Soo...it's been a while...

Life kinda gets in the way of things, doesn't it? Don't worry, I'm not dead...I just have been so exhausted and limited on energy/inspiration these days. Why's that? Well...we had a little surprise hit us the end of last month...

Yup, Baby K will be joining us end of March/beginning of April next year. Quite the surprise, as we had just started talking about TTC after the new year (and I was on the Pill). Guess The Bean (or Whozits, as my mother calls it) knew we were ready for him/her.

So far I've been pretty lucky. At first, I could sleep 12 hours, take a 3 hour nap, and go to bed at my normal time and still sleep 12 hours. I'm slowly getting over that point, though I still have days where I can definitely nap, and J definitely knows better than to try to get me moving before I'm ready on the weekends. I've also been blessed in that I haven't really been sick. The first two weeks after I found out were pretty interesting, as it seemed I had to eat every hour or I would feel nauseous. Now I can go a couple hours in between snacks and meals, which is great since they generally frown upon eating snacks at the nurses station... The biggest complaint I've had so far has actually been belching - every time I eat, my stomach feels so swollen and I belch for hours. Not cute ones, either - the nasty rips that bring back the flavor of whatever I ate last! (TMI, I know - but it's true!)

Sorry, I know I'm jumping around a lot, but my mind is so scattered lately...I need to grab a shower soon - J is coming home from work early, and the doctor's office is supposed to call in about an hour to start the health questionnaire before my appointment in two weeks. So, I leave you with the first official belly pic of the pregnancy.

8 weeks, 5 days. Already uncomfortable in my jeans, and busting out of bras bought three weeks ago.

Belly already?! (I can assure you this is not bloat. ;-] )

I'm thinking...

a 365-day challenge based solely on pictures is just TOO MUCH for me to do!! At least at this point in my life...

So I'm going to steal an idea from justduckea at Grumpy Bear Lair - a 30-day challenge involving more writing than pictures. That's a little more my style anyway lol.

Soo, here's the revised list:

Day 01- A recent picture of you and 15 interesting facts about yourself
Day 02- The meaning behind your Blog name
Day 03- Look up your horoscope for today and explain how accurate it is
Day 04- A habit that you wish you didn’t have
Day 05- A picture of somewhere you’ve been to
Day 06- 5 things you need to say to 5 different people
Day 07- A picture of someone/something that has the biggest impact on you
Day 08- Short term goals for this month and why
Day 09- Something you’re proud of in the past few days
Day 10- Something you can't seem to get over
Day 11- One of your favorite memories
Day 12- A quote you live by
Day 13- Name 5 things from your 'wishlist'
Day 14- A picture of you and your family
Day 15- Put your iPod on shuffle: First 10 songs that play
Day 16- Another picture of yourself
Day 17- Someone you would want to switch lives with for one day and why
Day 18- If you were in a fire and could only save one material possession what would it be?
Day 19- Favorite quote from a book
Day 20- How would you like your life to look in 10 years
Day 21- A picture of something that makes you happy
Day 22- What makes you different from everyone else
Day 23- Something you crave for a lot
Day 24- The last dream you remember having
Day 25- What I would find in your bag
Day 26- Top 10 favorite movies of all time
Day 27- Your favorite quote about friendship
Day 28- A picture of you last year and now, how have you changed since then?
Day 29- In this past month, what have you learned
Day 30- Your favorite song

That being said,  I'm going to skip day 1, since I did that with day one of previous challenge. so tomorrow starts day 2 :)

Another random fact, I get easily bored with things that take too long. Hence why I have such a hard time finishing big crochet projects and have all but given up on knitting...

Just a quickie...

This is going to be a semi-quick one, since I'm expecting J home in about 45 minutes and I need to finish supper...

The deck is finished!! J and his dad finished it over Memorial weekend, and we had it decorated by the end of the following week. It just needs to be stained yet, but that will have to wait a couple more weeks until the wood finishes drying out. It's suck a nice feeling to be able to hang out on my deck at the end of a bad day at work...only problem is, as much as I love the LOOK of my table and chairs, but backside goes numb about 20 minutes after I sit down. :-/ I also was hoping to have room for a bench or "sofa", but the grill J is looking at is so huge there is no way I'll have room for that. Oh well. At least it's pretty.

The front room is also almost finished. We had a long talk with my mother-in-law last weekend about what I wanted to do in that room as opposed to what J wanted to do. The biggest problem has been that my tastes are so varied that if we put everything I like in there, it would completely clash with both itself and the rest of the house. So we finally came to a decision with what we wanted to do, the look we were trying to go for. We hit Big Lots the next day, and found the perfect sofa at a steal (about $1000 new, and we paid $300). We also found another Broyhill table exactly the same as one that we have in the living room for $40, which I just HAD to have (we paid $150 for the first one last summer). I love me some Big Lots... :-) Now I just need some new bookshelves, a big comfy chair, and some paint. I also have a large granite-topped table from my MIL that I'm debating if I can put in that room.

Well, I better scoot. I still have to boil corn and make potatoes to go with dinner (first ever attempt at spare-ribs, done in the beloved crock pot), plus I've been cleaning all day and need a shower before the boss gets home. (Why yes, I am totally still in my nightgown - why do you ask? :-P)

Side note, Logan came through surgery like a champ! He is still his crazy little self, and destroyed a pair of Daddy's flip flops the other day, but as long as there's nothing out that he can chew, we are able to leave him out when I'm at work. Yay!! Also, no more pillow-humping! :-D

Playing catch up...

I am sooo bad at this blogging thing. I think part of my issue with keeping up with this has been that up until lately on my days off all I did was run from one thing to the next. I would sleep late, spend a few hours shopping (spending money I shouldn't on things we don't *need*), and get home just in time to start supper before J gets home. Then J lays claim to the computer for the evening...and you see where this is going. So went my days off for quite some time. And then...

Yep, I'm the country girl. Grand total of the damages to the Jeep: $2400.

All I wanted was $20 worth of gas to hold me over until payday....and we ended up with $6,000 worth of repairs (both vehicles combined). Thank god J has a friend whose father owns a collision shop only a few miles from here...and that he's in network (or whatever they call it with auto insurance) with our insurance provider!! J was able to get our $1,000 deductible cut in half for the claim (and in half again for any future mishaps), and I was able to pick up overtime to help cover it. We even ended up paying only about half of the deductible because the insurance paid him for a tire we didn't need. So all in all we ended up only paying about $40 more than our current deductible!!

That was enough of a money scare to get me to start spending more time at home on my days off though!! So hopefully I will have more time to keep this updated...

All right, enough about all that, here's the skinny on what's been going on lately:

1) I made whoopie pies for the first time.  They ended up very...interesting to say the least. Not at all soft, and kind of chewy. Thinking about using a pastry bag and piping the cookie part instead of scooping it as they ended up very rounded and not very whoopie pie-ish...

the first complete whoopie pies...

you can see how well these are going to sit when they're stacked...not.

Apparently they tasted just fine, since the ones I took up to Mom's disappeared within a day or two...and most of the ones I kept here disappeared within a week or two.

2) I decided a white bathroom was just too cold feeling and painted it warmer. (lol) It's bad enough that the bathroom at my parents' house could fit in my current bathroom twice - the white walls, white ceiling, and no decoration made it seem sooo much bigger and colder! So now we have this beautiful maroon color in the bathroom:

first coat. and yes, I did paint AROUND the shower bar and curtain. It was a pain to put up with two of us; I was NOT taking is down alone!

second coat - and no paint on the curtain!

finished. J picked the mirrors on one of our "dates" at Lowes

 I forgot to take a picture of the print J hung on the wall at my side of the sink after this photo was taken. It's a pretty flower in this neat Oriental-looking frame that we picked up at Big Lots (love that store!). It fits nicely above the towel bar just beyond the left edge of the picture above.


3) Logan has developed a jealousy of my many yarn projects. Before, it was just that he was curious what I was doing. Now, if he wants my attention and I'm crocheting (or knitting, though I so rarely do anymore), he was climb in my lap, sit on whatever I'm working on, and paw at my neck while licking me incessantly until I make him get down. I have tried petting him for a little and then going back to my work, but that only irritates him enough that he will tap dance on my bladder and neck until I have to push him down for hurting me!

The face of innocence...the pillow on the left could be the one he ate...

 He has also started chewing again...flip flops and couch pillows beware!! I seriously cannot leave any shoes other than boots out, nor can I leave any throw pillows on the couch when we leave him out while we're gone. I've lost several pairs of flip flops, and several sneakers and sandals have been damaged lately. I also may have lost one of the throw pillows that came with our sofa...I haven't had the heart to assess the damage to see if it can be reversed.

But he is sooooo cuddly in the mornings! Every morning he greets J with a happy wiggly bottom and a toy in his mouth...and if I am off, as soon as J is dressed he jumps up in bed with me, where he happily snuggles until nature calls and he gets me up for the day.

 

Next week he goes back to the vet to be neutered and micro-chipped. I'm hoping that will help with the slight tendency towards possessiveness he has been showing with me (and the chewing!), but we'll see...

 4) J and I celebrated our first anniversary a little over two weeks ago!! I can't believe a year has gone by already...and this time last year we were settled in at his dad's house waiting for this house to be built...what a difference a year makes! The day before we went to the long-awaited wedding of one of my friends from work (congrats again, Mel!!), then skipped the reception for our own dinner at Texas Roadhouse. Sunday (our actual anniversary) we left early and spent the morning at the National Aquarium in Baltimore. :) I love the aquarium...unfortunately I don't have any pictures since we forgot the camera and my phone was dead, but I DO have a picture of the top layer of our cake that Mom kept in her freezer for us!

 5) I had told J a while ago that I felt uncomfortable knowing that there was no way to prevent someone from coming in the house through the basement window. (I know it's unlikely in our neighborhood, but still.) So one day while I was at work, he bought and installed a locking doorknob on the basement door! Such a wonderful husband...

He also installed new hardware in both bathrooms for me...

the towel ring in the hall bathroom...got the picture at Shady Maple for my birthday

 6) Started the deck!!!! Lots of rain recently, so it's going sloooooowly...but it's going! J and his dad are hoping to pour more concrete in the footers tonight, but by the sound of the rain outside, I highly doubt it.

 

7) Work in progress updates:

This got frogged...

...and got turned into this.

Clockwise from top: finished and gifted, finished and kept, frogged and yarn in the idea pile, finished and gifted

Clockwise from top left: frogged and yarn in idea stash, frogged and redone/kept, frogged and restarted as granny squares, frogged and yarn in idea stash

 

Christmas present in progress...using homespun yarn in five or six dye lots

another Christmas present in progress...this was a twice-frogged project...using Red Heart in white and three blues

granny square lapghan in progress for Grandmom

some kind of kerchief thingy J asked me to make for his lightbox...going VERY slowly...(I hate how slow knitting goes!)

8) FINISHED!!

Bear caps, diaper cover, granny square baby blanket."Baby shower in a bag" gifts for Jill at My Journey to Mommyhood

The granny squares from the first WIP photo. Birthday/Christmas gift for Missy K at Missy's Thoughts & Blurbs

9) I finally decided what I'm doing with the front bedroom...updates and pictures to come...

10) I have TOTALLY not done anything I said I would from my last post...except trying to keep up with my sleep!! And you know what? I am feeling GREAT! Only thing I'm really doing different is giving up doing overtime, and started resting during the day when I'm home. And that helps.

I think that's about it for now...hopefully I'll have some pictures of an actual deck frame next time...and some finished projects! (and that it won't be 4 months before the next update!)

photoimpression fun

I usually end up using either picnik or photo impression for my photo editing (mostly because I'm cheap they're free and easy to use). This is one I took of Logan on our walk Friday SOOC:

Then I opened it in photoimpression, auto-adjusted the levels, cropped, and dropped both the saturation and the brightness and ended up with this:

Definitely like the cropping, but can't decide how I feel about the saturation. Maybe a little more color?


linking up for "show off your shot friday" here:

New year, new diagnosis, new decisions

2010 was the ride of a lifetime. It was one of the craziest, most emotional, most life changing year I've experienced in this lifetime. I married the man I truly believe I was made for. We bought, built, and moved into our first home. We brought home a puppy, who has become such a huge part of our lives, we sometimes forget we didn't always have him. I brought home and "A" in a psychology class that I barely participated in around wedding planning, working out the house, and working full time. I survived my first year of 12hour dayshift.

But I'm not gonna lie.

Not all of it was amazing.

My relationship with my mother went through such an upheaval that some days I thought we'd never speak again after I moved out. By the time my wedding day came, I was so tired of planning and thinking and stressing that I basically just endured the day. (The photographer captured some of that in at least one shot.) Between a bad cold and a concert in the city, Valentines day was a disaster. We came home from our honeymoon to my father-in-law's house, where we lived for the next two months.

And then there were the physical things, bot pre and post wedding. I could wake up one morning feeling fantastic. I'd get my laundry done, run some errands, spend time with Jason, do all kinds of things around the house, and feel good. The next day, I couldn't move. I'd sleep until 10, barely get moving, maybe take a nap in the afternoon, and go to bed early. Everything hurt, pretty much all the time. Even on a "good" day I'd feel tired if I stood still too long. And not just your normal "oh, you've been working too hard" tired. No, this is your "I haven't slept in 24 hours" kind of tired. A tired that doesn't go away when you wake up in the morning, no matter how long you've slept. I had chronic sinus infections. I had mood swings like crazy! One minute I'd be laughing, then next I would literally be crying or screaming. And forget about a sex drive, since every intimate touch sent me through the ceiling in agony.

So we did bloodwork. Maybe I was anemic. But no. CBC was completely normal, despite the fact that I foolishly had it done in the midst of Aunt Flo's visit. We did allergy testing. Big surprise, dog and cat dander came up high, along with several different grasses and molds. So I started on allergy meds. We checked thyroid levels, since hypothyroidism runs in my mother's family. That was fairly normal, but we started a low dose of meds just to be sure. After a couple weeks I felt even worse and took myself off them. After some research, I thought maybe it was the birth control I had changed to, and we switched me back to one I had been on previously. That helped with the mood swings, but not much else.

So more bloodwork. Another CBC. Another thyroid panel. Then an Epstein-Barr titer. Bingo!! Positive! We finally had an answer.

Apparently, the Epstein-Barr virus is connected to several diseases, including Mono and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS). Through process of elimination, my doctor has diagnosed  me with CFS. Thankfully, it's only a mild case. I've been reading stories of people diagnosed with CFS that can't get out of bed for days at a time, and barely have the strength to get from the bed to the bathroom. (For more information on CFS, check out the CDC's case definition )

So now that we know what's going on in my body, how am I going to handle it? I bought two books off Amazon last week (you can find them here and here ). The first one arrived the other day, and I devoured it in about an hour. The author had lived with CFS for a couple years, and beat it. I'm waiting till the other book comes, but I think I've got a handle on what I need to do.

I hate new year's resolutions, because you're basically making promises to yourself you're going to break by the end of April. So along with my "treatment", here are my 2011 decisions

• Stay hydrated. I am notorious for being chronically dehydrated, which contributes to my sinus issues. To make this realistic, I've decided to drink at least six 6-oz glasses of fluid a day. This makes it easier for me to measure my progress, as the "fruitables" and juice boxes I've been packing for lunches are approx. 6oz each...get 6 of those down during a 12 hour shift is mentally a lot easier than trying so suck down one huge 32oz bottle! 
• Have some salt One of the points I read was some CFS-ers tend to have a drop in blood pressure when they stand up, and that their blood pressure tends to drop in the afternoon. My goal is to get down some kind of tomato-based juice (which is actually pretty high in sodium) in mid afternoon when I start feeling the late day drag, and see if that helps.
• Better diet! Diet plays a role in recovery from CFS just like any disease. Hubby has been encouraging me to create a diet for him so he can shed some excess baggage, and the Flat Belly Diet really seems to be something that would work for us. My decision is to follow the recipes from the (3) cookbooks I got as much as possible, and to cut down our eating out to once a weekend instead of most of the weekend.
• Exercise This one actually isn't too hard to follow, and actually helps my symptoms! I received a stationary bike as a birthday present, and my mother-in-law recently gifted us with her old treadmill. These are set up side-by-side in one of the spare bedrooms, and on the days I'm off Jason and I spend half an hour on them after supper. As long as I'm on the treadmill more than 4 hours before bed, I actually sleep a little better.
• Have some "me" time" My parents gave me a gift certificate for a massage for Christmas, and my hope for the year is to set a little money aside each pay and go for a massage once a month.
• Finish the projects! For each sewing/knitting/crochet project I want to start, I must finish at least two that I currently have in progress. I have entirely too many projects in process (more than I had shown previously!), and keep starting new ones! My hubby says I have an obsession...I'm thinking he's right.
• Clean out the closet, decorate the haven My closet is such a sore spot for me...I just have no inspiration for how I want it to be set up. It tends to be the place where hubby throws stuff when he's trying to straighten up when someone is coming over unexpectedly...and it shows. So that needs some organization. Also, my big project for the spring is to finish decorating our bathroom, since that's really the only room left to do.

I'm sure I can think of more, but I think this is enough for one year and budget!!

Frustrated....

I'm a little frustrated right now...I originally started this blog so I can leave comments on my friend's pregnancy journey blog, but I have tried several times without success the post!! I'm hoping that by creating a post I'll be able to post comments...