It's All Just a Nightmare... Right?

Update: The cat has been downgraded from a mountain lion to a bob cat. Still scary as hell! See picture at bottom.

After this evening, I think I have asked Hubs about a million times if I am in a coma or having a really bad dream because the way my day played out cannot seriously be real life.

10:00 a.m. - My eyes started going buggy about this time. I figured it was because it is time to go to the optometrist for a new prescription. I am pretty sure that looking back now it was the onset of the massive migraine I was about to sport in a few hour's time.

5:15 pm. - I got home sporting a massive migraine that was making me ill. Baby Bean was fussy because she had decided to delay her afternoon nap until shortly before I got home. I sent Hubs out for dinner shortly after feeding her, set the baby in her in bouncer and bounced her to sleep while I lay on the couch with my eyes shielded from the light with my hand.

6:20 p.m. - Hubs gets home with dinner. I ate. I felt better. So I was stupid and decided I would go on a walk around 7:45.

7:45 p.m. - Hello, my name is Stupid. I packed Baby Bean in her stroller, leashed Sadie, told Mags to come (she doesn't need a leash), and walked out the door... without Hubs... super stupid. Half way into the walk my head was pounding, feeling like it was going to implode, but Stupid kept walking.

Remember when I got my speeding ticket last month? Well, I'm still pretty shaken about that, since I still don't feel I did anything wrong. So whenever I see a cop, my heart pounds. I was about to cross the street when I saw a cop car coming my way. I thought, "Sh*t! They are going to see Mags isn't on a leash and give me a ticket." They drove past, we walked across the street into the median. The cop car turned around and headed back in my direction. "Sh*t! I'm getting a ticket!" They drove past. My head was pounding. I crossed the street the rest of the way and kept going.

Let me digress for a second here. Before heading on my walk, I wanted to stop and turn around at that street. I had a really bad feeling about walking all of the way to the town square. So what did I do? I kept walking to the town square. I was walking down the sidewalk toward the square when what do I see? Two cops walking toward me. "Sh*t! Sh*t! Sh*t!" Mags still isn't on a leash. They walk up to me, say hello, and keep on walking. I crouched down and put Mags on a leash (I was smart enough to bring the leash splitter). I kept walking and ANOTHER cop car pulls up. "Oh come on!"

Now for the freakiest freaky part. I was walking the dogs down around the town square along the green belt. I casually look over a bridge to the other side of a small creek and saw A FREAKING MOUNTAIN LION! I am NOT kidding. I looked once. No, I must be seeing things. I looked again. It was there! I have never in my life seen a mountain lion up that close except for at the zoo. My heart started pounding, and I told my dogs to walk faster. We rounded the circle, and I called Hubs to ask if I was in a coma. Was all of this seriously happening? I had to call him because I was on the verge of a full on panic attack and had to stop it before I couldn't function enough to put one foot in front of the other.

Hubs talked to me on the phone until he could come meet me on the trail, and then he brought me home, safe and sound, to deal with my migraine in peace.

Can I just say I am sick and tired of panic attacks? Tornadoes, cops, mountain lions. Enough already! Please give my poor heart a break!

Cat downgrade: This is actually what I saw. A bob cat. Nonethelss, I don't want my dogs tangling with this guy, especially around my baby. They are apparently known to still take down deer. My dogs are no match.

Weathering the Storm

Wednesday night Hubs and I packed Baby Bean in the car and headed to Blo.ckbuster to take back our mail movie and exchange it for a romantic comedy. Before leaving the house it looked like it might rain while we were out, so I asked Hubs if I should bring in the dogs. We decided they would be fine and went on our merry way. After we made the exchange, we were trying to decide where to go to dinner. We decided on a sit-down restaurant just up the street, but as we were waiting for the light to change, I started to feel really icky and decided I didn't want a big meal at the last minute. After a quick conversation before the turn-in we decided to go hit the Ar.bys by our house and take it home to watch our flick.

A block from our house I started to hear a noise outside the car. "It can't be. Is it?" I thought to myself, and then rolled down the window. Yep. Tornado sirens.

Okay, I'm not from Texas. I'm from up north where I lived the entire first 29 years of my life safely nestled in the Rocky Mountains. We didn't have tornadoes. We had snow storms. I can handle snow storms because I grew up in them. Tornadoes scare the sh** out of me. Snow storms can't level an entire city in a few second's time.

"Aren't tornadoes usually preceded by high winds?" I innocently asked Hubs, as my heart did a little skip. He informed me the winds could be a few miles out yet, but that they were probably on their way. He didn't seem panicked or scared at all, so I relaxed a bit, thinking the sirens were more of a suggestion. Idiot! Ever heard of the calm before the storm?

We pulled into the drive up at Ar.bys and before it was our turn at the box, their power went out. The winds still had not arrived, but I was starting to get the feeling we needed to get home, and fast. I told Hubs I just wanted to go home. "Are you sure? Cause we can wait, or we can go across the street and get something else. They all have power." Nope. I wanted to go home. My instincts were kicking in and I wanted to get my baby the hell out of that car.

As we were leaving the parking lot the winds hit, followed a few seconds later by the signature tornado rain. Trees were swinging heavily, traffic signs were turning ominous. A few seconds later, I was in a full on panic attack. I couldn't breathe. I was trying so hard not to cry because I knew if I started, it would be the kind of panicked crying where you can't breathe at all. We raced home, dodging bits of trees that had already broken loose and traffic signs that had fallen over.

Once home, we raced inside where our power had already been knocked out. I ran to the back door and called my dogs. Nothing. I called again. No sign of them. My panic increased exponentially. I called again, and my voice cracked with fear and emotion. Finally Sades heard me and came running, with Mags fast on her tail. My shouting woke Baby Bean, so I ran to her, got her out of her car seat, and held her tight. For the next hour the storm continued. Battering, wailing, and beating outside our house. It felt like it would never stop. All I could think was did I have the ability to make a big enough ball around Baby Bean to keep her safe if our house blew away.

Finally the storm let up, and the sun peaked through just in time for the sunset. Relieved, I thought we had made it and that it was all over. Wrong! Around 5:00 a.m. the storms started up again. Mags and I huddled together on the bed while it sounded like the house would be ripped from its foundations. I waited, listening to see if it would wake Baby Bean, but it didn't. Then the storm let up. I told Mags it was over and we could go back to sleep. Wrong! This happened three times before the morning. I barely slept. The storms continued on through the early afternoon.

My commute into work was long, as the road I usually take in was closed due to tree and power line damage. When I got to work, I found that a tornado had actually touched down in my city and only a few miles from my house.

Luckily we made it through the storm unscathed. Our house and trees are all fine. I love it here, but I do not love the storms!

Wacky Weekend

I was just about to start writing this post when I looked down at my belly and realized I can see Baby Bean breathing. That is the coolest and craziest thing ever. It is so sci fi to see your belly breathing separately from you. lol

This past weekend has been kind of crazy. A couple of weeks ago after Hubs had taken the pooches out for their daily dose of Fetch Until You Drop, we noticed that Mags started favoring her right shoulder. I debated over taking her to the vet or just waiting to see what happened. Over the next few hours, she seemed right as rain. However, if she was sedentary for an extended period of time, she would act sore and stiff when she got up, sometimes favoring the shoulder again. This behavior has been on and off ever since. Some days she is just fine, and others she seems stiff and sore. I determined it was probably a soft tissue injury and that she should probably be on some kind of pain medication, so I finally took her to see the vet on Friday.

First of all, I LOVE our vet. The woman obviously loves animals very deeply. She kept snuggling Mags and giving her kisses right on her wet nose. I loved it. After examining my baby, she also determined it was a soft tissue injury and prescribed a week's worth of remadyl. On top of the pain meds, she told me that Mags is not allowed to play fetch for a month. A MONTH?!?! I almost cried! That is Maggie's favorite thing ever. The vet was firm and told me that if I didn't keep Mags from playing that the injury could turn into arthritis or worse. The good news is, the meds seem to be helping the stiffness, but the downside is she hasn't been eating very much. My poor little baby pooch. :(

When Hubs and I first bought our house, our realtor gave us a $50 gift card to Ho.me De.pot. We decided on Friday that we had probably better use it, since we've had it for almost a year (I seriously can't believe we've almost been here for a year already!!!!). I wanted to buy decorative wall shelving for the baby's room, so we got in the car and headed to HD. I didn't find what I was looking for; however, we did find a $300 Christmas tree on sale for $75. After discussing it and making sure there was nothing else we wanted, we bought the tree. Once the purchase was made, I realized what a sweet deal we just gotten. The thing is 7.5" tall and is prelit with LED lights. Plus it looks nice. It will be exciting to decorate it next year and put Baby Bean's pressies under it. :)

That night at around 4 am (technically Saturday morning), one of our smoke detectors frizted and started going off. I know this sounds weird, but we invested in some seriously expensive smoke detectors a couple of years ago after attending a fire safety seminar. They are the only smoke detectors 100% guaranteed to go off in case of a fire and are the only company in the US who can legally make that claim. That being said, we also have the stupid cheapie smoke detectors installed that came with the house (a whole two of them). With that in mind, I was absolutely freaked out when one of the alarms started going off. The expensive ones don't fritz. After about 5 beeps, the alarm stopped, which gave me a sense of calm because I realized chances were high it was a fritzing cheapie and everything was fine. I was right. However, I could not calm my mind. I was so afraid that one of the expensive ones would start going off any moment and that our house was really on fire. Luckily it wasn't, and the expensive ones stayed silent. I hope to never wake up to the sound of a smoke detector going off again.

Yesterday was a total low key day. We went shopping for a changing table and came home empty handed. Shortly after we walked through the door, I was sacked out on the couch for the next few hours.

In pregnancy news, I am totally ready for this baby to come out. First of all, I can't wait to hold her, snuggle her, and love her to bits. I'm looking forward to Baby Bean snugging with Hubs and I on the couch. I am so excited to start dressing her in all of her new clothes and putting her in her swing and bouncer. I am also really ready for the heartburn and its backup to end. Even sleeping upright doesn't prevent the backup anymore. I am totally ready to stop being so sore I can barely walk. I am ready to lose the water weight and to stop dreading post partum. I just want the next chapter to begin already! Only a couple more weeks! :D