight and post some tomorrow if possible. Actually, I think Austin sent me two today that I may be able to post today if I can remember how! LOL It is amazing how great technology is these days! I go back to the doctor next Thursday, but the good news is that the slight swelling in the kidney that we have been watching seems to have gotten MUCH smaller so hopefully the doctor can confirm that next week. Too bad I have to do the glucose test or I could look forward to that appointment! It will be the first one Austin can't go to either because it is in the middle of the day, but Austin's mom volunteered to come with in case I get to feeling sick or anything like that.

Okay, I'm going to see if I can figure out some picture stuff! ;) Talk to you all soon!

All I Want for Christmas Is You

2005-12-22T10:04:00.000-06:00

So I've been listening to Christmas music on and off for weeks now, and one of my favorite Christmas songs (which is so silly) is Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas is You. So that is now stuck in my head, and therefore gets to be the title for my post today.

Things are really slow around here. My boss and the other girl in the recruiting department are gone for the holidays, so it's just me here holding down the fort. I finished up my last real task that needed to be done (mailing out the holiday cards/calendars to our recruits), and now I'm sitting here trying to figure out what to do with myself for the rest of the day. Before I left yesterday, my boss told me that if it was slow today and nothing was going on, that I should just go home and not worry about it because we work hard other times of the year so I deserve it. But I always feel guilty! I do have a work laptop that I could bring home and do virtually the same thing from home that I'm doing here (which is just sitting here waiting to see if any e-mails come in that need to be answered and surfing the net). But still....hmm maybe I'll get up enough nerve and leave at 1 after a half day of work.

I have Friday and Monday off for the holidays so that will be nice, and my parents and grandmother arrive from Florida tonight to spend the long weekend with us. Hopefully all will go well! ;) I love my parents and miss them, and it's especially weird since they are so far away when I'm pregnant. But my mother is a lot to handle, and I can only take her in small doses. I have noticed though that she is MUCH better when she is out here in my territory than when we go to Florida so maybe I'll have to convince them to come out here more often rather than going there. Besides they can afford the plane tickets much better than we can! :)

On Tuesday morning before I come in to work, we are going to the doctor's office to have a 3d/4d sonogram. I can't wait! It's our Christmas present to our parents, and they are all coming with us and then we got them frames to put the pictures in afterwards. I hope we can get some good ones of little Cooper! :) I'll try to post some next week.

Other than that, our weekend will be pretty low key. Saturday night we are going to a yummy dinner in Fort Worth and then going to look at Christmas lights. Sunday we'll have lunch/dinner at Austin's parents' house after opening gifts and enjoying Christmas morning in our apartment. It's kind of weird because this is the first Christmas that Austin and I have been together in Texas (last year we were all in Florida and before that we had Christmas separately when we were dating/engaged). In fact, it's the first time I've EVER had Christmas out here even though I've lived out here over 8 years! So it will be nice to wake up in my own place on Christmas morning and not have to pick something out of my suitcase to wear for the day! LOL Monday, I think we're going to take my parents by our house and measure the windows for the blinds we want to order and show them how it looks now that it is actually a house and not a bunch of boards any more! :)

Well, I'm sure my post wasn't super exciting, but that might just be how it is these days! Hope you all have a wonderful weekend and a merry Christmas! I'll check back in probably on Tuesday after the doctor's appointment. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night! :)

Gift Exchange

2005-12-21T13:16:00.000-06:00

I'm not really sure who came up with the idea of a "gift exchange" - also known to some people as a White Elephant party or Chinese Auction. If I were to plan a party, I would NEVER include that as part of it, but that's just my personal preference I guess.

Today, we had our administrative staff holiday luncheon including a gift exchange. We were each to bring in a gift of $20 value and write a one-word clue on the tag. Then you could either shop or steal (in order of your number of course). The lunch was great, and then the gift exchange began. I personally would rather do secret santa or even a regular drawing of names because at least then you know who you are buying for and even if you don't know that person that well, you can always get some ideas from other people of what to get them. But with this, you had to buy a gift that a man or woman in various age ranges would enjoy. It was a lot of pressure!!! :) I was more concerned with getting a good gift that people would want rather than what I ended up with. I like giving much more than getting especially when the whole group is watching you open the present and how you react. And the whole idea of taking from someone else just makes me uncomfortable!

Luckily for me (in my opinon, but probably not in others), I got #3 (which was really #5 bc they miscounted originally and had 00 and 0 as the first two numbers once they realized) so I just picked a gift. There were so many, and I didn't want to take forever with everyone watching me pick a gift. So I just picked one that said "crackle" - turned out to be a red crackle glass votive which is pretty. Not super popular so no one stole it from me, and that's what I ended up with. It will be fine as a Christmas decoration, and like I said earlier, I wasn't that concerned with what I got! My gift was a hit though which made me happy - I ended up finding this cute foot massager thing made by Dr. Scholl's and it was traded the max three times including a stare-down between two people over it. That's the thing I don't get though - people get all pissy when someone takes their gift but that is the point of the whole thing to begin with so you can't really get upset.

Just now, my boss brought over this amazing gift basket of goodies for me. Did I mention I LOVE my job? I got this super cute basket I can use to put our Christmas cards in and inside there was homemade strawberry jam and pear butter, a giant gingerbread cookie, an awesome gift certificate to Nordstrom's, and a year subscription to Parent's Magazine! I couldn't believe it!!!! :) My co-recruiter and I went in together and got this 3-in-1 dessert station with smores supplies and sterno kit for our boss, but this is great! :)

Today is a good day - tomorrow will be slow I'm sure, but maybe I'll sneak my book in and catch up on some reading! LOL More posting tomorrow - but no belly pictures. As lucky as I am that I am just a growing belly up front and not other places, I do not really care to share my tummy with the whole wide world! I may take some professional shots in January and post one of those then depending on how it looks, but until then, you'll just have to imagine! :)

You Know You Missed Me - Ha! :)

2005-12-21T10:07:00.000-06:00

So I know I said it was my blog and I could be MIA if I wanted to. And it was true! I definitely was MIA for a really, really long time - almost 4 months to be exact. Lots of changes have occurred as you can probably already tell! :) Thanks first off to Jes for the site redesign - I think it looks great and just what I needed to start my blog off fresh.

So here's the scoop: I started my new job in August and absolutely LOVE it! I couldn't be happier with where I work, the people I work with, and the job I do. It is a great fit for me, and I am very blessed to have found such a great company to work for and with such great benefits. It was definitely something I needed and came at the perfect time! Needless to say I was quite busy in the fall with all of my recruiting, so I didn't have a lot of time to write. But I promise to keep more up to date on this blog so possibly a few of my readers may come back to me and maybe I can even entice a few new ones!

In other news as you can tell by my site, Austin & I are expecting a baby! It's a BOY!!!! :) We couldn't be more excited about his arrival, and his due date is March 25th. Just a little over three months more to go, and I feel like I'm getting bigger every day! ;) I'm sure there will be plenty of posts to come about my impending motherhood and beyond, so hopefully I won't bore you to death with all of that!

Also, after much hunting and searching, we decided to build a new house in a development about 20 miles from here. It is closer to Austin's parents which will be nice since Austin's mom will be our daycare when I go back to work after the baby is born! :) It is a beautiful house and is coming along quite nicely, so we can't wait to have a house of our own (especially after all the problems we've had with our apartment complex this year!). We are hoping to close February 1st and move the 1st or 2nd weekend in February so we'll be in the house a little over a month hopefully before our bundle of joy arrives!

So that's the quick recap of all that has been going on in my life in the last few months. Lots of fun and exciting changes! Hope you all keep on reading - I've missed you and lurked around your sites to keep up with everything that has been going on. Just time for me to start being involved in it all again! I promise to write soon (probably tomorrow - who knows maybe this afternoon!). :)

It's My Blog and I'll be MIA if I Want To!

2005-09-01T09:05:00.000-05:00

Sorry I haven't posted in a really long time. Each evening I say I'm going to post and yet I never seem to get around to it. I really don't have much time to post now either, but I will make it quick to let you all know I'm alive and well. Things couldn't be better - I LOVE my new job and it's amazing when you actually have work to do and actually enjoy it how much less you have to rely on a blog. ;) Not that I don't love you all and I'll try to be better about posting, but it's a lot less important in my life right now which is probably a good thing.

Hope you all are doing well and I've been sneaking on and keeping up with you. I'll hopefully write more soon! Have a wonderful long weekend if I don't post before and miss you guys! :)

I'm Back!

2005-08-18T13:40:00.000-05:00

I really didn't go anywhere. I just didn't feel like blogging for a week. Not really because I have nothing to say, more because I was making a general protest of anything that even resembled work! I have spent this week reading and finishing Harry Potter, playing computer games, and e-mailing back and forth with my husband. It's been a good week! ;)

Let's see - last weekend we found the housing development, builder, and lot that we want to get. And last night we went to the mortgage people and found out today that we are approved so that is definitely a step in the right direction. Now just a matter of playing the numbers game until it's comfortable for us to make payments and insurance and taxes and all of that mess. And then for the fun stuff like picking out brick color and carpet and countertops and all of that. Yippee!! The good news is that it should be ready to go in February for our move-in to coincide with our lease running out so that will be some good stuff. No having to break our lease, no having to extend it other than possibly through the entire month of February just to give ourselves a little extra freedom in moving time.

I start my new job on Monday, and I couldn't be more excited. I am really looking forward to it and the temporarily short commute. :) I wish they would extend public transportation up into the Las Colinas area - hmm, maybe one day......Other than that, not a whole lot else to say. Just wanted to let you all know that I didn't have a heart attack from watching the window washers in their death-defying job nor blow away in the torrential downpours we have been having lately. All good things! LOL

I might write tomorrow about my last day. My guess is that it will be pretty uneventful so I may not, but I will definitely write sometime Monday with news of my first day at the new place. This weekend is going to be super low-key. Mostly just relaxing at home with the pets, running a few errands, and maybe a mini shopping spree to have a few new outfits for my new job. We'll see how the bank account looks after I pay the bills that are due soon! Hope you all have had a great week and have a great weekend if I don't talk to you before! :)

Window Washers

2005-08-11T09:15:00.000-05:00

The other day there was a really bad thunderstorm here in downtown Dallas. I think it was on Monday, but I can't remember for sure. My current office sits directly across from one of the conference rooms on my floor and since it's walls are glass in teh front and there is a large window in the back, I have a virtual window in my office. I remember sitting here watching the rain come pouring down, and unlike the usual site of other office buildings and things in downtown Dallas, I could see nothing but whitish rain and occasional lightning.

As I was sitting there watching all of this and wondering if it would stop before I had to walk across the street to my car, I noticed some black wires swinging violently back and forth. I decided to get up from my desk and go investigate to see what exactly was hanging from teh building. I couldn't see what I connected to, and it made me a little nervous standing in the cornered window with lightning striking nearby, so I went back to my desk puzzled. I noticed the black wires were still there yesterday as well so I figured at least it wasn't some random wiring that had been whipped off the building from the storm.

Just a few minutes ago, I looked up from my Internet surfing to see a window washer. He just finished cleaning my virtual window and has moved on to another area. I can not even imagine having a job like that. My office is on the 26th floor and there are 40+ floors on this building. That means, that poor guy has to hang from those wires that were violently blowing the other day in the storm in a little basket and lower his way down from 40+ stories above unforgiving streets and sidewalks just to wash windows. I am not really afraid of heights, but I have a fear of falling, and I think I would be going crazy as the basket swung back and forth in the breeze. I can see the wires swinging now - how scary!

Anyways, I thought I would share my little story about window washers so that if you are having a bad day, you can be grateful that your job does not include risking your life in a little basket hanging from two measly wires just to get some fancy office building windows cleaned! :)

9 1/2 Days (not that I'm counting!)

2005-08-08T09:50:00.000-05:00

I have nine and a half days of work left. The half day is because tomorrow afternoon I am taking a half day to go to a previously scheduled and requested off doctor's appointment. Not sure what the heck I will be doing with myself until my last day, but I guess I'll figure something out. Considering I was asked to turn over all of my work immediately, I am not sure what I'm supposed to be doing but I guess so. Not that I should be surprised, but that's more for later.....

My weekend was pretty good, nothing super exciting but still good. We spent a LOT of time looking at houses with minimal success. We found one we LOVE but it's a little farther away than we had originally wanted. But considering how things are set up around here, I guess we'll be commuting to and from work regardless of where we live so.....it might be a good option. Something to think about at least! Other than that, we went over to Austin's parents' house on Saturday afternoon for dinner and swimming and talked with his cousin and aunt who were in town from Houston. The rest of the weekend was spent looking at houses, running errands, and relaxing. Pretty boring I guess! :)

Don't have a whole lot else to say for now - I'm super sleepy and wish I could just go back home, curl up in bed with a good movie and later a good book, and rest. It's not like I'd be missed much anyways.......maybe I'll shut my door and try for a nap later! j/k Hope you all have a great Monday (if that's even possible) and talk to you soon!

FREE!!!!!!!

2005-08-05T10:31:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I can finally post about some of what I've been holding in for awhile. I still will refrain from sharing the stories and things until a few more weeks, but it will definitely provide for some good stories!

I wanted to let you all know that I have given my two week notice today and will be starting a new job on August 22. I couldn't be happier or more excited about this opportunity, and I am so grateful for all the love and support I have gotten. The best part of all of this is that I will no longer be working in the legal field, and that alone is an idea that makes me feel free just typing it. I have worked as a paralegal for the past two and a half years and have definitely come to the conclusion that it is not the type of job or industry that I feel is best suited for me. I have the utmost respect for Jes and Kim and D and others I know that do work in the legal field and are successful and enjoy it. But for me, it was a bad fit.

In my new position, I will be working as a recruiting associate for a large global consulting firm. I am very excited about this opportunity and will be able to better use my people and communication skills to their fullest. I will be able to plan events which I love to do and be more creative as well as getting to meet and work with a variety of people all over the country and world.

To those of you out there still searching for the perfect job, have faith that it will be provided to you. Sometimes it just takes time and making mistakes and everything else to realize what you want and to be able to go out there and get it. :)

Aside from that wonderful news, we plan on having a relatively low key weekend. We are going to look at some new housing developments tomorrow as well as have a cookout with Austin's family and some cousins and an aunt so that should be fun. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and I can't wait to share my stories in a few weeks because you'll be amazed! LOL Have a great weekend and talk to you soon!

Halfway

2005-08-03T09:23:00.000-05:00

Well, the week is almost halfway over and that is always a welcome sign for me! :) I got here at 7:30 this morning because I need to leave by 4 this afternoon. So at least two hours of my day is already done with - that always helps!

I really don't have a whole lot of exciting stuff to write about. Well, I have some stuff but I can't really write about it quite yet - you'll just have to wait! ;) The weather is super hot again, but thankfully we finally have decent air conditioning and hopefully won't have a horrible bill again this month. At least there is only another month of really hot and then September which will probably be hot but taper off towards the end. Then we get to look forward to the beautiful but short fall weather - my favorite along with the spring which is virtually the same.

Well, enough of my boring commentary! I'm just looking forward to the weekend again. Seems I look forward to that a lot more lately! LOL Have a great Wednesday and hopefully I will have something more interesting to discuss tomorrow! :)

Another Month Already

2005-08-01T09:07:00.000-05:00

I can't believe it's already August 1. I can't really say that time flies when you're having fun because not a lot of fun has been going on! But it definitely goes by quicker than you could imagine. Before we know it, it will be Thanksgiving and Christmas and then the New Year. Craziness!

Austin and I had a good weekend. Nothing super exciting, but still good nonetheless. "Movin' Out" was REALLY good. It was very different than the typical Broadway show in that there was no dialogue. Austin described it as a really long multi-song music video. The "actors" merely had to dance their choreography while the band played above them and the piano man sang. They didn't have to sing, they didn't have to act other than motion and dance. It was very good and very interesting. After that, we went to dinner at P.F. Chang's in downtown Fort Worth which was fun and headed home to watch "The Pacifier." It was actually a pretty good movie even though it stars Vin Diesel and is a Disney flick. Of course, I love most Disney flicks so I can't really complain too much! It was definitely worth renting.

Yesterday, we started off the day driving around and starting the process of house hunting. We figure it will probably take us awhile to find a house because of several factors including the size house we want, the BUDGET we need, and the safe neighborhood that is also a must for us. We looked at a few houses we had found online, and it was a little sad because either the house looked very different when we got there or the neighborhood surrounding it was not something that I would feel safe in. Luckily, we have gotten a realtor that will be helping us search now, so that helps. Since realtors are free to use if you are buying (the seller pays the realtor fees for both their realtor and the realtor of the buyer), there is no cost to us and hopefully they are able to research and find things better than we could on our own. So we'll see what he comes up with. We won't be closing on anything until the end of January/first of February, but it's good to see what we can find, and the realtor assured us that it's definitely not too early to start looking. So hopefully our apartment days will be numbered at least! :)

Other than that, not a whole lot else to report. Our friend, Joey, got the CUTEST puppy which he brought over for a little bit yesterday. Bud, the puppy, is too cute and is all floppy and sleepy. Mikah (our cat) was not quite amused, but Maddie (our dog) was very interested and entertained by the little thing wandering around our living room.

Hope you all had a great weekend! Here's hoping this week will go by much more quickly than last week! :)

TGIF

2005-07-29T09:00:00.000-05:00

I am SO grateful that it is Friday. I would be more grateful if it was like Good Friday or some other random holiday so I could be still laying at home in bed cuddling with my pets. But I'll take a regular Friday since I just have to hang in there for a few more hours and then can have two days off. Ah life!

Today, we are supposed to go to lunch with the copy guy at Pappadeaux, and since his company is paying, that works out nicely. I'm feeling a little under the weather this morning, so hopefully that will go away soon so I can enjoy my lunch. But that should at least take up some time during the day which always helps! Tomorrow we are going to see "Movin' Out" at the Bass Hall in Fort Worth. I am SO excited because it will be the first Broadway play I've gotten to see in quite awhile, should be pretty good with the Billy Joel songs, and we have awesome seats in one of the lower boxes there. I've only been to Bass Hall once before, and it was awesome and we were up a lot higher but it was still great. So this should be even cooler because we will have our own little box (well there might be a few other people in the box with us but still). Then we are going to eat at P.F. Chang's in downtown Fort Worth with Austin's family. Yummy! I love downtown Fort Worth. It's so pretty and fun to walk around. I wish Dallas would clean up their downtown area and make it more friendly rather than just businesses and old run-down buildings.

So that's my major excitement for the weekend. I can't believe it will be August already on Monday!!!! How time flies! :) They are voting to pass that Daylight Savings bill today or maybe next week, and it looks like it will go through which will be good to keep it through the beginning of November and start early in March. Of course, everyone's 2005 calendars will be wrong and anyone that has a 2005-2006 calendar will be wrong too, but oh well. I think it's a good idea personally because I hate how dark it gets in the winter. I feel like in the winter I barely ever see light because I go to work in the dark and leave in the dark. Not much fun! :)

Hope you all have a WONDERFUL weekend and talk to you soon! :)

My Adventure to the Dallas Public Library

2005-07-27T16:40:00.000-05:00

Today, I was asked by one of the associate attorneys to go down to the Dallas Public Library and look through some microfilms of the Fort Worth Star Telegram from 2003. I thought, no problem, should be easy and at least I can get out of the office for a little while. It was quite an adventure I must say!

Now, I think of myself as a pretty decent book nerd. I have gone to this library once while I was in teaching classes to pick up some books and to the local branch that was closer to my apartment. I also frequent the Valley Ranch branch of the Irving public library because it is nearby, small but safe, and I can request my books online and have them sent from any other branch over to the one by my apartment and just run in to pick them up. It works out quite nicely.

I had no idea what I was getting myself into today. The directions I wrote down were easy, and I found a metered parking spot right nearby which was amazing. Fed the meter, locked up my car, and headed towards the WRONG building. I got a little confused, and when I was nearly upon the Dallas City Hall building, I realized the library was on the other side of the street. Okay, no problem, cross the street and in I go. There was quite a gathering of homeless people outside the library, a row of suitcases and other bags lined up against the side of it. I looked straight forward and just walked in to the front door.

Then I headed for the elevator. Being that this is the central library for Dallas, it is quite large, and I needed to go the 7th floor. As I walked towards the elevator, I realized that two homeless men had decided to also come into the library and were waiting for the elevator as I approached. Apparently, that is the popular thing to do if you are homeless and trying to avoid the Texas heat: go into the Dallas Public Library and they won't say anything that you're there. I looked around trying to figure out what other way I could get to the 7th floor and actually contemplated taking the stairs just to avoid them, but decided that I wouldn't want to be trapped in the stairwell either. Luckily at that moment in my decision-making process, another guy in a business suit came to wait for the elevator as well so I figured it was safe. I'm not normally scared of homeless people, and I'm sure they are harmless, but something about being trapped inside a 6 foot by 6 foot space with two homeless men wasn't sounding so appealing especially since the security guards wouldn't have heard my yelling, my cell phone probably wouldn't have worked, and elevators are easily stopped mid-floor.

Luckily, as I said before, the suit guy got on too, the homeless guys pushed floors 3 and 4, suit-guy pushed 6, and I pushed 7. I would not have to ride at all alone with these other two guys. And it was a good thing because 1) they both smelled horribly of body odor and outdoors and 2) one of them spent his entire elevator ride staring at my legs, then moving his gaze up my body, then back to my legs. I could see him out of the corner of my eye, and I thought he wasn't going to get off on floor 4 because he was too busy staring at me but thankfully he did. I got up to the proper floor, got help from the reference desk person, and sat down at my microfilm to search away. Unfortunately, I never found what the attorney was looking for, but thankfully, he knew I had actually searched and said it was fine and that he would contact the company. I was there for over an hour searching through an entire month of newspapers. It was fun stuff! :)

The way to get out was thankfully less eventful. I put away my microfilms, got on the elevator with another gentleman that was on my floor, and after he got off on 5, got to ride the rest of the way down in peace. I exited and was walking back to my car when I saw the "starer" walking along the street. Apparently he didn't last forever in the cool of the library (not sure if he left on his own free will or got kicked out) and here he was walking towards me and in the path of where I had to go to get back to my car. I stopped for a moment thinking he had seen me and would turn to face me head-on. Luckily, he either didn't see me or had something else on his mind finally because he walked on and I was able to continue on my path towards my car. The meter hadn't run out thank goodness, and I was happy to jump in my car, lock the doors, and head back to work. It turned out to waste a little over an hour and a half of my day which I was grateful for, but next time I think I'll bring someone with me!!!! :)

The Week is Nearly Halfway Over

2005-07-27T08:51:00.000-05:00

This week has been slower than any I can imagine! I thoroughly enjoyed my two day work week last week and have now become spoiled. :) Too bad I don't have another day off until Labor Day which is the beginning of September. Yikes!!!

They finally did a full inspection of the old air conditioning unit yesterday. Turns out the problem lies with the thermostat (plus the fact that that unit is really old and doesn't function as well as the new one but we'll let that fact go). So today they are supposed to install a new thermostat that can more accurately read the temperature in the room, thereby more accurately functioning and turning on and off more regularly. Hopefully that will be the last of the apartment people in our place for a little while at least. I think we'll be house-hunting once it gets a little cooler! Even a rental house sounds like a good idea at this point.

Other than that, not a whole lot to report. I'm just hoping to make it through this extremely long week! Hopefully I'll think of something more exciting to talk about later - sorry for the boring post!

The War Rages On......

2005-07-26T09:27:00.000-05:00

Now, you may have thought that the battle of the air conditioning was over two weeks ago when my new unit was finally installed. Alas, the war rages on......

Turns out that the reason the apartment was hot to begin with also had to do with the fact that the original air conditioning unit was not working. The apartment complex refused to believe us, despite numerous calls, and decided to install this new unit to make everything better. I can not complain entirely because at least now I can sleep at night (for the most part) because our bedroom stays very cool at whatever temperature we set it. However, the living room/dining room/kitchen area is still very warm. In fact, it is over 80 degrees nearly 24-7 despite trying to run the air at 75.

Saturday morning, we called yet again to have them come look at our old unit. In typical fashion, they told me they had put some extra freon in (they just did that about a month ago when we were having problems too which makes me think there's a leak or perhaps they are just telling lies), and that there was nothing else they could because the best the air conditioner could do is run 20 degrees below the outside temperature and since the outside temperatures have run in the 100+ degree area lately, then we should be happy that it is in the 80s inside. Hmm, that's funny because the new unit still manages to cool to 74/75 despite it being 100+ degrees outside. Oh, and I've lived here for nearly 8 years now and lived in many different apartments and not once have I had these problems with the air only cooling to 20 degrees below the outside temperature. After the maintenance man left with his pile of excuses, I decided I had had enough.

I took matters into my own hands and contacted the regional Vice President for Texas of the company that owns our apartment complex. I explained my frustration, the ongoing problems we had been facing since the beginning of May when it got warm, the excuses we were constantly given and yet nothing was done, and my anger at being forced to pay nearly $500 worth of electric bills in the past two months all because of their faulty equipment and still having my apartment sit at 80+ degrees. I received an e-mail back from the regional vice president of Dallas yesterday morning saying she was out of town until mid-week, but would be happy to contact me then to discuss this further. She or the regional VP of Texas must have also sent my e-mails to the apartment complex because we received a phone call from the maintenance supervisor at the apartment on Monday also saying that he had received my letter and that he wanted to work with us to fix the problem. Apparently you have to go to corporate to be taken even remotely seriously around here.

So today, our pets were forced to be put up yet again so they could come into our apartment and check things out. This time they are bringing a real air conditioning guy (the one that put our new unit in actually) with them to actually go up into the attic and check out the old unit and see what is going on. I'm sure they won't even tell us if there is something wrong with it because they won't want to spend the money to fix it and probably are just trying to bide more time and not get their butts chewed out by corporate later this week. That's the bad part about both of us having to work and not be able to be there and watch what they are doing and ask questions. I'm hoping though that since Ralph will be there (the air conditioning guy) and he is really nice and honest, they will call us this afternoon and tell us they are ordering x part or in the best world they are ordering us a new unit and hopefully by the end of the week, our whole apartment will be a decent temperature and our bill for next month will go down since our old unit won't be constantly running just trying to catch up to 75 even though it never will.

We've already started hibernating in our bedroom after dinner and turning the old unit up to 80 since that's about as cool as it gets regardless if it's 100 degrees or 85 outside. That way it won't run unnecessarily and still not cool and just waste our electric. So we shall see how the war continues......I'm tired of hiding out in the bunkers, I've made my move, now they need to hold up the white flag. We shall see! :)

Monday, Monday

2005-07-25T09:43:00.000-05:00

Here it is Monday morning again. It's hard to believe that a week ago, I was already up and on a boat fishing! I definitely didn't want to get up so easily this morning. In fact, I slept through my alarm which wasn't very good, but luckily didn't sleep too long before realizing what time it was. I hate Mondays!

Our weekend was good. Nothing too exciting, but that was good since we had just came back in town. Mostly, I just relaxed and watched TV and read a book. It was nice. Saturday night, we went to see the Wedding Crashers. I thought it was really funny!!! Definitely a romantic comedy and aside for the brief nudity, it was very entertaining! ;) Yesterday, we watched Million Dollar Baby on DVD. It was also very good, different ending than I expected, but great acting and a good story.

Other than that, not a whole lot to report......this is going to be a long week I'm sure and then it's August already, I can't believe it. Of course, I hope August goes by quickly because we don't have any breaks again until Labor Day in September. It will be a change since we've been here and there over the past few months. But the good thing is that it will allow us to replenish our bank account!!! LOL Hope you all had a great weekend and hopefully I'll have more interesting things to talk about later this week. Still sleepy on a Monday morning! :)

Tagged Again

2005-07-21T09:00:00.000-05:00

I was tagged by Amanda so here goes! Please be sure to read my other posting from this morning though too about my vacation! Oh and to all the people in London, my heart goes out to you. I hope this madness stops soon, and this sickos are destroyed!

What I was doing ten years ago: Ten years ago, I was 16 years old. I had just gotten my driver's license, and I traveled up to Pennyslvania and up the east coast with my friend from Switzerland taking her around and showing her the U.S.

5 years ago: Five years ago, I was 21 years old, about to start my senior year in college. I was working at an internship with a media company in Dallas and working as a nanny to two kids who were eventually in my wedding and living in a townhome across from campus. I had just gotten my kitten, Mikah, two months before. My roommate was in Italy for study abroad.

1 year ago: One year ago, I was 25 years old, preparing for my wedding to Austin. In a few weeks, Austin would graduate from college, and we would have our couples shower. I was picking up the bridesmaid dresses and sending them to them to get altered. I was working at a different law firm, and I was not so happy with my work. Jes had left the job a few months before along with D, and I was alone. I was also trying to get a job for Sara at the time, so I could at least have a friend to be in misery with me!

Yesterday: Yesterday, I rode in Austin's new truck for 7+ hours from Port Aransas in the rain. I was bored! I had good conversations with Austin, laughed, picked up our dog, and headed home to pay bills. What a way to end the vacation!

5 snacks I enjoy:- Kit Kat bars, animal crackers, pretzels, chips & salsa, ice cream

5 songs I know all the words to:- Kelly Clarkson - practically the whole CD, Sarah McLachlan - practically the whole CD, John Mayer- most of his songs too, Rachael Yamagata - Reason Why, Maroon 5 - pretty much every song on the CD

5 Things I would do with $100 million:- Pay off all our debt, Buy/build our dream house, Share money with our parents, Travel, Save money for the future

5 locations I would like to run away to:- Sydney, Australia - Hawaii - California - Fiji - Florida

5 bad habits I have:- chewing my cuticles/fingernails, being on the Internet all the time at home, not wanting to pick up after my dog (but I do), stacking my clothes up instead of taking the time to hang them up, forgetting laundry so it either has to be rewashed or redried or ironed

5 things I like doing: - spending time with Austin, playing with my pets, reading, dancing, watching movies

5 things I would never wear:- clothes that don't fit me right, a thong or any skimpy bathing suit, gold jewelry, a McDonald's uniform, a teeny weeny skirt that is so popular right now and doesn't work with my long legs

5 TV shows I like:- Desperate Housewives, Amazing Race, Lost, 24, The Apprentice

5 Biggest joys of the moment:- Having a relaxing vacation, spending time with Austin and my pets, spending time with my friends, thinking about possibilities for the future, comfortable and cute skirts

5 Favorite toys:- my laptop, my digital camera, Tivo, my cell phone, DVD player

I'm Back!!!

2005-07-21T08:03:00.000-05:00

I know you all missed me - haha!

I'm back from my vacation. It actually turned out a lot better than I thought it would, and we got really lucky avoiding the majority of the rain and craziness from Hurricane Emily. We left Saturday morning (not as early as planned but early nonetheless), grabbed my Harry Potter book at Walmart, and headed down the road. We made decent time and arrived Saturday afternoon to the rental house. It was really nice, nicer than any of the others we've stayed at there. We settled in and headed for some yummy dinner on the water. Saturday night we were all pretty tired so we ended up going to sleep relatively early. The ride down was long and boring but sadly I can't read in the car because it gives me a headache or motion sickness so I didn't get to read any Harry Potter.

Sunday we got up and did a little shopping although I still wasn't able to find the sandals I wanted. I will have to order them online. We found some for Austin though at least so now we only have to find some for me. Then we headed to the beach. There was a quick rain shower but it subsided and we were able to enjoy the afternoon at the beach. Sunday night, Austin's parents went to the fish market and got all kinds of yummy shrimp and fish and we cooked out at the house.

Monday morning we got up super early and went fishing. We caught the limit in red fish and then tried to get some trout but mostly caught small ones and released them back into the water. It was fun though, even though we couldn't keep all the fish we caught! We have some good fish in the freezer now for later. We went to lunch after fishing, took a nap, and then went out to a yummy dinner again. I love seafood so it's great to be somewhere with fresh fish and shrimp and all that. There are a few good seafood restaurants in Dallas, but the best ones are super expensive and not an everyday place to go.

Tuesday, I rode along and drove the golf cart while Austin and his family played golf. I don't play golf. I actually find it quite boring, but it was alright because the weather was nice and I just relaxed and watched and drove the golf cart around which was fun! We went out to the beach when we got back because the surf was starting to churn up from the hurricane. The water was coming back further, and it was getting windy. I headed back to the house with Austin's parents, but Austin and his brother and Joey stayed out there and ended up getting drenched because a band of the hurricane hit. They were okay, just a lot of wind and rain. It ended up stopping, we went to dinner, and came home again and relaxed. I was sad because I didn't really read much at all the whole time we were there, but I had a blast so I guess I can always read at home! :)

Weirdly enough, we got up yesterday morning and it wasn't even raining. It was really windy and when we walked down to the beach area, the water had come up onto the beach access road and up to the sand dunes. I've never seen it that far in, but luckily it hadn't started flooding the island or anything. We grabbed some breakfast, packed everything up, and headed home. The drive was long again, especially because we hit a lot of rain and traffic on our way up, but we made it back to the area, picked up the dog from the pet hotel, and got home around 7.

This morning I got up with Austin at 5:15 am so I could shower and get gas in my car and head into work early because I need to leave by 3:30 today for an appointment. Fun stuff! At least tomorrow is Friday, and I can spend this weekend doing laundry and relaxing. I wish my synopsis of the weekend didn't sound quite so boring, but really we had a great time, didn't want to leave, and I was really glad to be able to relax and enjoy doing much of nothing for a few days. I was so glad the weather didn't ruin our plans either! Hope that you all had a good week while I was gone, and I'll try to catch up throughout today on everything! :)

I Hate Emily

2005-07-15T09:15:00.000-05:00

If your name is Emily, I am sorry. Because right now, I hate Emily - the hurricane that is. I swear, I have had more run-ins with hurricanes in the past year than I would like. My parents went through three bad ones last year, the last they fled that morning before it hit so they could make it here for my wedding (it was the weekend before). That one was by far the worst because a few of my wedding guests couldn't come at the last minute as a result, and some others ended up having to drive all the way out here to avoid everything and to get away. I was so grateful they were there at least though!

Now, Hurricane Emily is threatening the southern part of Texas. We are supposed to leave for Port Aransas tomorrow morning and spend a nice weekend of fishing and beaching until Wednesday. We called the fishing guide to ask him how things were down there and he said to come on down. We're just waiting to hear back from the lady we are renting the house from to make sure everything is okay. Austin's parents were supposed to be there this whole week from Saturday to Saturday but they will definitely have to come back early now (unless it's just bad rain and they can just relax down there for a few extra days). We're hoping we can stay at least until Tuesday morning because it's not even supposed to hit until Tuesday night and hopefully way farther south. Just have to keep watching the news.

It just makes me sad because this was our only real vacation we had planned. I have two good books to read though in case of rain ("The Devil Wears Prada" - recommended to me for a good laugh to lighten the situation I'm currently going through and the new Harry Potter book which I will be picking up from Walmart tomorrow morning on our way out of town). I also bought some of those motion sickness wristbands yesterday so I'm hoping that will allow me to read in the car plus I'll have our portable DVD player to watch as well that plugs into the cigarette lighter in the car. And we're going in Austin's new comfy truck which will be super nice! So we are going to have fun and relax regardless, just don't know how much beaching or fishing we will get to do because of silly Emily.

In case I don't write again this afternoon, have a wonderful weekend and beginning of next week and talk to you on Thursday! :)

Will Work for Sleep

2005-07-14T11:11:00.000-05:00

I slept horribly last night. I couldn't fall asleep and once I did, I was tossing and turning and kept waking up because Austin was very restless in bed. Then I woke up at 5 with Austin and couldn't fall back to sleep because I had to get all of my stuff to get ready and go in the guest room because the air conditioning people were supposed to come at 7 to start working and needed to have access to our bedroom and bathroom. At least last night was our last night (cross your fingers) without good air conditioning in the bedroom. Yippee - that should definitely help provide a better night sleep!

The air conditioning unit seems to be coming along. They left yesterday evening around 6:30 because they had been working until 11 the night before on one unit in order to get done in time to do ours yesterday. So they wanted to come early today so they could finish today and it's much easier to do when it's not quite so hot up there. We had stuff all over our living room and bathroom (couldn't even use the bathroom at all) so we were using the guest bathroom last night and this morning. Now that air conditioner (the original) that is in that bathroom has started leaking (I think it does this because it's trying so hard to cool the whole place that it gets a lot of condensation and they need to empty the tray again), so that was lovely. Hopefully the apartment people will come mess with that because the contractors aren't allowed to. The one guy finally showed up about 7:20 this morning, made the dog go crazy barking and start shaking, and gave me just enough time to finish up and head out the door. The other guy wasn't there yet when I left at 7:30 so I'm not sure what was up with that, but hopefully they will be at least close to being done when we get home tonight since I would like to be able to make dinner tonight and get some sleep. We shall see!

Other than that, not a whole lot to report. I feel like putting my head down on my desk and taking a nap and the sad thing is most people probably wouldn't even notice. Especially if I shut my door! Things to consider doing with my lunch hour! LOL That's all for now - I will make sure to write something at least tomorrow since after that I will be away from a computer and blogging until Wednesday evening. Can't wait for some much needed rest and relaxation! :)

In the Trenches

2005-07-13T10:16:00.000-05:00

The war for the new air conditioner has begun (at least I am hoping they have already started). We never got a call from Ralph, so we called the apartment maintenance guy last night at 9 pm since we hadn't heard anything yet and asked what the deal was. Ralph was supposed to come by our apartment around 8 this morning and begin. Apparently, up in the tippy top of the building where he has to crawl around to hook everything up, it gets to be 140 degrees!!!! Needless to say, he will be working this morning until around 1 or 2 and then take a break and then come back again probably around 5 and work until we kick him out tonight (I think my limit will be about 9:30). So who knows what our apartment will look like when we get back. I hope the pets don't completely freak out and think the world is coming to an end as they are in the guest bedroom today together. At least the work won't be going on directly above them, and they will be cool because that bedroom is right next to the original air conditioning unit.

The scoop is that they are going to crawl up in the top from our balcony I guess, cut down through into our living room to give another vent there, and then cut down into our bedroom to put another vent in there, and then cut in through the top of our shower to put whatever it is that goes there (there is already a square like that in our guest bathroom so I guess that's a common thing). We had to move everything off our bathroom counters, pull the furniture away from the one wall in our bedroom and clean out everything from the tub. I'm sure it will be great for my allergies!!!! Then we will have a thermostat in our bedroom which will control the bedroom and the one vent in the living room. It should definitely cut down the heat and our air conditioning bill since that one unit won't have to try to pump the entire apartment any more. We'll see!

The battle should be over by tomorrow. Actually it better be over by tomorrow because I need to be able to pack and maneuver around the apartment on Friday to get ready for our trip. Plus I want to make sure it is functional and unscary before leaving my poor cat alone in the apartment all weekend. So it must be done by tomorrow, even if it means Ralph has to stay later tommorrow night or get there earlier tomorrow morning. I will update you tomorrow I'm sure, and here's to hoping I can actually sleep tonight. I guess I can always sleep in the guest bedroom if our room is a disaster area.

On a side note, today is Jes' birthday!!!! So go wish her a happy 27th! That's all for now, I will report more from the trenches when I can! :)

Our Dog Needs Pet Therapy!

2005-07-11T10:20:00.000-05:00

I have decided that our dog needs pet therapy. She is afraid and goofy at the silliest things. She barked yesterday for like half an hour at the gladiolas we had bought at the grocery store. I know they are tall and there were a lot of them because we got two bundles of ten each for $5, but still!!!

The biggest problem we are having with her right now is that she won't drink out of the new water container we got her (or any water container really). We got one of those 2.5 gallon automatic dispensing water containers for her a week ago, and she drank out of it and was perfectly fine. This week she is scared to death of it. She won't go anywhere near it, and even when we tried the peanut butter trick of smearing peanut butter (her favorite) around the edges, she refused to do anything but gingerly lick the peanut butter off and then run away. She needs pet therapy to get over her fear of water containers!

Other than that, it is DEFINITELY a Monday. This morning I woke up a little later than usual because I couldn't manage to get myself out of bed (been having trouble with that lately on weekdays), and stumbled into the shower. I mentally chose the outfit I would wear, and when I went to get out and put it on, I couldn't find one important piece of it. I ran around the apartment trying to find it, but with no luck. So I picked another outfit and then I couldn't find a certain pair of shoes that matched it (I did end up finding those at least before I left). As if I wasn't already running late and frustrated!!! I couldn't get a hold of Austin at work which was annoying me and then I had to walk the dog and give her her antibiotic (Austin usually does this but he was also running late this morning and he has a more strict time schedule than I do). Needless to say, I didn't leave the apartment until almost the time I normally get to work so now I will have to work later as well which makes me bitter! Luckily, we have a flexible time to get in and I still got here before anyone else I work with, but now I also have to stay later. Oh well!

Hopefully the rest of the day will get better. I'm very anxious/nervous today and that doesn't help. I'm trying to calm my nerves with music, and I think I will put on some Sarah McLachlan, shut my office door, and calmly resume data entry. Hope the rest of the week goes faster and more smoothly. At least I just have to manage these five days of work and then off to the beach on Saturday for five days - yippee! :) Our weekend was good at least - go see "The Island" - very good, interesting movie that comes out this weekend but we caught a sneak preview on Saturday night. Hope you all had a great weekend and here's to hoping this week passes by quickly! :)

Victory is Ours!

2005-07-07T16:40:00.000-05:00

The air conditioning battle has been won - or at least it's drawing to a close. We received approval today for our second air conditioning unit, and it is scheduled to be installed on a two-day period either on Tuesday/Wednesday or Wednesday/Thursday of next week. Just in time to give us a few days of cool to test it out before we head down to the beach! :) Let's hope that everything goes smoothly. Ralph, the air conditioning man, is going to call us and let us know what paths we need to make and things like that so he can do his job and the pets will be in the guest bedroom for those two days. Hurray! Hopefully I will be enjoying cooler air next week at this time! :)

London Calling

2005-07-07T09:28:00.000-05:00

I woke up this morning at 3 am to the sound of my cat ripping paper. This is not a highly unusual occurrence because my cat is too smart for his own good, and I should have known better before I went to bed.

We have started a process for the past month of letting the dog sleep in a dog bed on the floor next to us instead of in her crate like she used to. It has worked well. The only downside is that we have to keep the door closed so she doesn't run around the house willy-nilly in the middle of the night. Keeping the door closed makes the room very stuffy and warm because in their vast intelligence, there is only one vent in the bedroom (which is a fairly good-sized room). Needless to say with our recent air conditioning fiasco, we realized that to keep maximum airflow and the ability to sleep without feeling like we were in a sauna, we needed to keep the door open. We had bought a baby gate for my old apartment because it was split level and we wanted to keep the dog downstairs with us while we were down there so that she wouldn't go upstairs and terrorize my bedroom (she was in her puppy stage at this point). So we found the old baby gate, put it in the doorway to the bedroom, and can now leave the bedroom door open so we can breathe at night.

So you are probably wondering what all that has to do with anything! My cat, Mikah, likes to sleep with me. He usually sleeps in my arm or pressed up against the side of my body. He has done this since I got him at six weeks old and he is now 5+ years old. He also likes to be able to get up in the middle of the night and eat or drink or whatnot so we have to keep a smaller food dish for him in the bathroom that he can get at night. Since we have the baby gate now (which he can jump over), we assumed that he would be nice enough to jump over the gate if needing food to his main food dish which is in the living room. We assumed wrong. That is obviously too far to have to go for your midnight snack, and in his infinite wisdom, he decided last night that ripping paper was the way to wake me up (his other methods include banging on the blinds, etc.). Each time he did, I would swat at him in my half-sleep and try to get him to stop, only to have him run into the bathroom to point out his lack of food, and come back a few minutes later when he saw I hadn't taken his orders and begin ripping paper again. This is why I was awake at 3 am this morning.

So I finally got up and went in the living room and brought his food in and put in the bathroom. I laid back down thinking I would go to sleep. No such luck! The dog for some reason was sleeping at the foot of our bed on the floor wrapped up in the comforter which we have on the floor temporarily because it's so hot. She had made a nest there (our animals have issues!), and had seen me get up and go get the food and go in the bathroom and come back and apparently that was an open invitation to come see me in bed. So then I had our 40 pound dog in the bed with us too and she has been sick lately so I felt guilty about kicking her out. Of course, I could still not sleep, probably something to do with the fact that my cat, me, my dog, and my husband were all smushed in a queen size bed. Needless to say, I was still awake when Austin's alarm went off at 5 am, and I didn't fal back to sleep until about 5:30 for an hour and then had to get up. I'm a little sleepy! ;)

Of course, when Austin gets up, he turns on the TV regardless of whether I'm awake or asleep. I should have done that to him at 3 am!!! I think I sensed something was going on because it was exactly at that time that the explosions had occurred in London even though I didn't find out about it until 5:15 or so. I'm a little worried because one of my good friends from high school (she was my maid of honor in my wedding) is over in London right now studying at the University of London for a summer abroad program in law school. I saw on the news that the tube station that was affected was right by the University of London campus, and I am just hoping and praying now that she was in class or in the dorms when this occurred and not having to take the subway for any reason. I have e-mailed her and am waiting to hear back and will try calling her mom tonight if I haven't heard anything.

Please keep my friend and the many others that are involved in this disastrous event in London in your thoughts and prayers. It is such a tragedy, but I was so proud to see President Bush standing behind Tony Blair this morning along with the other world leaders in a show of consolidated support. I don't think these terror events will ever end, but we must stand strong and try to be aware of what is going on to prevent them the best we can.

I just finished my first cup of coffee to keep me awake today and hopefully after one more or a soda, I can at least function! :)

What I Wouldn't Give..........

2005-07-06T13:54:00.000-05:00

What I wouldn't give to be able to open and honest and vent my feelings, thoughts, and frustrations right now. But fear of who might read it keeps me from doing that temporarily. One of these days, I hope to be able to explain all this mess and get it out in the open and receive the feedback and comforting comments I enjoy. But for now, my lips are sealed, and I struggle with it internally, only able to speak of it in person with my husband or friends yet somehow not being able to describe the intensity of feeling that resides. I am a much better writer than speaker, and how I wish I could write. But for now, the typing must stop until I think of a more positive, unrelated topic to discuss, one which will not jeopardize anything.

Sorry to keep you all in the dark and to be so quick and vague. Take comfort in the fact that it does NOT have to do with my health, my husband/marriage, or my family and friends. Thanks for letting me get this out at least! :)

Torture Devices

2005-07-05T15:25:00.000-05:00

I'm in a blogging mood (don't really have a whole lot else to do!) and thought I would share a warning to those of you that are female out there (and to men reading this and wanting to buy something for their wife/girlfriend)........bras are torture devices meant to bring pain and suffering to women everywhere. Now don't get scared, I'm not joining some hippy revolution of bra-burning or anything crazy like that. I am just annoyed. Annoyed by the fact that bras and panties for that matter are so darn expensive for women. For the cost of two bras and a few pairs of underwear for a woman, a man can get a whole outfit! And not only do they cost a lot but they are not meant to be pretty and comfortable. You pretty much have to pick one or the other.

This weekend I went on a shopping adventure determined to get at least one cute fun bra and then a replacement for my nude-colored strapless that has seen its better days plus a few pairs of cute but comfortable underwear. The first store we went into was lots of $$$. I might add that I haven't had to buy a bra for myself in awhile - either been on a shopping excursion with my mom and therefore reaped the parental plastic benefits or received the sexy kind by way of my lingerie shower before the wedding. I have plenty of that if and when I choose to wear it from all of my wonderful friends, but the sad part is I'm lacking in the every day, comfortable yet look nice kind. So we went to another store. This second store had some bargains - I of course found nothing in the bargain section but found two that seemed reasonable, one with a cute design and the other to replace the one I needed. Got home and put them on and the pretty one has thick straps and not very comfortable even though I only had it on for about 5 minutes. I guess that should have been a warning sign right there! Now today, I have the practical one on and that is cutting off the circulation in my left shoulder, and pushing into my chest like a torture device. I am NOT a happy camper.

Now, I get to go home, search around for the receipt and tags, and at least take the two torturous devices back. The good news is that I found online at the first store we went to a few things that they didn't have available at the actual store and they are on sale and in colors and patterns and things that I like and seem comfortable so I may take that money and try those out. Or I may just wait because right now, I'm not feeling in the mood to deal with any more torture devices!!!

Sorry if this was TMI, I tried to limit the graphic nature, but I had to vent because it's just not fair!!! :)

The Need for More Three Day Weekends

2005-07-05T09:01:00.000-05:00

After having a wonderful and relaxing weekend, I have decided that we need to petition to enforce a four day work week on a regular basis. Having that extra day made all the difference in the world to actually getting some time to relax over the weekend besides just having to run errands and do chores. We had a great weekend, and I'm sad that it's over but at least we only have to work four days this week and then it's the weekend again.

I wanted to start out by congratulating Amanda and Blake! :) That is so exciting!

Now back to our weekend activities.....Saturday we went to see War of the Worlds. I must say that this is a very well done movie in the fact that it is done so well that it makes you extremely uncomfortable sitting in the movie theater. All three of us that went said afterwards that we nearly walked out not because it was bad but just so disturbing and made our skin want to crawl. It is definitely one of those movies that I'm glad that I saw once, but probably won't ever see again. And Tom Cruise wasn't as annoying as I thought he might be! :)

Sunday was great because we got to relax by the pool at Austin's parents' house. The water was warm like bath water, and it was so nice and relaxing. I miss having a pool (we have one in the complex, but I don't really go often because it's always crowded and it's just not the same as having one of your own to jump into whenever you feel like it). We also did a little tiny bit of shopping on Sunday which is always fun. Sunday night, we drove to Addison to watch the Kaboomtown Fireworks. They were great! We were able to come in the back way from our place, found a good parking lot nearby to park in, and sat in the bed of Austin's new truck to watch. They were 30 minutes long and spectacular! Nothing like some good fireworks for the 4th!

Yesterday was back to the real world again, grocery shopping and cleaning/laundry. But we still had a good time, Austin made a great dinner, and we watched all the holiday specials on TV last night! I have to say that I can NOT watch Jessica Simpson while she sings because she is just too spastic and her mouth gets too big, but if I look away, then her voice is not bad! :)

I almost forgot! The air conditioning fiasco! We went out Friday night and had a very romantic evening of putting up heat resistant film on our bedroom windows which helped a bunch. But we have finally complained enough that they are going to put in a second air conditioning unit in our apartment and cut more vents for it. Apparently whoever built the apartments 10+ years ago was cheap and put the smallest air conditioning units and smallest number of vents they could. Since we have a VERY large apartment in terms of square footage, this doesn't really work so well, and this has happened to several other units our size in the complex. They are getting approval as we speak for this second unit which will have a thermostat in our bedroom which will be super great and should cut down on the electric bill and the heat issue. Hopefully they will be able to put it in this week/weekend so that will be great! :)

Other than that, not a whole lot to report. I am counting down the days to our vacation (I tried to put a ticker in but it was too big to fit on the side. So I will post one here and it will stay on the page at least a little while :)

Hope you all had a great weekend and keep on blogging!

Home, Home on the Range

2005-07-01T15:20:00.000-05:00

Sorry that I haven't written since Monday. Needless to say, it's been a pretty boring week, and all I've really wanted to do was catch up on sleep and learn to laugh about the disaster that was last weekend! :)

That being said, our air conditioner has been getting progressively worse yet again. Last night it was 83 degrees in our apartment at 9:30 at night. That is insane considering our thermostat is set at 72 degrees! I understand that when it gets this hot that the air has to struggle to cool, but there is just something not right about it continuing to not cool until about 3 or 4 in the morning when it gets to about 77. We tried calling the maintenance people last night, but of course they wouldn't come because it was deemed an emergency and was after hours so they are supposed to look at it again today. Considering this is like the fourth time we've had to have them look at the air and I REFUSE to pay another $250 electric bill when it's their faulty equipment that is running up the bill, Austin was on the phone to them at 9 am when they opened and he is now on his way back to the apartment since work ended on time today because of the holiday weekend and he is going to give them h*(& until they fix it! :) We're hoping they will give in and just get a brand new one.

Since we have had such run-ins with the appliances and other factors of our apartment, we are even more interested in trying to push for a house purchase (or rental if necessary) in the near future. Our lease at the apartment is up in February so we will be madly looking this fall I'm sure to see what we can find in our price range without having to live in the middle of nowhere and a good house that is new or at least updated and good to live in for the next 10 years or so. I know this process will be tedious and may take awhile so we want to get a head start after the heat of the summer and begin looking in the fall/winter. Because I don't know if I can spend another summer in that apartment! :)

Other than that, not a whole lot to report. We don't have much planned for the holiday weekend other than R&R and a trip to the vet tomorrow morning for the dog to get her annual checkup. Maybe we'll spend some time by the pool, I'm sure we'll catch a movie, and I'm hoping to make some fondue on Sunday night (yum!). At least I will have another four day week next week which will help even though short weeks always seem longer than regular ones for some reason.

Hope you all have a great weekend, and here's to hoping we get our air conditioner fixed before the 100 degree temperatures come back on Sunday and Monday! Happy 4th of July!

One Wild Weekend

2005-06-27T15:00:00.000-05:00

Let's just say this weekend was enough to make me have to take a sick day today because I just couldn't manage to get out of bed and go to work today. For those of you that know me, this is a highly unusual occurrence because I usually use my days off for traveling, not for being sick/personal reasons. But today, I just couldn't muster the courage to go into work and was so beat down that I just had to take another day off! Luckily for me, that means that I will now work three four-day weeks in a row, followed by one five day week, and then I'm off to Port Aransas so that week I only have to work 2 days! Yay for me! :)

I hate to give a play-by-play (and I won't of all of it), but here are the highlights:

FRIDAY:
Our plane was supposed to leave at 7:15 in the morning. We got up at 4:30 am to shower and dress and close up the suitcases. We got to the airport, ate some breakfast, and waited. When it was about five minutes before we were supposed to board, they informed us that the Pittsburgh flight next to us had a plane with mechanical problems and that since our flight wasn't as full and they had easier ways to get us all to DC and no ways to get them to Pittsburgh or make their connections, that they were giving our perfectly good plane to the Pittsburgh passengers and having us wait to see if they could "fix" the plane. At this point, we tried to convince them to go ahead and move us and they denied us. But then Austin went back up there again, and got them to at least transfer us to another flight leaving at 9:25. So we got up at 4:30 for NO REASON and got to sit in the airport for another two hours. Turns out the mechanical problems were that the plane was smoking when it was turned on and having electronical errors. I was glad we weren't flying on that plane. I called Jen to tell her I wouldn't be there in time for the luncheon now and hoped this would be the last disaster. The flight was good, we got in at 1:15 DC time, and headed to get our rental car. You would think that since we were two hours later than we were supposed to be, that our designated car would be sitting there and ready for us. But no, we waited another 30 minutes for our rental car to appear. We took the wrong directions getting into DC, circled the city forever, ended up in the wrong hotel parking garage, and finally pulled up to the front of the hotel. We got inside and after terrible service in trying to check in, we went up to the room. It was supposed to be non-smoking, king size bed and have a mini-fridge with small freezer section for Austin's medicine. It had NONE of the above. I was already tired and frustrated and could get no help, so we decided to call the Marriott Residence Inn right down the street that we had contemplated booking at originally (the first hotel was the one that the wedding block was for) and luckily managed to get the last room!!! We picked up our stuff again, went downstairs to check out and get our car, and drove down to the other hotel. It was BEAUTIFUL. It just opened in January 2005, we had an efficiency suite with full kitchen, hot breakfast buffet each morning, and even a cheaper room rate and parking rate! So we checked in there at 3:45 and had to wait 15 minutes to get our room clean, so we walked to the nearby McDonald's to have a quick snack since we hadn't eaten since 5:30 in the morning and weren't eating until after 7:30 that night. We came back, checked in, threw on our fancy clothes for the rehearsal and headed for the church in Arlington, Virginia where the rehearsal was being held. We made good time, but I still don't know how we got ready that quickly! That night actually turned out great, even though the job I was supposed to do (coordinate the day of the wedding) was taken over by the reception venue coordinator. We had dinner at the Occidental (very fancy restaurant by the White House) which was wonderful, and we headed back to relax at our hotel.

SATURDAY:
We got up Saturday morning, enjoyed a good breakfast, and headed over to the National Mall. We didn't have a whole lot of time, but we walked down the Mall, went in the Smithsonian Castle, and toured the Air & Space Museum. That was about all the time we had, so we headed back to the hotel, jumped in the shower, and got ready for the wedding. It was supposed to take about an hour to drive out to the wedding ceremony/reception location. It took us an hour and 45 minutes so we were later than we planned. I proceeded to try to decorate the place the best I could with what I had and try to put out the many "fires" that were occurring that day. It was an outdoor wedding in a tent, and it was SO HOT! I have no idea how the groomsmen in tuxes didn't pass out. We stayed for part of the reception, but after the weekend we were having and since Jen said there wasn't much else to happen still, we had to get out of there and get some dinner. I would provide more details, but probably better to do that in person if you are interested in knowing. We headed back into town, an hour and 15 minutes this time, and changed and tried to find a place to eat dinner. We finally found something, tried to walk around and see some of the monuments at night, but we were so exhausted and unaware of where we were because it was dark that we decided it was safest to head back.

SUNDAY:
We got up Sunday morning, packed up our bags, went down and had breakfast, and checked out of the hotel. We managed to find free street parking near the World War II memorial and parked there for the day. We walked up to the White House, across to the WWII Memorial, over to the Korean War Memorial, over to the Lincoln Memorial, over to the Vietnam Wall, back into town for some lunch, over to the National Archives, and back to the car. We walked SO MUCH and it was SO HOT. Then we jumped in the car, headed across the river, and went to Arlington National Cemetary. We walked that too, and saw the JFK gravesite and Eternal Flame and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the changing of the guard. We saw A LOT in one day, which was good and made the trip worthwhile, but we have a few more things to see next time we go back. We dropped off the rental car, headed to the airport, had dinner at Friday's, and got on the plane. That plane ride was actually pretty good. We got home last night, and we were so sunburned. Luckily, that doesn't really matter because I have blisters on my toes that are so huge and painful, I still don't know what I'm going to do about them. That is part of the reason I couldn't go to work this morning because I can barely walk. I have one blister on my little toe that is literally as big as the toe. I have never seen a blister so big! I have another one on the ball of that foot and another one on the other foot on a middle toe, but those are smaller at least. I want to cry!

Needless to say, it was a long and crazy weekend. I am so grateful that we have a long weekend again this weekend and this time, I have no plans except to relax and hopefully swim in the pool! I took a ton of pictures and will try to have the energy to upload some of them, but right now I'm trying to carefully maneuver around the apartment so I can do a little bit of laundry and then get to make the dinner before Austin gets home! For once, I will be home before him! Hope you all had a much calmer weekend than mine, and hopefully I'll post the pics tomorrow or so! :)

Bring Some Sunshine into Your Life!

2005-06-23T18:00:00.000-05:00

Here's a picture of my sunflowers that Austin sent me to work yesterday for my birthday! Hope they bring you sunshine too! :) Have a great weekend and talk to you on Monday! Not that it really matters what I say because no one reads my blog anyways! LOL

Happy Birthday to Me!

2005-06-23T08:17:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was probably one of the best birthdays I've had in a LONG time. I was a little concerned since this week has been difficult for me, but it turned out to be great! Despite the fact that we got so busy trying to help meet an impossible and unnecessary deadline and therefore didn't get to eat lunch until 2:45 yesterday afternoon, it was still a good day!

Yesterday morning was rather uneventful. Since we missed lunch at a normal time, we still ended up going, and the girls I work with paid for my lunch which is always a treat. Also, one of them had made cupcakes which we ate at 4. Yesterday was day of eating for me - lol! When I got back from my 2:45 lunch, I had beautiful flowers waiting for me at my desk. Austin sent this awesome arrangement of sunflowers (my favorite flower) to work for me to enjoy. I left them here to enjoy again today and then will bring them home tonight, so I don't have a picture of them yet!

When I got home after work, I walked in to quite a surprise. Austin had snuck away from work early and decorated our whole apartment. There were rose petals all over the stairs and floor (he's got some good flower connections!), balloons, confetti, streamers, and a big Happy Birthday banner.

Plus there was a cute monkey balloon that goes along with my bananas themed post of the other day :)

and a wonderful yummy cake from Celebrity Bakery!

I opened a few presents from my parents and grandmother. Austin had already done enough, but he had that smile when he's trying to hold something back. So then he comes out with this little gift bag. Inside was an awesome tanzanite and diamond ring. I love tanzanite (purple stone) and have been wanting one for quite some time, and he found the perfect one. It is so pertty and very modern looking in design, and I just love it. Here is a picture of it, the best one we could get because the sparkly jewels make the camera get fuzzy or bring in too much light if you use a flash. You'll have to see it in person to get the true effect! :)

Needless to say, I am one lucky woman! We went and had a great dinner at Benihana's last night, my favorite, and I just had one great birthday!!! Now I just need to make it through today, run home and pack, and take the dog to the pet hotel, and we are off on our long weekend adventure to the nation's capitol, Jen's wedding, and a quick vacation!

I will try to take a picture and upload it tonight of my flowers because they are just too pretty not to show also! I'll post this then too, but have a great weekend and see you on Monday! :)

This $%*& is Bananas!

2005-06-21T16:13:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the fake profanity, but I have that Gwen Stefani song stuck in my head, and it's just dying to get out. Things are a little crazy in my mind right now. At least tomorrow is my b-day - woohoo! There is a lot that I wish I could write about, but now it is not the time or place. One of these days, I will be able to spill my guts, but for now, I must hold it all in. So I apologize in advance if my blogs have been kind of boring or short lately.....I'm just dealing with a lot on my plate right now and haven't had the appetite to take any of it on. ;)

What I can say from all this is that I am so grateful that I have such a loving and supportive husband. And while I may complain about them sometimes, my parents are great too! I have good health, we are financially stable at least, and I have a great home and car and food on the table so I have a LOT to be thankful for. If I can make it through this next hour of the day, then I only have 16 more to get through for this week and can take a long weekend in DC followed by a long relaxing weekend at home for the 4th of July. It's the little things that keep me going full speed ahead! :)

Anyways, I guess I'll end my silly little post at that. I hope you all are having a good day, I hope your life isn't bananas like part of mine is right now, and I hope that my spray-on tan that I'm doing this evening turns out perfectly! LOL See you when I'm another year older!

Back to Monday Again

2005-06-20T08:24:00.000-05:00

Wow, I swear the weekends pass by at warp speed, and the weeks pass by so slowly (at least during the day at work). :) Here it is Monday morning again! There are several good things about this week though:

1) Monday - Today is Diana's Birthday! Happy Birthday D! :)
2) Wednesday - It's my birthday! Even though I don't want to get older, it's still fun to have a birthday and get pampered a bit!
3) It's going to be a short week for me - only 4 days because we leave Friday morning to go to Washington, DC.
4) We get to celebrate the wedding of Jen & Bobby on Saturday plus get to visit around DC and enjoy staying in a fancy hotel for two nights (ever since I was a kid, I've loved staying in hotels).

So overall it should turn out to be a pretty good week! :)

My weekend was good although somewhat uneventful. We went to see "Batman Begins" on Saturday night, and I have to say that I thought it was REALLY good. Way better than the most recent installment of Star Wars or any of the previous Batmans. As far as action and story, it's probably one of the best movies I've seen in awhile which is saying a lot because although I will go see them, I'm not usually much for movies based on comics. So I would highly recommend it!

Yesterday we celebrated my birthday, Austin's dad's birthday, and Father's Day with Austin's family. It was great! I got two gift certificates to Express, one to Old Navy, a really cute skirt and matching shirt that I can wear in DC to the bridal luncheon, and another cute top plus a really cute cat figurine. It was really sweet, and it will be fun to do some shopping over the 4th of July weekend!

Guess that's about all for now - hope you all have a good day and keep on posting and commenting to keep me entertained! :) I'm off to plan out what sites we are going to visit in DC and when we can fit it all in!

TGIF

2005-06-17T14:26:00.000-05:00

Not a whole lot to say, but wanted to say hi before the weekend begins. This time next week I will be in the hotel in Washington, DC trying to get ready for the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. Fun stuff! Ah four more days until my mini-vacation! This weekend, we don't have a whole lot planned other than seeing "Batman Begins" tomorrow night with the passes that we got from last Saturday night when we didn't end up going to the movies because Austin wasn't feeling well. Oh and Sunday we are going to Austin's parent's house to celebrate Father's Day, Austin's dad's birthday (which is tomorrow), and my birthday (which is next Wednesday!). So that should be fun at least! :)

Maybe tomorrow I can convince myself to lay by the pool, but that involves strangers seeing me in a bikini which I'm not quite ready for. Need to clean the guest bathroom, do some laundry, and maybe watch "Phantom of the Opera" on DVD because I don't know that I will ever be able to convince Austin to watch it with me and I've been meaning to watch it for like a month now. Father's Day presents are bought at least (and birthday present for Austin's dad) - just need to pick up some cards and a bag to put one of the gifts in but maybe Austin can do that when he gets his hair cut tomorrow since it's by Hallmark!

Hope you all have a great weekend - I wish I had something more exciting to talk about, but it's another long and boring day today! But at least it's Friday!!! :)

Sleepy Times

2005-06-16T08:54:00.000-05:00

I am SO sleepy this morning. It probably has something to do with the fact that I slept horribly last night and several other nights this week for various reasons, and I actually worked out again last night which always makes it harder to get out of bed the next morning. Thank goodness it's Thursday, and I only have to survive today and tomorrow before having a bit of a break. This week has been creeping by so slowly it feels like it's really been about 5 weeks instead of 5 days.

Let's see what's new if anything.....My birthday is now less than a week away, but since we will be going out of town next weekend, we aren't going to be doing much celebrating of it until after we are back and get paid again! The trip to DC is coming up which should be fun, but tiring I'm sure. It is RIDICULOUSLY hot here - it is going to be a long hot summer. Yesterday as I was driving home from work, I passed by one of those temperature billboards, and it said 105 degrees! That is insanity, and it's only June. Usually July and August are even hotter! My allergies are also going crazy due to the fact that we have had high ozone warnings because of the heat and pollution in the area, which makes me have watery eyes, grogginess in the morning, and a little stuffiness. Gotta love it!

On a positive note, Austin's truck is going great. We have our trip to the beach in a month which will be nice and relaxing. And it's Thursday at least instead of Monday morning! :) Don't really have a whole lot more to say but since I haven't posted in a few days, I thought I would check in. Hope you all have a great day, and talk to you again soon!

A Good Weekend

2005-06-13T09:29:00.000-05:00

I will spare you from my usual breakdown of my weekend. But here is a quick recap:

We got Austin's new SportsTrac on Saturday. It's great - I love it and so does he, and we were able to work out great payments for it so it won't break our budget! At least we don't have to worry about it breaking down any more! We also went to see "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" this weekend. I thought it was actually pretty good. Good action scenes, good comedic moments, and you gotta love a happy ending. They make such a beautiful couple! :) I also got a haircut this weekend. Nothing drastic, just a trim so that it wasn't so heavy and long. Hopefully I can try to fix it occasionally now without getting frustrated or having to pull it back into a ponytail every day!

Other than that, not much else to report. The apartment complex won't help with the electric bill, even though it's their fault, but said they would if they could but "corporate" wouldn't let them! Lovely! They suggested that we call the electric company and see if they would knock off some money, but of course, there was nothing they could do about it because they had no knowledge of the situation. Plus, we switched electric providers after that incident because our complex cut a deal with another company for a cheaper price and plus I get American Airlines miles now for our bill, which at least helps a little! So I guess we will have to suck it up and pay this last electric bill to our former company. And start house-hunting so we can get out possibly in February when our lease is up!!! At least a rental house would be better than some of the drama we've faced.

Hope you all had a great weekend. It's almost my birthday and almost time to go to DC for Jen's wedding. :) And then a nice long weekend to relax for 4th of July - yippee! Talk to you soon!

Don't Ruin My Friday!

2005-06-10T10:07:00.000-05:00

Fridays are supposed to be the easiest day of the week. A lot of people will leave early or take the day off or half day off to go out of town for the weekend. Usually you can just get your work done peacefully, counting down the hours until the weekend, and leave for a blissful two days off. However, there are several factors that are trying to ruin my Friday, and I'm not very happy about it!

First of all, I got the e-mail today from TXU saying our electric bill was ready. I was dreading opening it because of the catastrophe of last month's air conditioning mess. It was even worse than I had expected. Our bill usually runs about $100-$150 because we like to keep our air on relatively cool. However, because of the disastrous weekend in May where our air run 24-7 just to try to keep it at 85 degrees INSIDE our apartment, our bill was $247 dollars! That is INSANE! We have the order in to switch companies to get a little better rate, but it hasn't gone through yet and besides there is NO reason that the bill would be that high normally. It has to do with that weekend. So Austin called the apartment complex and complained to see if we could at least get a cut on next month's rent or something since it was THEIR fault it was so freaking hot in there and that it was running constantly. I had told Austin we should shut it off because it wasn't getting cold anyways, but the apartment people had told him that we had to leave it on because if we didn't, it would be even hotter. So we followed their instructions and look what it got us! GRRRR! Needless to say, they are supposed to call him back to let him know what they have decided. At least we tried!

The other thing that is trying to ruin my Friday is the fact that all week I have had NOTHING to do. And I don't mean that I really have stuff to do that is insignificant so I don't want to do it. I mean absolutely, positively nothing to do. There is more to the story, but at the present time, I don't want to explain the details. Suffice it to say, it's been a long, rough week!

Anyways, now that I have vented about that, I will go back to trying to enjoy my Friday. At least someone brought in donuts this morning. Even though I shouldn't have eaten it because I'm trying to tone up. But I'm exercising a lot so I have to reward myself somehow. Have a wonderful weekend if I don't blog again before! :)

Workout Mania

2005-06-09T10:33:00.000-05:00

After spending an exorbitant amount of time during the last two weeks doing deposition summaries for work including extra overtime hours, I finally had a free night to myself on Tuesday. We ordered new videos for our Core Secrets, and so we started the advanced boot camp one first on Tuesday night. It was a crazy workout, and I'm definitely sore but I want some toning to occur before the wedding we go to in two weeks and definitely before putting on a bikini and heading to the beach in July. So last night, I did the "basic" boot camp even though I really didn't want to, and I was already sore and tired. And tonight, I'm going to do the Off the Ball workout for your buns, thighs, and abs. I'm in crazy workout mode, but it feels good! :)

Other than that, there isn't a whole lot else to report. Eight hour days are back to feeling like they are twenty, and the weekends can't come fast enough! Still debating the whole court reporting thing as well as looking into some other options to get me out of my work funk! Things at home are good. I'm looking forward to how happy Austin will be this weekend after we pick up his new truck. :) And to relaxing a bit this weekend so we can get up energy for the next few busy weekends. Hope you all have a great day, and hopefully I'll come up with something more exciting to talk about next time!

I LOVE Technology!

2005-06-07T13:20:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I know I complained a few weeks ago about how expensive it is to go to the dentist, even with dental insurance. But today I realized why it is worth it. The dentist I go to has all these fancy schmancy tools and new technology that help make the whole process a lot less scary and easier to deal with!

I went this morning at SEVEN AM to get my cavities filled. I have never had a cavity in my entire life. I have been giving into my candy craving a lot in the last six months (which will need to be curtailed for the sake of my teeth, wallet, and waistline!), so I guess that was the culprit. I had two small cavities, one on each side of the top of my mouth. I was expecting the worst. I remember hearing kids scream when I was little at the pain of having a cavity filled, and being so grateful it wasn't me. Even Austin and his brother were warning me last weekend that the needle that numbs you is painful and scary-looking and the pressure is annoying on your teeth.

Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised when the whole thing was a breeze. I waited in the exam room for almost 40 minutes which kind of sucked, but at least I was in a comfy chair and could watch Good Morning, America, and a cute interview preview with Brad Pitt. Once the dentist came in though, the whole process took about ten minutes max, and I was out of there and into work by 8:30 this morning. Good stuff! And best of all, I did not have to have ANY numbing needles and there was NO pain whatsoever. Unlike the special cleaning I had to have done a few weeks ago for my gums, there was not even pressure, scraping, or any uncomfortableness. I barely knew anything was going on, except for the whirring noise. It was a little buzzing by my left teeth, a little buzzing by my right teeth, drying out mouth, syringe of white stuff, drying out mouth, use of gadget with blue light to seal the white stuff, and then a repeat on the other side, and I was done.

I was so surprised at how easy it was that I didn't even think it was done until he started to push the button to bring the chair back up and told me he'd see me later and hopefully under better circumstances! Yippee! :) So for me, I guess a little extra money is worth the ease and hopefully with my new flossing and special brushing and gum medicine, I won't even have to worry about that again!

A Quick Wrap-Up

2005-06-06T09:12:00.000-05:00

Since I have been MIA for the past few weeks, I figured I would write a little wrap-up of what has been going on. After tomorrow, things should be back to their normal boringness, so I'm sure I'll be around a lot more!

Our trip to Pennsylvania was great. The weather was so nice almost the entire time we were there. We did a LOT of shopping at the outlets, which was always fun especially since I didn't have to pay for it because it was my birthday present from my parents. I got a really nice rain coat, some shorts and capris for the summer, and some new shoes. We ate lots of yummy food from up there that I miss like shoefly pie and egg custard and chicken pot-pie. We got to visit with my family, the boys got to go skeet shooting one day which they enjoyed, and overally it was a good time. However, when we got home last money at 4:45 in the afternoon, our luggage was nowhere to be found. All three of our suitcases were missing in action. They told us they might come in on the 10 pm flight, so since we live close to the airport, we stopped by to see if they were there and no luck. So I got to go to work on Tuesday with no makeup on! Fun stuff! Luckily, they came in on the 10:30 flight that morning, and Austin's mom and brother picked them up and Austin met them Tuesday night to get our suitcases.

That started off the week as a long one! I had to do a lot of overtime to meet this deadline, and it is for very monotonous, tedious work. Luckily, I've been able to do the overtime from home which helps so I don't have to spend exorbitant amounts of time holed away in my office at work and at least could do my work in my pjs and in front of the TV! Then this weekend, Austin's friend decided at the last minute to fly in Friday night from Lubbock. He has been trying to move back to this area for some time now, and finally got a job offer on Friday to come back. So he should be back by the end of the month which is awesome. However, we spent the better part of the weekend running around looking at apartments in the area for him. Needless to say I didn't get the rest I needed or wanted!

The good news is that we drove out to the car dealership on Saturday to get my CD player replaced (under warranty thank goodness), but ended up not being able to do it. We did however find the exact model, color, style, inside features exactly for what Austin wanted in his SportsTrak so rather than having to wait until the beginning of July like we thought we were going to have to, he will be getting his new truck next Saturday. I can't wait! I liked his truck that he has now, but it's getting old and bumpy and it's big for me to have to drive occasionally. This new one is much nicer, roomier, and smoother, plus smaller so I think it will even fit in the garage which is good in case of storms! ;) I'm looking forward to that next weekend, and I know he is too!

Other than that, not a whole lot else to report....I'm looking forward to some rest although I have no idea when it will come! We are going to get his truck next weekend as I said, so I'm sure that will keep us busy. Then the next weekend is Austin's dad's birthday and Father's Day, my birthday is that week, and then we leave that next weekend for Washington, DC for the wedding. I'm definitely looking forward to that, but that will be a quick and packed weekend as well! :) At least I have no plans so far for the 4th of July long weekend so maybe I'll get some sleep then! LOL. Hope you all had a great weekend, and you'll be hearing from me more soon!

Thank You Jes!

2005-06-04T19:36:00.000-05:00

Yes, I'm pathetic and home on a Saturday night. I actually was supposed to go see a movie with my in-laws, but something I ate at dinner didn't quite agree with me so I decided to stay home. Austin, Joey, and his brother, Ben, went to see Rodney Carrington tonight, so I'm on my own for the evening. I think I'll finally get to pop in the DVD of "Phantom of the Opera" since Austin doesn't really want to see it at least!

Just wanted to write a short blog and send a big THANK YOU to Jes from Just Say Jes for the site design. She did a GREAT job, and I'm so excited to have a fun new masthead and design just in time for the summer. Now if only I could arrange a job where I could sit on the beach and work on my computer all day long! ;) Hope you all have a great weekend and thanks again to Jes for all her hard work and help!

ABCs and Friday Please! :)

2005-06-03T16:15:00.000-05:00

I know that I have neglected you, my faithful readers (not that there are very many but still!). Needless to say, I have been up to my ears in reading and summarizing of depositions. I have finished 8 and have one more to finish up over the weekend and on Monday. My paycheck will be very nice from all the overtime, but it's been a long two weeks!!! I'm about to leave in 15 minutes to give myself an early start to the weekend after all this craziness, but I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm alive and well and I'm sure will have lots to write about next week (update on my PA trip, other info about life, and a redesign coming with the help of Jes!). So stay tuned and have a WONDERFUL weekend.

I leave you with my ABCs, copied from Amanda at Camouflage Lace. ;)

A is for Age - 25 years, 11 months, and 12 days.
B is for Booze - Don't drink a ton any more, but I like frozen raspberry margaritas, amaretto sours, and any malt beverages (Smirnoff Ice, Skyy Blue, etc.).
C is for Cookie you crave - Anything still warm and slightly underbaked! My favorites are chocolate chip and Snickerdoodle.
D is for Dating tip you’d give your son or daughter - You're going to kiss a lot of frogs before you find your princess/prince.
E is for Essential items to bring to a party - good music, good friends, and fun
F is for Favorite song at the moment - Hollaback Girl" by Gwen Stefani
G is for Goof off thing to do - play on the internet, read entertainment news
H is for Hometown - Vero Beach, Florida
I is for Instrument you play - Some piano, played the viola when I was little
J is for Jam or Jelly you like - Grape
K is for Kids - None yet, but hopefully some sooner than later.
L is for Living arrangement - my loving hubby, our cat, Mikah, our dog, Maddie, & 10 or so fish
M is for Mom’s name - Sue
N is for Name of first crush - Lawrence
O is for Overexposed celebrity? - Jessica Simpson
P is for Phobias - snakes
Q is for Quote you like - Dance like nobody's watching; Love like you've never been hurt; Sing like nobody's listening; Live like it's heaven on earth. ~ Mark Twain
R is for Relationship that lasted longest - Austin
S is for Siblings - None, just me! :)
T is for Texas, ever been? - Lived here since 1997
U is for Unique trait - There are so many - j/k
V if for Vegetable you love - Asparagus, broccoli, most veggies are yummy to me!
W is for Worst trait - I’m really bad at saying goodbye and for being too hard on myself.
X - is for Xtra Credit, did you ever do it in school? - Sometimes because I am a dork.
Y is for Yummy food you make - Baked ziti
Z is for Zodiac sign - Cancer

Have a Great Weekend!

2005-05-26T07:53:00.000-05:00

Four more hours of work, and I'm out of here! Gotta run home, pack up real quick, take the dog to the pet hotel, and hop on a plane! Fun stuff! Now if only I hadn't been up all night with indigestion from the Italian food we ate last night! So sleepy - let's hope I can get some sleep on the plane! Have a WONDERFUL weekend and see you on Tuesday!