And Now, Back to Your Regular Programming...

Okay, so Merry belated Christmas and Happy belated Hannukah, folkses.  We had some technical difficulties here on the merry-go-round and then I forgot the computer was fixed and that I was allowed to blog again.  Whoops.

So anywhooo, hope y'all had safe travels if you were on the road, on the sea, or in the sky over the holidays.  Be sure to be careful on New Year's too...all the complete and utter idiots flood the road then.  (Know what I think of drunk drivers now?)

Anybody get any really rockin' gifts?  Okay, I'm sure some of us are more excited about the stuff the kids got.  Well, maybe just me.  See, the Little got a digital camera of her own from the Grampa.  So now I can liven things up here on ye olde blog with the occassional Little-supplied photography efforts, which often include hilarious shots of the Dog's nose (or butt), someone's elbow, or whatever movie she happens to watching at the moment that absolutely must be saved for all eternity.

You may not think they're hilarious, but I'll share 'em anyway.  Neener neener.  Either way, if you have a kiddo who is always clamoring to use your "real" digital camera and they take some pretty cool shots, but you worry about 'em breaking it, fear no more.  I saw a review of the Fisher-Price one Grampa spotted, and it sounded really cool, so when he mentioned it as a possible Christmas gift for her, I said, "heck yeah, go fer it".  Or something along them thar lines.  It's only about $30 and it's made of nice sturdy plastic, and she's already got everything down pat thanks to some basic instruction on our camera already.

Best part: auto shut off.  It turns itself off, thus conserving batteries (which, unfortunately, were not all included).  And it comes with a USB cord so you can upload photos, and come to find out that you can add an SD card in there (originally I thought you couldn't) so if the 50-ish shots available on internal memory aren't enough, you can add more room.  HOW FREAKIN COOL IS THIS, PEOPLE?????

It is tres freaking cool, people.

More updates later...le RugRat really scarfed in seriously cool treasures this year and I have cute stories of the Man playing Santa for the very first time (ie sneaking in with a filled stocking TWO night in a row thanks to a book he bought her called Elf Night -- more on that later, y'all).

Just for fun, here's a couple of the Little's first shots:

This would be the Barbie 12 Dancing Princesses doll my aunt and uncle got her -- aka one of the other incredibly cool gifts she got.  Put on the bracelets and the doll dances with you thanks to computer chips.  Downside: no volume control, and Barbie is not a quiet gal this time around.  THANKS, Mattel.  *sigh*

And this would be the Dog, trying to eat her breakfast the morning after.  Doesn't she look thrilled?  But this picture complies with the family rule of not showing complete faces, plus it makes the Dog look dopey.  Perfection!

Yep, the OB Appointments Went Fine

This week has been absolutely crazy busy, and I am feeling totally bushed again.  I'm surprised I made it through the week, frankly.  But I did.

The appointment Tuesday went really well, other than the fact that I had to have a crudload of blood drawn (my second least-favorite part of pregnancy, frankly; morning sickness would be the winner there).  The nurse that did our intake stuff was super duper friendly, like, incredibly perky, but not quite so perky and adorable that I wanted to shoot her or anything, luckily.  She was really cool, and when I told her that I do have a history of PPD she set me up right then and there for my next appointment with a doc who is not only an OB but also a psychiatrist.  She knew he had one spot left (which was yesterday) and she got me into it right there as we spoke.  That was way, way cool.

So we went in for THAT appointment yesterday afternoon after the Little went to her father and I met with the house buyer to sign an extension on the closing (now no later than 29 December, but hopefully Tuesday or Wednesday).  The doctor was pretty cool and I felt comfortable with him, which is always nice when you've gotta get a pap from him.  (Yay.  Yes, note the sarcasm there.  I made the Man leave the room at that point.  There's certain stuff that just doesn't need to be done in his presence.  Sorry, honey, but that woulda just been creeeepy.)

Anywho, I survived, but my bp was pretty high, so I got to go give more blood (to a vampire who gave me bruises, unlike the guy who took the five vials Tuesday and I barely noticed any of it) and I get to do a 24-hour pee test.  If you come to my house, don't drink from the orange jug, folks.

We headed up to Ikea and got the Little a tea set and other stuff for Christmas that we couldn't buy with her there on Wednesday, and today the Man and his buddy P. built her new bed for her.  Now they are off drooling at the gun shop and she's doing yoga with her YogaKids video, and I am feeling urfy, so here's the end of the post.  ;-P

Y'all have a safe and merry Christmas, ya hear?

Veggie Lasagna Plus Coke...Just Don't Do It

So we headed up to Ikea with the Little today and found her a new bed (which the Man is charged with building this weekend) and while there found all sorts of other wonderful things, including their cafeteria place.  The Man was more than happy with his Swedish meatballs and potatoes meal, but I was, um, less than thrilled with their veggie lasagna.  It wasn't bad, per se, but it wasn't wonderful.

First of all, never in my life have I had a veggie lasagna that didn't still have a red sauce on it until today.  They used a white sauce.  Frankly, it seemed like a cream of broccoli soup as the sauce.  (I say this because I'm also used to big chunks of zucchini and broccoli in my veggie lasagna and this had little weenie snivels of broccoli and no recognizable zucchini.  But then again, maybe I'm just too used to Costco's frozen veggie lasagna.  Could very well be.)

Secondly, there was a crumby topping.  Not crummy as in lousy...crumby as in made from bread crumbs or potato chips or something along them thar lines.  To be honest, as I explained to the Man, the whole thing tasted more of tuna casserole than veggie lasagna.  The Man explained that perhaps they do that because there are Seattle men who truly want meat but their wives make them buy the veggie lasagna because it's, well, "veggie", so the least they can do for the poor fellas is make them think they're getting tuna casserole and some sort of animal (fish) in their meal.  heeheehee

Anywho, so on our way home we stopped at the dealership we got the Expedition at and picked up the garage door clicker I left in my old truck by mistake.  And while I was there I grabbed a Coke from the vending machine.  By the time we made it home, I was feeling, as I like to call it, "urfy".  That's the crappy part of this preggy-go-round session.  I haven't had to get sick as many times as I did with the Little, but those many daily sessions were first thing in the morning.  I finally got to where I'd just go, um, let it go, then I could happily have my breakfast and I was fine til the next morning.

This time around -- not so lucky.  The "morning" sickness starts around noon, and keeps going til I fall asleep.  I've only thrown up, well, 3 times now, but it pretty well keeps me from eating anything decent for dinner because I feel so cruddy and urfy.

Thus we get home tonight and I thought, "Oh, I'll brush my teeth and get ready for bed...that'll make me feel better."

Ummmmm, no.  When I brushed my tongue, I hit the ol' easy gag reflex button and BLEAH.

And the reason you shouldn't drink Coke after eating veggie lasagna (even if it has a white sauce)? 

It'll come up looking like regular lasagna. 

Yeah.

Thought you'd enjoy that one.

You can just picture my Ma running for the hills clutching her own hand across her mouth right this moment, ladies.

But you wanna hear something cool?  The Man and the Little were waiting in the doorway of her room and he had a nice cool glass of water waiting for me.  And he went and bought me some ginger ale too.  And I don't feel quite so urfy since I, um, ejected.

(And no, I didn't close on the house today.  But I called the investor dude and he explained their bank is backlogged with a couple hundred loans, blah blah blah, he wants to meet tomorrow to sign an extension just so we're covered, and he wants to give me a good faith check to prove that they are truly serious and not trying to pull something over.  I'm assuming at this point that it comes off my sale price, that they aren't giving me extra cash just for fun and my "pain and suffering" *chuckle* but hey, we still have Christmas goodies to buy and without the full closing yet, I don't mind getting a wee chunk of it ahead of time.  So cross your fingers, folks, that all this will all be done and signed in the next few days...either Friday or Tuesday would be the best bet, I suppose.  Perhaps those of us dealing with realty stuff should threaten to stuff escrow and banker peoples' stockings with coal to get 'em moving?)

My View of The View

Well, if Rosie O'Donnell's recent forays into making comments that can affect The View's, um, viewership ratings, haven't been exciting enough for ya, check out the latest from Fox about Joy Behar's Hitler comments.  Woowee.  Buncha fun gals they must be.  (Yes, I say that in total jest and sarcasm.)  Frankly I'm glad I'm not into daytime TV or talk shows; I don't think my blood pressure could handle this sorta stuff.

Speaking of my blood pressure, I heard from the buyer on the house today.  Apparently he spoke to their lender and the escrow lady today and both have power again as of about noon, and are supposedly trying to catch up on everything they were supposed to do Friday.  Yippee.  So I was supposed to hear from the escrow lady about an appointment for me to go sign, but haven't yet.  I've got a doctor's appointment tomorrow so I'll call her in the morning.  HOPEFULLY I can head up there after the appointment for, um, the other appointment.

(And is it me or is it totally freaky that I'm eleven weeks along and am only just getting into the doctor's office for an intake appointment?  I'm trying to just be patient and grateful that I have insurance, but this really freaks the daylights out of me based on the treatment (and ease of getting it!) I got through Group Health when I was pregnant with the Little.  EEP!)

The House That Just Won't GO AWAY

So I was supposed to close on the house yesterday. Done.  Finis.

Uhhh, nope.  The buyer called me Wednesday afternoon and told me that there was a problem with the title company.  Everything else was in order, but they were using a different title company than they usually do, because my house is in a county they don't normally deal in, and these people were "working slower because of the holidays".  Frankly, it sounded like that was his polite way of saying that they are bumpkins who are dragging their footsies in the mud. 

SO closing was delayed until today.  And all was well as of 7 pm last night, when he left me a message that the title people were finally done and the escrow lady would have everything ready for me to sign this morning, and she'd be calling me to set up a closing time.  YEAH BABY!  *Happy dance*

Enter yet another wonderful Washington wind storm.

So I tried to call the escrow lady about 15 times in the past hour, and I keep getting a bs recording from the phone company saying that "due to a high volume of calls" my call cannot be processed at this time and I have to HANG UP AND CALL AGAIN LATER. 

*Cranky dance*

So I emailed her, because after calling my Ma, I learned that people all over the place lost a crapload of power last night (all we had was a ton of flickers; shoot, I was just happy that the cordon bleu I actually cooked last night got cooked, then I was more than willing to lose power).  My grandparents have been out since 8ish last night, my folks have been without since almost midnight...I had no clue. 

And now I hear that King County is the hardest hit, which is RIGHT WHERE THE ESCROW OFFICE IS.

Can you imagine how irritable I am right this very moment?  (That would be because I just tried to call her again and got that same bloody stinkin blinkin rassafrassin message.)

Calgon, take me away.  Oh and it just figures I'm preggo and can't nurse my bad attitude with multiple Jack and Cokes.  Grrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Can we just SIGN ALREADY????????

This is my karma for laughing at the Ex's crappy love life, isn't it?

~~~It's almost noon and I finally was able to get through, but got her voicemail.  I left a message...let's hope she gets it!  The Man came home right after I wrote the initial entry and said that one of his coworkers has a relative in that area and they are supposed to be without power for THREE TO FIVE DAYS.  No!  No!  NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!~~~

OH My...Holly Hobbie

So the Little and I were flipping channels and I put on Nick Jr. for her.  Then Holly Hobbie came on.  Since she hasn't seen it before I left it on, which is saying something since at the beginning there was a horse manure incident and comments about burping carols.  Hmm.  Right up the Grampa and the Man's alley. 

Anywho, the show turned into a big Christmas spirit thing with Holly finding out that one of the families had lost a father the year prior and now the mom was raising twins alone.  And of course, had pretty much no Christmas spirit this year.  (Golly, been there, done that, 'cept I wasn't a widow.)

Now of course it's a kids' cartoon so there was a totally happy ending through which I did NOT cry.

Really.

Seriously.

Okay, I'm lying.  Shut up.  But it turned out to be a cute show.  Catch it on re-runs if'n ya can.

Okay, Grab Your Depends, Ladies

Because I have figured out a way that I know, for a fact, I am married to one completely, utterly, totally, insanely Manly Man.

Dude was standing here in the living room talking to me earlier this evening and stopped, mid-sentence, to pass quite the fart.

Then he sat down, and AS HE DID SO, actually STOPPED SPEAKING long enough to take a nice big sniff of his masterpiece to make sure it was, um, adequate.

Oh MY WORD.

People, I practically pissed my pants.  Chuh.  Seriously.

And then I very promptly informed him, "I AM SO BLOGGING THAT!!!!!!!!"

And of course, I have to hold true to my statement, right?  That way you can share in my pain.  Joy.  Whatevah.  Considering we had Taco Bell for dinner last night, I'm just glad he was aimed AWAY from me.  *PHEW!  There is a God!*

Sexy Moms Smell Like Jolly Ranchers

Okay, maybe not.  We'll see what the Man thinks when he gets home -- if he even notices.  LOL  It's just that the Little has this Wild Watermelon shampoo and it smelled good when I took a shower (ie I felt pukey and I smelled it hoping to distract myself and it worked) so I used it.

So pardon me if I smell like a watermelon hard candy.  It was that or spill my guts, so to speak, in the shower.  heehee  Instead, I've spilt them here, in the figurative sense, just to share one more of those weird little things pregnant women do (and then promptly blog about like morons).

My New Baby

No, not the one in the oven...that one won't be here til July.  LOL

But with one on the way, we were in the market for a larger truck.  I had an F-150 regular cab, and the Man had a Ranger, when we, er, blended the family.  But with only three seats in mine and two in his, we'd have a heckuva time fitting another carseat (or baby bucket, as his friend B. has gotten me in the habit of calling 'em) into the scenario.  Originally I was pretty set on an F-150 SuperCrew (for those who aren't avid truck fans, that'd be a pickup truck with four doors, folks), but then started considering the Expedition as well when we started discussing how much I loved the 2002 Explorer I used to have.

Soooo anywho, we've been wandering lots and discussing and researching on Ford.com and so on and so forth for a while now, and Saturday we headed to yet another dealership in the area to check out their stock since nothing has really thrilled either of us so far.  (There was one Expedition that was in the running a week or so ago, but it wasn't "the one", frankly.)

Long story sorta short, my truck is now gone, and here's my (okay, our) new baby:

So, I Watched Nip/Tuck Last Night...

For the first time ever, unless you count like 2 minute snippets (no pun intended) while I've been flipping channels at other times.  And wowee, what a, um, interesting show.  Oh sure, the pregnant woman has to pop into a show where a little kid is abducted, by a) his lousy bio mom or b) an evil doctor who wants to illegally harvest his wee organs (specifically his kidneys).  So, did I stick around to find out what happened?  You bet yer bippy. 

Come to find out evil doctoress was formerly a madam...for the soon-to-be adoptive mother of the kiddo.  Wowsers.  I suppose those of you who have actually seen the show before coulda told me that.

So, can you do me a favor and explain what "church" the former porn star (now pregnant married lady who finds her sex life boring but apparently slept with her husband's fathers...which the Man had to explain about the "fathers" issue too) and her beloved belong to?  Is this like an L. Ron Hubbard/Scientology/lashing out against Tom Cruise deal?  If so, it's quite interesting, though I think South Park does it with a smidge more fun. 

Then again, I think South Park might be able to make a darn fine remake of this Nip/Tuck episode.  But people like me would be REALLY lost then!  hahahaha