Oh yeah, that blog thing

Haven't been very wordy recently. With Jamie gone to Europe (YES EUROPE - WITHOUT ME), I've been carrying both our shifts at work and things have been, needless to say, busier than normal. In addition to working for two, this was the first week back after our national conference, which automatically denotes extra time-filling things to do and more distributor activity. And on top of that, the holiday weekend is coming up so today we're closing early (YAY) and we're closed Monday, so there will be plenty of backed up work waiting for me when I get in on Tuesday...which of course is a short day for me on account of a Dr.'s Appointment. Basically, I've been running around with scarcely time to breathe this week at work.

And loving every minute of it.

Not that I don't miss Jamie, I do. But being so busy all the time has been fabulous. Although it has left me with little to no time to do some things I'm accustomed to doing during the downtime at work...like write in my blog. Hence the silence over the past week.

I also have not had time to respond to emails and phone messages the way I would like. Little one-liners here and there to the mortgage broker are about all I've been able to manage. Speaking of mortgage though, looks like we'll be getting our beloved house afterall. And possibly a new roof, but we won't know about that for a few more days. We're shooting toward a closing date of June 10, which I know will be here faster than we can say "TOO MANY BOXES."

Ah, the one part of moving that I wish would just disappear. The actual MOVING part. Packing, stacking, moving, unpacking, and looking for all those things you desperately need that somehow ended up in one of the Miscellaneous boxes but you have no idea which one.

The amount of personal property we own gets drastically reduced every time we move. If we can't remember the last time we used it, it gets tossed. If we can't find an appropriate box to put it in, it gets tossed. If we figure we could get along without running to the store to replace it, it gets tossed (even sometimes if we know we will have to replace it and just don't like the look of it). Anything to cut down on the number of boxes we haul from one location to another. Oh, and if we haven't unpacked it since the last time we moved, yeah, it gets tossed.

June is going to be a very busy month. Between working, moving, painting (as soon as we know what color to paint the nursury, which we will hopefully find out at the Dr. Appt. on TUESDAY!!!), planning a bridal shower for my best friend, and the general myriad of other things life throws our way, we think the month will pass relatively quickly.

Kind of like this week has.

Neverending Story

In retrospect, this has been a very busy week, as evidenced by this being the first blog I have written since Saturday. Here's a brief overview:

Sunday: After much searching, finally found another house we are interested in. Our only concern is the size of the house - only 1800 square feet. The house we were trying to purchase before was 2100 square feet, and we really liked that size. This new house is a one-story with lots of upgrades and personality though, so we guess it's a tradeoff.

Monday: Started all the last-minute projects for the upcoming work conference on Friday/Saturday. Why is it so impossible to plan for a major conference earlier than the week of, so that we're not all RUNNING AROUND LIKE PSYCHO CHICKENS trying to throw stuff together? WHY?
Any free moments today and for the rest of the week are devoted to setting up my new OFFICE - YES, OFFICE! I somehow managed to convince Boss Man (the "NO" man) to give me an office instead of sitting out front in the middle of the chaos. Still not sure how I managed that...I broached the subject in hopes of introducing it merely to begin the long road of pursuasion. Had no idea that the resistance period would only be about 20 minutes before a "Yes" was delivered my way. This was a good day.

Tuesday: Another busy day at work. We really do prefer busy. Felt the baby kick for the first time. Very weird. Like a twitching stomach muscle...except lower. Checked out the one-story again (among others) and decided to make an offer the following day. Speaking of the "others," here's another tip to add to the "How not to sell a house" list: Don't let your teenage daughter answer the front door in her underwear and tell us that despite the fact that we had called ahead to schedule a viewing, we can't see the house because it's still being painted.

Wednesday: Finished conference preparations and devoted the rest of the day to preparing, moving into, and shopping for my new office. Stopped at Target after work for some decorative additions. Met with real estate agent to draft up contract on new house, only to find that he had recieved a call from the agent of the previous house, letting him know that the seller was more seriously motivated to sell the house now and was entertaining offers in the range we were discussing when the deal fell through before. Previous house has now been renamed "Neverending Story" house because it just doesn't go away. A brief synopsis of the 3-week period in which we already pursued this house:

• Found the house, knew it was perfect, told everyone it was my dream house. Planned to make an offer the next day.
• Discovered house was already under contract.
• Found out contract fell through.
• Made an offer (a very GOOD offer, that most sellers would have taken flat out) but was informed that other offers were coming in same day.
• Seller picked our offer, but countered...with stupid things that were really more insulting than anything else.
• We countered the counter to make sure we were still getting our money's worth.
• Seller accepted.
• Found out from our mortgage broker that the house would not appraise for what we offered.
• Tried to lower the price with seller so the deal could still go through.
• Seller declined lowered price offer. Deal off.
• Seller put house back on the market at higher asking price - significantly more than the maximum amount the house would appraise for according to two appraisers.
• We started looking elsewhere.

But it's the only house we've found so far that was an immediate "yes" for us because it has absolutely everything we're looking for. And suddenly they're willing to be reasonable again. Wrote offer for Neverending Story house instead of new house.
Good News - confirmed that Mom doesn't have cyst or cancer, which was one of several possible causes of recent abdominal pain. Endometriosis is the current most likely diagnosis and may require surgery. This may be poor timing, as parents are scheduled to go to colorado next week and Greece in June. She is seeing a specialist tomorrow for full diagnosis.

Thursday: Waiting to hear back from sellers. Will be a long day. Bosses and distributors are busy at conference, so no business coming through. Probably won't hear from sellers until tomorrow, as has been the case in the past, despite the fact that response deadline is tonight.
More good news - Mom doesn't have endometriosis either. Looks like medicatable diagnosis for 2 ailments that are treatable without surgery. Very thankful.

See - told you we've been busy this week!

And then...

I'm watching my husband and brother take turns fighting mythical monsters in the sewers of Athens. And after seeing a woman fall off a rope seven times and fall with a bloody splat to the ground below, I'm wondering why a video game character who can defeat a Harry-Potter-esque serpent and run circles around minotaurs and medusas can't break a 95-lb woman's 25-ft fall. Athens' only hope indeed.

But anyway.

I got a lesson in motherhood last night. J plays softball with the fellowship group team, so I went to game to - you know, be supportive and stuff. I ended up co-babysitting a 7-month old belonging to two parents in our group who were also on the softball team. I learned how to apply orajel to a teething infant's gums (and what it feels like when that infant then grabs my finger and begins chewing on it). I also learned that it is a physical impossibility to watch a softball game while caring for a somewhat fussy baby. And that no amount of gum-numbing or walking or bouncing will satisfy an infant with a dirty diaper. A hint of what's to come, I'm sure.

I also won my first group game last night at our small-group gettogether. It was one of those "how well do you know people" games in which you have to guess "if so-and-so were an animal, what would they be?" I should mention here that I probably know the least about other people in our group, because J and I are relatively new and some of these people have known each other for years. So it was all the more satisfying to win. Obviously, I have an uncanny ability to analyze people I barely know. Obviously.

Yeah, this is a pretty boring post. but it's almost midnight and I'm tired, and frankly can't remember what I sat down to write about in the first place. Call it pregnancy insanity. So have a little boring until I figure it out. Good night.

To Stand or Not to Stand

Sunday was Mother's Day. Because of this, a debate ensued in our household over the prior two weeks revolving around whether or not I would be standing up when the pastor asked all the mothers in the congregation to stand.

J's position was that a baby that exists, whether in the womb or out, has to have a mother - and as such, I should stand up on account of the fact that I AM that biological mother.

My position was that Mother's Day is to celebrate those women in our lives who gave birth, sacrificed, loved, raised, and cared for a child as only a mother can. Since I have done none of these things, I am no more worthy of Motherhood recognition now than I was a year ago.

The argument progressed, each side holding firmly to their beliefs and determined that the other was simply ignorant, stubborn, or trying to be difficult. Others had input into the situation, and supported one side or the other, but neither party was willing to budge.

The clock ticked away until we were at last in that service awaiting the call to "stand."

And then it happened. Or rather, didn't happen. For the first time since I can remember, I attended a Mother's Day church service where there was no call for the mothers to stand. Thus rendering all heated debates entirely superfluous.

Mais c'est la vie, n'est pas?

Holy Mother of Chocolate

We did a massive deep cleaning a week ago because J's mom is visiting for an extended weekend. And I truly mean that our house has never been so clean. Not that you can tell, because we have one of those houses that looks the same after you clean it as it did before and can amass a thick layer of dust on the table top the day after you dusted the entire house and cleaned the vents. And the day she got here, I was already spot-vaccing little dust bunnies that were floating around the kitchen floor. Spot-vaccing, mind you, the DAY AFTER I HAD DUSTED AND CLEANED THAT FLOOR LIKE IT HAD NEVER BEEN CLEANED BEFORE. There is an injustice there, I tell you.

Anyway, the reason for such cleansing - albeit relatively pointless - was not just for the sake of being gracious hosts...trust me, we're not that good at being hosts. The main reason was simply that the MIL is acutely allergic to dust. And pet dander (did I mention that we have 2 cats and a dog and IT'S SHEDDING SEASON???). And perfumes or scents of most any kind. And shellfish. And car fumes (for which she has a handicapped parking permit that we get to use while she's here - SU-WEET). Oh, and she's hypoglycemic, has a malfunctioning thyroid, battles motion sickness and mercury poisoning and has currently been placed on an "all protein, and non-starchy veggies" diet by her doctor. And has to take upward of 30 pills daily, along with liquid supplements that have an aroma resembling turpentine.

The point of the above paragraph was not just to make you wonder why the good woman is still alive (and make you think twice about complaining about those crooked teeth or contacts). The real point was to point out the irony that this weekend, it was my mom, rather than my MIL, who had some sort of a blood sugar episode at dinner on Mother's Day. Kind of like watching a marionette when somebody drops the strings.

Anyway, our non-professional diagnosis is either hypoglycemia or diabetes, and if those are indeed the choices, I think we're all hoping for the hypoglycemia for one reason: CHOCOLATE.

A little history here. My mom, for most of my growing up years, had an allergy to chocolate that resulted in a life-threatening migrane upon consumption. If you've never heard of a life-threatening migrane, here's how it works: Mom succumbs to the temptation and eats a total of 2 M&Ms. Subsequently, she gets laid up in bed with a migrane and any child caught playing too loudly has his or her life severely threatened. Further infractions on the 2-decibel noise limit will result in penalty of death, several times over.

Sometime between my last years of highschool and going away to college, Mom was suddenly cured of her disabling allergy. Thus, chocolate was reinstated in it's previous most-favored-food status and continues today to be found in little stashes around the house.

Enter pre-dinner blood-sugar-attack yesterday. I have a feeling that if diabetes is in the diagnosis pot, the doctor will undoubtedly mention something to the effect of sugar limitations...i.e. CHOCOLATE LIMITATIONS.

And suddenly we will be dealing not only with the original illness, but a gross onslaught of severe depression because seriously, what woman could have chocolate taken away from her TWICE in one lifetime???

PS: Reading through the house entry I just linked to made me smirk. I'd forgotten about the statement on the timing of having children. Ha. Life is a big fat joker sometimes.

Gewwwwwwwgle

I have officially had two people find my blog by doing a Google search for "ewwwwwww"

That is too cool.

Hope the food is good

Somebody found my blog by doing a Google search for "dietitions involved in jamies school dinners." I do believe that's the most random search result I've ever gotten.

Several people have found me by searching for the "Cantoni Cuddle Lounge" or for "Labhaoise pronunciation" but those make sense. I can't think of a time when I've ever discussed Dietitions or Jamie's School Dinners.

Go figure.

Bill of Health

Had another doctor appointment yesterday. No ultrasound, whereby J was acutely disappointed.
Apparently I'm healthy in all regards, except that they've discovered that I'm not immune to German Measles.
And I thought those blood tests had anything to do with the pregnancy.
So, if you have German Measles, stay away from me. Fair warning. There must be at least 3 people on the planet with German Measles, so I'm covering the bases here.