First Ultrasound

Today we had our first ultrasound. After sitting for an hour in the waiting room, we were finally called back to an exam room where we got to sit for another half hour. I did get the chance to inform my doctor of the uterine septum that was removed during my surgery last October, which placed us in the high risk category and instantly placed us in the c-section category.

I asked what my counts were from my second round of blood testing and my HCG counts went from 227 to 1,997 in the span of four days. My sweetie secretly hoped that would mean we had multiples, and couldn't wait to get into the ultrasound just to see how many babies were in there. We finally got into the ultrasound room and got to see our little Baby Bean. Sorry sweetie, there is only one. It measured at 8 weeks, and the heart was beating strongly. Of course my eyes welled up when my doctor pointed out the little heart and when she zoomed in so I could see the baby from crown to rump. Then she turned on the sound and we got to hear the heartbeat. I totally started to cry when I heard that.

The baby is developing well and looks perfectly healthy so far. We have pictures from the ultrasound, but our scanner met with a glass breaking accident tonight, so I am unable to show off the first pictures of our Baby Bean.

As for pregnancy symptoms, I really don't have many. The biggest problem I have is that NOTHING sounds good, so I constantly have to try to find things that don't sound disgusting. My girls are still a bit sore and getting bigger every day, a symptom neither of us minds one bit. I have also started to get a little bit of heartburn, and have been a tad more exhausted than normal. Overall I have no uncomfortable complaints. My mom said if I haven't had morning sickness by now, she doesn't think I will have any. I'm hoping the next four weeks are just as smooth sailing as the past six have been.

Our next checkup for Baby Bean is in two weeks. I am hoping they won't need to take another five vials of blood at that appointment like they did today. I also think we're going to get more checkups than a normal pregnancy because we were placed in the high risk category today, which I am completely okay with. The more opportunities I have to see my baby, the happier I will be.

It was just so amazing to see that little baby inside of me today. To realize that everything we've worked so hard for over the last two years is finally happening for us. I loved seeing the little head and arms and legs. Its crazy that the baby is so tiny, yet you can make out all of the limbs. Just keep growing little Baby Bean!

And the car? It turned out to be corroded battery connectors, and sweet $50 repair. I was elated to hear it wasn't anything bigger or more expensive.

I will sleep soundly tonight having seen my baby and knowing that my car will start reliably again for some time. :)

Aaargh!!!

I am on strict orders from my supervisor at work to take things easy and to not stress when possible. My car has decided that it apparently not only doesn't like Texas, but that it is also against the anti-stress rule. Since last August my gas mileage has steadily been dropping from 32 mpg to 25 mpg and still dropping. I had my car tuned up before we moved, and the only time it made a difference was on the drive here. It got the best gas mileage of its life at 40 mpg. Of course, we dropped over a mile in elevation and had excellent tail winds almost the whole way here. Somehow, we only had to fill up once and drove over 1,300 miles.

The past couple weeks at work I've been asking the car guys on my team what could be causing my gas drop. I finally got sick of the low mileage and took their advice and bought some new spark plugs. My sweetie changed out the old ones on Thursday, which really didn't look that bad, for some pretty nice $10/piece spark plugs. I thought for sure my car would appreciate the gracious gift. But alas, it gave me a sweet slap in the face on Friday afternoon when I got in to go home from work and the car would not start. My first thought was, "Are you kidding me?!" Luckily the car guys on my team were still inside at work, so I went and got them to come take a look. I was trying really, really hard to keep my stress levels low, but the whole time I kept thinking, "This damn thing is going to have to go to the shop and its going to cost me $2k. I just know it." We found a set of jumper cables, and tried to jump start the car. Nothing. As the car guys sat around, looking under my hood and trying to determine the problem one suggested we try to jump it again with a different car battery, so another willing person hooked me up, and my car started. Hopeful that it was only the battery, I thanked everyone from the bottom of my heart and drove home to get my sweetie and head to the auto store.

The sales person at the auto store determined it was the battery, so we purchased a new one and the sales person changed it out for us, but not before losing her wrench in the engine block of my car. So the three of us stood outside in the glaring sun, temps pushing the high 90s, searching under my hood for the missing wrench. Again, not helping the stress levels. After about 20 minutes, it was spotted and removed. The battery was installed, and the car started successfully the first time. I was hopeful that it was JUST the battery and that I would not need to find a mechanic yet, but I had a nagging feeling I had just seen the tip of the ice berg.

Yesterday we went to a matinee and then had an early dinner afterward. We got into the car after our meal, and again, the car would not start. So much for not stressing. "Warning! Warning! Stress levels at an all time high! Tears on the verge of spilling over!" Luckily I am a manual snob, so after a few tries we were able to pop to clutch and get the car going. Once we got home and turned it off, however, it would not start again. I am sure it's just the alternator, but there is one thing that is weighing heavily on my mind at this point. My last car had the same problem at the same age and around the same mileage. The alternator was replaced only to go out a few months later. It was replaced again, only to go out again a few months later and over 100 miles from home. Again, it was replaced only to go out again a few months later. That time it was replaced and promptly traded in for my current car.

I realize that my current car is one of the three best made cars in the country, and the chances of me going through four alternators before trading it in are slim, but I can't help but worry. I don't want to chance getting stranded somewhere while I'm pregnant because my alternator keeps going out. I don't know what the chances of going through multiple alternators is, but having been a victim of it before, I am very leery. I have tried really hard over the last 36 hours to not worry about it, but every time I tell someone my car wouldn't start, I have to choke back the tears. Perhaps its partly pregnancy hormones, and perhaps it is part jaded from my previous car, but I still fear my options if this car decides to go lemon on alternators.

The other thing that just plain sucks is that tomorrow is our first ultrasound, and now my sweetie will have to come get me from work to take me to my appointment, rather than meeting me there. He will also have to take my car to the mechanic and I will have to try to hitch a ride to work from a co-worker who may or may not go in at the same time as me or leave work at the same time as me. Ugh! I freaking hate my car right now! I just want to go kick it repeatedly for letting me down during a time when I need it to work the most.

New Blog Title

I have decided that since my blog appearance recently underwent an overhaul, it was time for a new, more creative name as well. Therefore, I have renamed my blog, "Patiently Waiting." I chose this title for many reasons, the first being that there are so many times in my life I sat, patiently waiting for the next step to begin. I waited to turn 13 so I could begin middle school. I patiently waited for the three years of middle school to pass so I could graduate to high school where I knew I would spent the three best years of pre-adulthood. The phase where you are almost an adult, ready to take on tid bits of responsibility, but virtually carefree for a few more years. I waited to graduate from high school, and then patiently waited out the last two agonizing years of college. After college, I patiently waited for my sweetie to come along, dating loads of frogs along the way. After I met Mr. Perfect, I waited for a year for him to propose, and then waited for the wedding day. The past two years we have patiently waited to become parents, and now we will patiently wait out the next seven months while little Baby Bean grows and thrives in my tummy.

The title seemed so appropriate for all of life's experiences, and it also serves as a reminder for me to just be patient with life. I'm not always patient, and in fact am the kind of person who when I decide I want something, I go get it. I don't typically wait a few days or research it online, I just go get it. I am sure I will need to be reminded many times over the next few months that I just need to be patient and relax a bit.

So if you please, I have changed my title to serve as a memory and a reminder. :)

Fabulous 100!

This is my 100th post, so I thought I would do something a little special. Since we recently found out that I am pregnant and due to the slumping economy, all of our house projects have been put on hold for a while. Luckily we got all of the biggest and most important things done.

We did discover this month that a 2300 square foot home also comes with large utility bills. Our electric bill for last month by itself was almost $400. Yeah, we about died. This weekend we went to the home improvement store and bought all new compact fluorescent, energy saving bulbs as well as heat blocking window tinting for the windows on the front of the house. The only projects we'll be forking money over to work on in the next few months will be to help lower our energy bills, such as putting in spray-in insulation in our attic.

I have put together a fun little slide show highlighting the before, during, and after pictures of our house. I hope you all enjoy seeing this as much as I enjoyed making it. :)

Adjusting

It has been almost a full week since we brought little Sadie Roo home, and it has been a very adventurous one for everyone involved. The first few days and nights were rough, but we came to the realization that we now live on a quarter acre lot and while we are housebreaking Sades, there is no reason she can't be out in the back yard during the day to prevent in-crate accidents and constant howling and wining. She was born outside and lived her first 6 weeks outside, and so wants to be outside most of the time anyway. So to keep everyone happy, she now gets to spend a few hours during each day just running around the back yard, sleeping under the porch, playing in the grass, and doing her "biz" whenever she needs to. Then she gets to spend a few hours in her play pen where her crate is located. Hubs says she will spend almost all of her time in her crate all on her own. I'm glad that she realizes her crate is her safe place and willingly goes into it.

Yesterday I noticed that Sadie had some blood mixed in with her "leavings". I had a kitten once that had the same problem, and after running a whole slew of tests, it was determined that his problem was just that he had an irritable bowl. I didn't know if Sadie had the same problem, so I called the breeder today to see if he had known if any of his other pups had had this problem. Much to my dismay, he got defensive with me and proceeded to tell me that Sadie had never had diarrhea when she was living with him. I beg to differ! He pulled her out of her pen the day we picked her up COVERED in diarrhea. He handed her to me covered in crap so that my arms ended up being covered in crap until we bathed her. Then she had diarrhea in her crate on the way home. Needless to say, his attitude made me slightly angry. Don't freaking lie to me and think I am stupid enough to believe it when I've seen the truth with my own eyes. Not only that, but I didn't call him to accuse, only to ask if he had seen the problem before.

I called a vet this morning and got her in this afternoon. They ran a bunch of tests, all of which came back negative. She is running a slight fever, so their best guess is that she has some kind of virus or bacterial infection. She is now on three different oral medications for the next 10 days. Poor little sweetie.

Maggie is not adjusting well at all. The only thing she will do is hide under our bed. She wants nothing to do with the puppy and nothing to do with us either. She refuses to come when called, and when she does she will come part way, stop, wait for you to command her to come again, come part way, stop, wait for you to call her.... this goes on for way too long. She feels that she does not have to obey Hubs or me. Not only that, but she has barely touched her food and refuses to go to the bathroom if the puppy is outside. I realize her world has been VERY traumatic the last 4 months, so I am very patient with her and am trying really hard to figure out what I need to do to help her confidence levels. I make sure she gets her own mom time, and we snuggle all night long now. I did notice a vast improvement today, however. Hubs put both dogs out for a few hours, and when I came home tonight Mags didn't tuck tail and run when I started paying attention to the pup. She actually came over and socialized with us. She didn't run away from the puppy when Sadie affectionately nuzzled her.

I knew the first week would be the hardest, and I knew I would be glad when it was behind us. I was right. Its only going to get easier from here.

Recommendation

After getting little to no sleep the last two nights, I have a recommendation to anyone considering getting a puppy: don't take home a puppy that is not at LEAST 7 weeks old. If I had had a choice in the matter of Sadie's age, I would have left her at the breeder for another two weeks, but he was adamant that he wanted the pups gone by 6 weeks of age. I am really regretting not telling him we could not pick Sadie up until she was 8 weeks old.

I became painfully aware during her first 24 hours in the house that her puppy brain had not yet developed to the point where I could do much with her besides listen to her endless yelping and howling at all hours of the day. She is too young yet to understand any kind of reprimand. She is at an age where she is more curious and wanting to explore than she is fearful of anything. She is also at the age where puppies learn by playing with their litter mates what type of biting is acceptable and what type is not, meaning she gnaws on anything and everything she can get her little mouth around. My hands are all scratched up because of her biting milk teeth. I finally got to the point where I pulled out a bottle of Bitter Apple dog spray that I bought when I first got Maggie and then never needed and dipped one of my fingers in a capful of it. Sadie did not appreciate the taste at all when she next tried to gnaw on me, which I was really glad to see.

We have come to the realization that the next week or so could be rough with this young pup until her adult brain really starts to develop. I know it sounds sad, but I am looking forward to when her fear stage kicks in at 8 weeks so that we can begin bonding and I can begin training her. There really is a big difference between a pup that is 6 weeks and one that is 8 weeks.

Maggie tries to tolerate the pup as best she can, but even she gets fed up with the constant whining and biting. Whenever Sadie starts to cry, Maggie picks up and leaves the room. I got her to rough house with Sadie for a little bit tonight, which was really fun to see. She is definitely jealous of the pup and guards me with her life. She shows her possessiveness by sitting in my lap or touching me constantly with a paw. I do encourage her to rough house with Sadie as much as possible.

The best advice I have received so far was to put a ticking clock next to Sadie's crate. Apparently it soothes the pup and reminds her of her mother's heartbeat. I gave it a whirl today, and I have been absolutely amazed at how quickly Sadie hunkers down when I put her in her crate with the clock ticking away on top of it (thank God!). I just hope it proves to be as effective tonight while I'm trying to catch some much needed sleep.

I know I am not supposed to compare my puppies, but my first two border collies were a walk in the park compared to this pup. They never howled and whined and they never chewed on anything that didn't belong to them. I attribute most of this to Sadie's young age, and I just hope that I'm right.

For now, this frustrated pooch mom is signing off while the pup is sound asleep in her crate.

Welome Home Sadie Roo!

The 7+ hour day is over. Whew! We left this morning around 10:30 to go pick up our little Sadie Roo. The breeder told us it was okay if we brought Maggie, and I am so glad we did because I think it really helped keep Sadie's trauma level low on the way home. We got to the breeder's around 2:00 this afternoon, and were taken back into the kennel where my sweet new little pup was sleeping soundly in a mess of puppy crap and pee. Oh yeah, she smelled fantastic! I did have one little surprise, however. I paid $500 for a red and white Border Collie puppy, and to my surprise, my pooch had been upgraded to a rare tri-colored pup! The red and white BCs are already rare among their breed, but the tris are even more rare, and so cost twice as much ($1K!). Alright then, I'll take it!

We were at the kennel for about an hour while the breeder gave Sadie a quick flee bath, a set of shots, and a list of do's and don'ts for us. He seemed really pleased with the knowledge I already came equipped with, and said that I was asking all of the right questions, in the right order, and split seconds before he went into the topics on his usual "new puppy owner" shpeel. He did give me a few pieces of good advice that I had not thought of before though.

After Sadie's flee bath, we took her to meet Mags. Maggie wasn't quite sure what to do with the pup at first, but a few seconds later went into displays of dominance, which is exactly what we wanted to see. We let the two romp around the breeder's office while he got Sadie's pedigree and shot records all taken care of, and about 20 minutes later we were on our way home.

Sadie braved the car ride extremely well. Her and Maggie spent about the first hour of the car ride licking each other's snouts through the crate, until Sadie got tired, curled up, and went to sleep. Maggie followed suit. About half an hour before we got home, Sadie started to whimper. I looked back into her crate and realized she was doing the "I've gotta poop!" dance. A few seconds later, we were driving down the freeway with all four windows down looking for the next exit.

Sadie seems so tiny to me, and I can't believe that the breeder thought she was ready to be separated from her litter, but there isn't much I can do about it. I think the next two weeks are going to be really hard for me while her little brain is still developing. House breaking is going to be a little tough since when I try to scold Sadie for going inside the house, Maggie thinks SHE is the one who is being scolded and she thinks its the puppy's fault, which means she doesn't dare go near the puppy afterward.

Maggie has absolutely established her dominance, and once she felt like she had made that clear, she felt free to play with the puppy. She spent the first part of the evening playing interception between the puppy and me, but she seems to be adjusting to her enough to romp with her and drench Sadie's head in her saliva whilst doing so.

The next couple of weeks should be interesting, and I am just praying that Sadie is as easy of a puppy as Maggie was. I hope she trains quickly and easily with very little direction, and I hope her barking and howling are at a minimum to keep her on Hubs' good side. For now, she is fast asleep in her crate, and I hope she will sleep for a good long time yet so I can catch a few z's myself.

Below is a short little video of the two pooches hitting it off. Enjoy!

The Results Are In

I want to start out by saying thank you so much for all of your congratulations on our exciting news. I also want to give a special thank you to my friend Mrs. La La from Crowded Uterus Syndrome for the plug on her blog. I have never had so many comments on any blog post before. Thank you to all of her lovely friends for stopping by and offering up congrats. Each and every comment brought a smile to my face.

I do want to clarify one thing before I go any further. I realize in my last post I mentioned that I had given up hope of ever being a mother when I got my positive pg test. I don't for a minute think that is the reason we conceived. I know it was because my surgery 7 months ago was finally a success. I also can't help but wonder if our baby is a little boy who takes after his daddy and just didn't want to show up until he could be conceived and born in Texas. :p

I FINALLY got my lab results back today. I was supposed to go to the hospital on Saturday to get my second set of labs done to ensure my counts were rising properly, but the hospital wouldn't draw my blood because my doctor didn't put on her order "for diagnosis of pregnancy." I called her office first thing Monday morning to find out what I needed to do, and by 3:00 that afternoon they still had not returned my call. Frustrated, I called her office again, got the run-around, had to call two different offices a total of three times, and finally was told to schedule a follow-up appointment for Tuesday.

Tuesday was not any less frustrating than Monday, however. The nurse kept asking me why I was there, even after I told her three times because I had a positive pg test. She didn't understand why I would have needed my blood drawn the Saturday before. She even had my labs from from Thursday in her hands the whole time. Then it finally dawned on her that I had told her three times I had a positive pg test right there in their office the week before. Duh! When the doctor came in she asked about my symptoms and how I was feeling, and then ordered the blood work that was supposed to have been done over the weekend. This frustrated me because I now had to pay $35 to get my blood drawn when I wouldn't have had to pay for it at the hospital, and I felt like my time away from work was a waste. I did take away some good news from the visit though. My progesterone count was 51, and she said they wanted to see above 15. My HCG was 226, which was indicative of being 3 weeks along.

When I left the doctor's office on Tuesday she told me that they would have my results back by the next day, and that if I didn't hear from them by Thursday to give them a call. Frustrating! Of course I didn't hear back yesterday, and my hopes were not high that my phone call would be returned today, since they never bothered to return my call on Monday. But a couple hours after I left a message, a less than excited nurse called me back. Her tone of voice sent momentary panic through me because I thought she was going to deliver some bad news.
Then I realized that is just the way she talks. She told me that my counts had "gone up appropriately." Yay! I wanted to ask her what my counts were, but didn't dare because she didn't sound like the most friendly person. She transferred me to scheduling, and I am now all set for my first ultrasound on June 3o. :D

As for pregnancy symptoms, I hardly have any. My girls are still sore and starting to swell, which is the biggest symptom (and my favorite!). I haven't had any morning sickness. I still have bouts of dizziness every now and then. I was always tired before I got pregnant, so its hard to tell if I'm more tired now than I was before, since it isn't uncommon for me to slip out to my car for a 15 minute nap at work every day. I have actually felt pretty good, which concerns me at times, but I guess that isn't uncommon.

In other news, we are less than 48 hours away from going to get Sadie Roo. I got a call from the breeder this morning confirming our pickup for Saturday. We spent tonight cleaning up as the final preparation for her homecoming. Her crate is all set up and waiting, complete with pink pooch towel. I promise to take loads of pictures and put together a little slide show ASAP to show off our little ball of fuzz. :)

Well, now I'm off to see where Mags got off to and get ready for bed. :)

Surprise of All Surprises! (A MUST read!)

I don't even know how to begin this post, but it is most definitely one of the most exciting things I have blogged about yet. I have been mulling over how I would word it, how I would start it out, how I would break the news for days now, and I still have no clue how to do it. There are just no words to express the excitement in our little home right now. Perhaps I will use a picture to tell what is going on. Please excuse the fuzziness, but it is apparently difficult for any camera to zoom in on the key feature of this photograph, but I am sure you will all get the point.

That's right friends, the one who 100% completely gave up hope of ever seeing such a message from a long-time hated enemy has finally seen what I thought I would never see in my lifetime. I am pregnant! :o

Apparently the dizzy spells I had over a week ago were brought on by implantation. I wondered at the time if that was the cause, but as a very skeptical infertile who had completely given up on the possibility of motherhood, I chose to believe it was a strange format of migraine. When the dizziness didn't cease by the following Tuesday, I made a doctor appointment and point blank refused to take a pregnancy test when she suggested it, even though my monthly visitor was a day late, and she's never late.

Then on Thursday I had my first appointment with my new OB/GYN, to which I made Hubs go. I had set up the appointment a month ago after I spotted an entire 7 days before my unwanted visitor showed. So when I informed her that AF was now three days late, she of course wanted to do a pg test. I told her flat out no. This was after I had given her my entire IF history, so she was very sensitive to my emotional needs, but asked me three more times if I would please take a pg test. I finally relented, but mostly because I did have to pee really bad. A few minutes later, my doctor came in, leaned over me, and whispered in my ear, "It was positive. You're pregnant." Of course I instantly began to cry, and looked over at my sweetie for his reaction, who was still quite skeptical, as we have had a false positive pg test at a doctor's office before (I couldn't see a line, on the false positive test, but the nurses swore they could).

My doctor and her nurse told me the line was faint, but it was absolutely there. I asked if they were sure, because I had been told that once before. Then I asked to see the test. The nurse happily brought in my test, and sure enough, the pink line WAS there. I spent the rest of my appointment in a fog while my doctor talked to me about blood tests and prenatal vitamins. I just couldn't believe it. When I left her office I called all of my family members to break the news, and of course I cried every time I told someone new. It still wasn't sinking in at this point, however. I don't think it really sunk in until yesterday morning when I got up and took my first home pregnancy test just to confirm the positive result, and sure enough, it came back Pregnant.

Over the weekend the idea has slowly began to sink in. Today we headed over to B&N to buy the book, "What to Expect When You're Expecting" and the new "Eating Well When You're Expecting." The most interesting thing I read so far is that your 9 months begins at your last period, which means I am considered already a month along. The only symptom that is lingering is the sore, swelling "girls." The dizziness subsided after my doctor appointment on Tuesday. I have been a bit exhausted, but that is pretty normal for me. I don't have morning sickness (yet), but I have had some slight cramping. I had a tiny bit of spotting after my exam on Thursday, but that has subsided as well.

The next few weeks will be interesting since we get our puppy this Saturday. I have done almost everything I need to to prepare for her homecoming, but I still need to clean out the puppy crate and get it set up. I purchased a few toys for her, and have all of the other essentials like tag, collar, and leash. I ordered her and Mags a bag of locally made organic dog food, and it showed up on Friday. I guess I am more ready for her than I feel like I am.

The most interesting part about all of this is that I honest to God gave up on ever being pregnant, and now here I am, encouraging my little poppy seed to grow and thrive. What an amazing surprise for our family.

Sweet!

We finally received a real offer on our town home, and are now officially in escrow! That's right folks, we've had two house payments for a couple of months. We received two offers a couple of weeks ago, but both of them were ludicrous. The first offer was from a man looking to screw someone over, and he pretty much offered $20k BELOW our listing price. He wanted us to pay closing, give him down payment assistance, replace all of the carpeting and fixtures in the house, remove the hot tub, and made up some stupid thing about the counter in our kitchen being loose. We pretty much told him he could stick his offer where the sun don't shine. A day later we received another, almost completely similar offer from a young couple. The only exception was the complaint about a loose counter. We told them that we did not accept their offer either.

Hubs was starting to feel a little frustrated and like maybe he should just accept any offer just to not have to pay two mortgages. I told him just to hang on, and that the right offer would come along soon. A couple of days later we received another offer, and after a few days of going back and forth to slightly modify the offer in a way that will make the lender happy, the offer has been accepted! I just hope that we make it through escrow and to closing day. It would be so nice to not have Hubs stressing about the lack of money and to not have to worry about selling the place anymore.

Below are a few pictures I took of the town home in the last couple of days we were there. I realize the place is messy, as we were in the process of packing, but keep that in mind as you peruse our old digs.

I loved this kitchen and its wonderful maple cabinets. I would take this kitchen over the cheap POS that is my new kitchen any day of the week. *sigh*

This was our dining room. It is packed with all the stuff from my previous job and the last of my things from my parent's house.

This was Hubs' old office. I would like to say it is a mess because we were moving, but it pretty much always looked like that... from the day we moved in a year and a half before. *giggle*

This was my "purple" room, also known as Maggie's room, and my little brother's room. It made me sad to take the bed apart and leave this cosy room behind. It was my favorite in the house.

This was our room. I hated the blue paint, but Hubs wouldn't let me paint over it after we moved in because he said I picked that color. I might have bought the paint, but it was NOT the color I chose.

And of course this is the backyard that we spent weeks relandscaping last summer. I did have a hard time leaving all of that hard work behind, especially all of the plants that I had grown and nourished until they were covered by snow in the winter.

This was my little veggie and herb garden. It was just a very soothing backyard when we were done with it.

Mags sat proudly in front of her favorite backyard box after the planting was finished.

Last, but not least, was our 300-gallon fish pond where all 22 of our fish froze to death over the cruel, biting winter months. You can see three goldfish in the middle of the picture toward the top. I loved those fish.

But now this house will belong to someone else who will make it their own. I am sure they will love it there as much as we did, and I love imagining the wife spending time planting her own things in the garden boxes. They are also moving in next to some of the best neighbors we ever had. I hope they love the house as much as we did, if not more.

Its a Hard Life, But Someone's Gotta Live It

Anyone want to know what I did for work on Monday? Now I know you all do, so here are a few pictures of how hard I worked.

This is what I got paid to do. Sit on a two-story party barge filled to the hilt with food and float around on the lake all day.

I am kinda thinking this job move was a really good choice for me. What do you think? Can you see all of the food on the table to the right?

I spent the day hanging out and bonding with a few coworkers. One of whom is from India and has promised to have me over for authentic, homemade Indian food as soon as she finishes her Masters Degree in two weeks. I'm already salivating.

A couple of the guys with a couple of beers from one of the SIX coolers filled with beer. No, I don't drink, so that didn't matter so much to me. At least they had one cooler full of water.

A couple of my team members out for a spin on the jet ski.

Ahhhh... this really is a hard life. I am so glad I only had to do it once this week....

A Litte of Everything

This post was actually supposed to be my last post, but then the whole dizziness story took over, so I'll give this one another try. I thought it would be fun to post about a few different things, rather than just one subject, so each paragraph will contain its very own subject matter.

I will start out by saying that the dizziness has persisted into its third day. I had really, really hoped that it would just go away, but much to my dismay, it hangs on and persists. Granted I have yet to fall over again, and it seems to kind of come and go. One minute I will be fine, and the next I will feel dizzy and slightly nauseated. However, I refused to spend my weekend sleeping and sitting or laying down, so I went about all of my normal activities anyway. I figure if it is still hanging on tomorrow, then I will call a doctor. I would have thought that it was caused by the new contact prescription and my eyes trying to adjust, but I actually have yet to wear the new prescription. I only opened my current pair of lenses about a week ago and refuse to waste them, so I will wear them until I normally would have thrown them away before moving onto the 'script. UPDATE: I went to the dr today and she said the dizziness was brought on by a nasty migraine and could last a couple more days yet. Fantastic!

In response to a couple of comments on a previous post about my "blooming size" I should have stuck a sentence in there that said I am currently pushing from a size 4 to a size 6. While this doesn't seem big to most people, I was a size 0 when I got married over 2.5 years ago, and the excess fattie tissue is driving me insane. On top of that, I have been asked the horrifying question, "Are you pregnant?" in response my weight gain. I don't want to be accused of being something I am not; therefore, the weight MUST be shed, and to my relief, seems to slowly be making its way back off my frame. I just wish it would go faster!

I have noticed that since we have been in Texas, Maggie has been a better mood meter of my current feelings than I give her credit for. I noticed that during the week when I decided to give up on my dream of motherhood, Mags was as depressed as I was. It didn't matter how much I tried to fake to her that I was fine by trying to razz her or play with her, she saw right through my fake exterior and continued to be depressed. It wasn't until I came home from work one day, completely determined to be in a good mood and let the whole baby thing go, that her mood perked up. All of a sudden my Happy Baby was back. She wanted to play, be feisty, go on walks, and was in an overall playful mood. The difference for both of us was night and day. I am almost ashamed that I tried to trick her into not being depressed when she knew exactly how I felt. I sure love my little girl. I've said it before, and I can never say it enough, but there is nothing in this world like a good dog, and Mags is one of the best.

I realized this weekend that AF is due to rear her ugly head tomorrow, just in time for our "team building" activity at the lake for work. Not only that, but she will be here and in full swing for my doctor appointment on Thursday. I guess I'm not too bummed that my coworkers won't get to see me in a swimming suit tomorrow. I am able to hide my insecurities (i.e., fat) well when fully dressed, and I would really like to keep that thin perception they all have of me intact.

I have found a new favorite food craving the past few weeks that I just can't get enough of: edamame. The first time I ever tried edamame was at a Pei Wei with my dad and two coworkers from a previous job the week before we moved. All four of us were hooked on the tasty treat and couldn't eat enough. I hadn't had it again between now and about a week ago. It tasted every bit as good as I remembered. I've had it as a snack about 4 times since then. My favorite way to eat is to just cover it in some kosher salt and heat it up in the microwave. Tasty!

My latest house accomplishment was to install a brand spanking new, quiet in-sink-erator (disposal). I think something crawled into the one that came with the house and died because every time I would get near the sink it would smell like rotting animal carcass no matter what I did to get rid of the smell. About a month ago I shelled out $130 for a new, quiet, low vibration, super disposal and finally got around to putting it in today. Yes girls, I did it 98% all by myself. I had Hubs stand over me to help me out when I didn't completely understand the directions, and with the exception of one install step (Hubs had to hold it up to the sink while I secured it), I did the whole installation by myself. Yep, I am quite pleased with myself. :D

Well, on with another week. Here's to hoping its a good one for all of us.