Sick sick sick...(18w.5d)

Ugh, I hate getting sick. I can handle an allergy attack...much prefer those, since I just take some claratin and a nap and I'm good to go. But this...this sucks.

I started in with a sore throat as I was falling asleep Monday night...figured it was still some post nasal drip from an allergy attack on Saturday, no big deal. Woke up yesterday, and my throat felt like it was on fire! That was pretty much the only thing going on...but I should've taken a clue, since I wanted tea instead of coffee. Anytime I actually *want* to drink hot tea, I am most definitely getting sick. It's like my body knows that cold fluids aren't going to be well accepted. Anyway, at the end of the day, I had the whole body aches, chills, and a low grade temp - even with Tylenol in my system. By the time I got home, I felt so horrible, I sat on J's ottoman and just cried for a while. He finally put me in the bathtub and said a few things that made me feel better about calling off work today.

So now I sit here at home, burning 12 hours of PTO that I really can't afford to burn right now...waiting for my momma to bring me my family's traditional "sick time" foods - egg drop soup and 7up. She's also bringing me popsicles, mucinex, milk, and steakum for J's supper. I think she misses taking care of me when I'm sick. I've always been the really independent one in my family, and the only time I ever really let her baby me was when I was sick. Then I got married and moved out...and the few times I've been sick since then, she stepped back and let J do the babying.

Baby-wise, everything seems to be going well. I started feeling movement at night when I'm trying to sleep a couple weeks ago, and last Friday started feeling it a little bit during the day. Ultrasound is in 3 weeks, and I can't wait. I will be absolutely shocked if this is anything but a boy, though! I've been feeling boy pretty much since the day I found out, though I did have a spell of wishfully thinking it might be a girl. J's rooting for a boy (to carry on the family names), as are both his grandfathers and my grandmothers. Anytime I see either Pop Pop, first thing they ask me is "How's my great-grandson doing??" LOL I think Poppop K would have the big one if we have a girl - they haven't had a girl in 6 generations!

I haven't been good about taking pictures so far, either. But there's not much growth to document right now, unless you want to see how much my chest has expanded!! I'm now in an "E" bra, and even that feels tight on my bigger breast. Thankfully I found a website last year that carries weird bra sizes, and has an awesome return policy. Only trouble is they're in the UK, so if something's the wrong size, it'll take a while to get it exchanged. But I managed to get three decent nursing bras for about $50 including shipping, which is less than my mom paid at Motherhood Maternity's "buy 3 get 1 free" sale in August, and I didn't have a salesgirl telling me to buy the wrong size.

(True story - I KNOW my bra size, and the girl at MM told me I measured 2 band sizes too big and a cup size too small. I just looked at her and said "I need XYZ size right now. How is my cup size going to go DOWN in the next several weeks?")

Anyway, I should get moving here. I want to at least attempt to move the mound a dishes from one end of the counter to the other so it doesn't look quite as messy when my mom gets here...

blah...

This weather has me so blah feeling...I hate when its nice for a day or two, then right back to cold. I haven't done anything today and it's already after 12 (?!?!), mainly because it is just too darn cold to get out from under the covers!! Ah well..

So pregnancy so far in a nutshell:
My boobs hurt.
Sleeping less than I was at first, with occasional lapses (waking up between 7-8 again, though I usually fall back asleep until the room warms up more around 10) Yesterday was really weird, though. Got up around 10 (after 11 hours of sleep, mind you), did stuff around the house and went to my appointment...fell asleep on the couch around 7:30...got up around 10 to pee, crawled in my bed around 10:30, and slept until just after 9 this morning. Seriously...I am so tired of sleeping all the time...
Belly's finally started to pop a little. Everyone keeps saying how little it is, but it feels huge. I can see it under my baggier t-shirts now, which is kinda weird. And the only jeans I own that still fit comfortably are these stretchy old-lady-ish ones I got at walmart a while back.
I am terrible at remembering to do belly shots. Maybe I'll get J to do some this weekend if we get bored.

Heart rate was 160 at my first appointment...and 154 at this one.

Oh, and I did the intelligender this morning just for kicks...came up pretty positive for boy. We'll see...I know at least one person that definitely had the opposite of what intelligender said...

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: