Pictures to Make You Laugh

This post is all about the pictures that say a million words. Hopefully most will make you laugh, while at least one will make you say, "Wow." And hopefully the one that makes you say "wow" will make you say "wow" for the right reason.

First off I give you, a very relaxed squirrel in our front yard tree.

Oh yes, this is for real. He is not dead. He is just hanging out on the branch. It's really hot here already (100 degrees today) so my guess is Mr. Squirrel was trying to cool off. He bolted up the tree when we came out to head to my mother-in-laws to pick up Maggie after her week of "extra curricular activities."

Speaking of Maggie and extra curricular activities....

This past Saturday we packed Sadie and Baby Bean into the car for an over night stay at my MIL's and to pick up Mags. I knew Sadie had been in heat, and that she went into heat before Mags, but I thought she was done. Because I thought she was done, I told my MIL it was safe to put Sadie outside with her two Border Collies (including Tate the Stud and potential sire). About 10 minutes later I went to check on the dogs to find Sadie and Tate tied. For those not in the Doggie Breeding Know, the term "tied" refers to dogs doing "The Deed" in which they become briefly stuck together until the male finishes his donation.

When my eyes fell upon this act the words that came out of my mouth were not very lady-like, but were followed by a laugh. Looks like I could end up with two litters of pups in about 63 days. We won't know for at least a month whether either of the dogs is pregnant though. (Who knew dogs had a TWW too?! Seriously, the ONE month I take off of charting my cycle and think I will get a break from cycling, I get to keep track of my dog's cycle and be nervous for her TWW! Not only that, but it is a TWW for BOTH dogs AND it is more like a four-week-wait.)

For Sadie and Tate, I made the following pictures:

This should not have happened.

Tate, breed with the green dog, not the red dog.

It is acceptable to sire offspring with Maggie, clearly marked with a green "YES!" in the picture below. It is also acceptable to breed with Belle, marked with a blue "OK." It is not acceptable to breed with Sadie at this time, the dog clearly marked with a red "NO!"

That's right Tate, walk away from Sadie, even though she is clearly beckoning to you.

Sadie to Tate: Hey Tate, remember what we did earlier? Can we do it again?
Tate to Sadie: Not while your mom is watching us. She's glaring at me. I need to walk away.

And finally to wrap up this post, I got my hair cut over the weekend. I have provided some before and after pictures. My husband about died when he saw how much hair I got cut off, but I don't think it was that much. Can you see a big difference? With whom do you vote, him or me?

It is still long, and I actually like this length a lot better. The surprising things is I had been growing my hair out for two years. The last time I got it cut was when Baby Bean was about 4 months old, and I got it cut short. Needless to say, it was time for a change. I love the new cut. It is just different enough, yet still long enough.

Now it is time to play catch up on all of my blog reading!

One of Us Had Better Get Pregnant!

As you can tell by the fact that my last post was over a week ago, things have been pretty on the go around here lately. I attribute it to the fact that the weather is decent and the days are longer, which makes me spend more time with the fam. Baby Bean has been going to bed almost a full hour later than she does in the winter. Most nights I don't even put her in the bath until the sun starts to go down at almost 9:00 at night. Some nights she doesn't get to bed before 10:00. I just can't help it though. I like keeping her up late with me. However, that means I get to bed later than normal too, most nights not getting to sleep until after midnight. So, blog posting and reading takes an obvious back seat. But that is not what I wanted to tell you all about tonight.

Over the past month I apparently subconsciously picked up on signals from my dog that she was about to go into heat. I knew it would be some time soon, but I have been putting off getting ready to breed her by reading up on breeding, welping, and raising puppies. I have been putting off buying the necessary items for having puppies around, the biggest one being a large enclosure followed by figuring out what I want to do for a welping box. (For those who don't know, welping is delivering puppies.)

Just before we went on vacation, literally the night before, I got the hair-brained idea to run to Lo.wes to buy a dog run. I'll get into the whys later (or maybe not, because who really cares why I felt the urgent need to buy it). Since we got back from vacation, I have had a nagging feeling it was time to read up on breeding, dog pregnancy, and all that jazz, so last week I finally found a book and downloaded it onto my Kin.dle (after downloading and reading through four different book samples).

The day after I found the right book, I noticed my Mags was in heat. Huh. Weird. Then last weekend I decided to take my dogs to the vet this week to get them flea and tick shots that last 6 months, rather than doing monthly flea and tick treatments that require me to bathe my dogs, greasy from the meds, 24 hours later. While at the vet, I asked them to ensure Mags really was in heat. The vet offered to do a smear to see how far along in her cycle she was because I was planning on taking her to my MIL's house to breed with her male the weekend of the 10th. After getting the results from the test, he told me I should take my dog this weekend (today) and leave her for the next week because she was far enough along in her cycle, she would be ready for breeding as soon as Saturday (again, today).

I had planned to take this weekend to just relax after a hectic weekend of constant cleaning, cooking, and entertaining all last weekend, but as we all know, "the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry." As soon as I left the vet I was on the phone to my MIL asking if Mags could spend the next week with her. Thankfully, my MIL was very wonderful about it and told me to bring her on down.

Right now my precious pooch is spending her first ever night away from home while I sit home without her. Sure we have spent nights apart when I go somewhere, but she has never gone somewhere to spend the night while I sat at home without her. I would like to say I am sad and lonely, but that wouldn't be true. You see, I have my Sadie dog who is soaking up being an only-dog tonight, and Mags, well, she's getting some action. ;) Maggie and Tate were getting along very well while we were there. :D

I do find it rather ironic that the month I decide to take a break from TTC is the month my dog goes into heat. That even though we didn't stress about getting me pregnant by timing everything just right, I did get to worry about timing everything just right for getting my dog pregnant. I chuckle every time I think about it. Even funnier is how closely our cycles coincided. It's weird how things go sometimes, isn't it?

But here's the kicker: if Mags does get pregnant, her pups will be born around the middle of August. We had been talking about taking my little brother on vacation with us in September, but if I have a litter of 1-month-old pups, I'm not going anywhere. I talked with my husband about waiting until Mags went into heat again next, but we had also been talking about going on vacation again in May, and if we waited for Maggie's fall heat, her pups would be born right around May. Again, I laugh.

So, as with my own conception plans, I have just handed it all over to God, and am letting her get pregnant in God's time too. All I have to say is that one of us had better get pregnant this year.

And Now For Something Completely Different

It is time for something a little less depressing, so please, feel free to have a good laugh at the expense of my dogs. I did!

Here they are in their Halloween costumes. No hot dogs, no turning them into little furry humans, none of those cutsie dog costumes, oh no, my dog's costumers are so much better than that. I have turned them into...

RIDERS!

Sadie will wear her troll and LOVE it!

Maggie's jockey rider gets comfortable as he prepares for the race ahead.

And now, prepare to wet yourself with laughter as you enjoy the race of the century! Watch as my girls put Sea Biscuit and Secretariat to shame!

Angry Workday Letters

Dear W.ord,

We are not friends, and we never will be. I will make you do my bidding whether you like it or not. Get used to it. You work for me, I do not work for you! Jerk.

Respectfully,
Chelle



Dear Mr. Gates,

Micros.oft W.ord sucks. So do you. Get a haircut, you hippie!

Respectfully,
Chelle



Dear Pan.dora,

Please quit playing live and acoustic music. I don't like it. Please quit playing a song immediately when I click the thumbs down button, not in 5 minutes or after the song has ended. I clicked "NO", which means stop playing NOW. Please play more of the music I like. You know, like the ones I clicked the thumbs up button for. My clicking thumbs up does not mean I never want to hear that song again. In fact, quite the opposite. That's why I said I LIKE it.

Respectfully,
Chelle



Dear Blogs.pot,

Please quit taking eons to sign me in and out. I don't have all day ya know!

Respectfully,
Chelle



Dear Female Coworkers,

Please flush the toilet after yourselves. You are not 3 and just being potty trained. Please stop being so disgusting.

Respectfully,
Chelle

Guess Who?

Now, every week when I go to the hospital installation I think about how I need to get some pictures for all of my bloggy friends to see. Am I bragging? Perhaps a bit. But honestly, the fact that I get to be hands on with this equipment and installing it is just plain awesome to me. But do you know what was even better? Opening a box of kits to find three of the manuals I created. They were beautiful works of art!

Now, can you all guess who this sexy woman in a hard hat is?
Oh yeah baby! That's moi! I love going on these installations and being "one of the guys" for a day. I love seeing what I do for a living going into place to be used to save people's lives. Its an amazing feeling.

And guess who this little minx on top of a ladder is?
Ding! Ding! Ding! ME!

Who has one of the coolest jobs ever? ME!

I can't wait to see the completed installation and do a tour of the hospital just before it opens. Exciting times!

Happy Birthday... to Me?

My mom called me last night and asked me if I planned on doing anything fun for my birthday today. I told her not that I knew of, and as my husband isn't too big on birthdays and/or surprises, I expect the day will be pretty normal. What I should have told her was that my fun plan involved doing a fun blog post. Now I just need to think of something fun to do for this post....

I will be doing fun things for my birthday, they just won't happen on my birthday. My little brother is flying into town the day after and is going to spend the whole weekend with us. We're going to take him to see Av.atar (which I highly recommend in 3D) and the Bo.dies I.n Mo.tion exhibit. I know the latter is a bit creepy and gross, but I find it all highly interesting. My bro, who is an EMT will enjoy it too. On top of those two fantastic activities, we plan to spend loads of time playing games on the Wi.i, shopping (because we both love it), buying me a new iP.od for my bday, buying a Thr.iving Iv.ory CD (if you haven't heard them, I highly recommend them), eating good food, and being just plain goofy. On top of that, I get to add my daughter to the fun, which will make it all that much more special. What could be better?

So, in being true to my word, I leave you with something fun for this post. Below is a very brief clip of Baby Bean playing with Sadie yesterday. I had been working from home because Baby Bean has a nasty ear infection complete with ooze. I was typing away when I realized I heard what sounded like a block being hit against a dog head. I looked over, and sure enough, Baby Bean was hitting Sadie on the head with a block and laughing hysterically. Sadie being the oober awesome dog that she is, just sat there and let the baby have her way with her. Rest assured, Sadie was very well rewarded for her patience, love and tolerance.

With that, I bid you adieu!

A Rarity

For the first time in two years, I went to the optometrist to have my eyes checked to see if my conact prescription has changed. I hadn't been since a few days before I found out I was pregnant with Baby Bean back in 2008. The funny thing about that appointment was the last place I had my eyes checked was so gungy I thought that if I was feeling sick the next day it was because I picked up a bug from there. The next day I went home from work with dizzy spells and a spearmint taste in my mouth... it was my set of pregnancy symptoms.

So this time when I made the appointment to the eye dr (I didn't go back to the same place as last time), I half chuckled to myself and said I hoped I didn't find out I was pregnant again after this checkup, mostly because pregnancies when IUDs are in place don't usually work out.

Just in case you thought I was going to say I'm pregnant, I'm not.

I did get a very pleasant surprise, however. I knew my prescription had changed because my vision hasn't been as sharp the last few months. What I didn't expect to hear is that my eyesight actually got better! My doctor checked it twice before she told me. I asked her if she was sure, so she checked it a third time. Yep, my eyesight got better! She wouldn't let me order my contacts that night just in case I did notice a deficit with the lower strength lenses, but on my drive home that night I knew she had me in the correct prescription.

Apparently it is pretty rare that people's eyes get better, especially at my age. It is nice to be a positive rarity for once. :)

Cleaning Up Christmas

Friday morning Hubs and I decided to go out for breakfast. We hit our local I.hop where I was treated to pecan pie pancakes, and Baby Bean got another pancake all to herself. Hubs got a couple of gift cards to Lo.wes for Christmas, and he had already decided he wanted to use them to buy outside Christmas decorations for next year, but he wanted to do it after the first of the year when everything went on deep discount.

I had told him back at the end of November that next year I wanted to decorate the outside of our house. Baby Bean would be old enough to appreciate it, and I thought it would be fun. We decided not to do it this year because finances were tight, and the baby wouldn't notice or care anyway. Surprisingly, Hubs was on board. Not only that, but he took my idea up a notch. I just wanted to string lights in the trees, throw some in the bushes, and maybe buy a lawn deer or three. He wouldn't have it. He said if we were going to do it, we were going to do it right! That means we will have lights hanging from our roof. I am all for it... as long as I'M not the one on the ladder!

I can't wait to see those lights up there though. ;)

So, after breakfast we went to Lo.wes, but they had already been almost completely cleaned out of all of their Christmas stuff. (I did, however, manage to find those Christmas candles that go in your window on sale for 75% off. I've wanted those for years now, but wouldn't justify spending the money on them until today when they cost just $1.12 each!) They told us to try Wal.mart instead, so we did. The pickings were slim, but we made out like bandits. We bought a ton if icicle lights, two sparkly crystal lawn angels, a few other decorations for inside the house, three garlands, four boxes of marshmallow chocolate covered santas, and a foot spa with paraffin hand treatment. All of it was discounted 75%. (My favorites are the foot spa [$7.50! Hello! I've been wanting one for years] and marshmallow santas.)

Shortly after arriving home, all of it was packed into my last empty Christmas bin (green bin with red lid), and shoved out in the garage not to be seen again until next November. I do want to mention, I also cleaned up at Tar.get earlier this week. I bought six gorgeous Christmas stockings at 60% off. Why six? Because I plan on growing our little family and want all of them to match. I don't care if we never use all six, but it is nice to have them. The dogs will get stockings for at least the next few Christmases now.

As for all of our existing Christmas items, they were packed away first thing this week.

I really enjoy hitting the after Christmas sales. Sure you can't use the stuff until next year, but it is awesome to save so much money. Not only that, but we have brand new stuff to use next year and don't have to spend a fortune trying to build up our Christmas stock all at once.

Now I leave you with a couple of pictures from this year's Christmas. Remember how I said we had chocolate coming out our ears? Take a look at this:


There is a box of chocolate cut off from the picture on the left, and I forgot to include the huge can of Pir.oulines. Seriously, take a second to look at each item in this picture, then feel free to let your jaw drop. My plan is to either take it to work and share it, or eat it over the next 11 months.

And just so you don't think the dogs got left out, check out their stash!



I foresee lots and lots of walks in our futures!

Happy Halloween!

As promised, pictures from the Halloween party Hubs and I attended last Saturday. It was hosted by my wonderful next door neighbor. She spent days getting ready for this party, and had a serious showing. I think we counted around 40 people at one point. They throw the shin dig every year, and I am so glad they do because it is so much fun.

Without further ado, I give you party pics!


My best friend who was babysitting while Hubs and I attended the party took this picture just before we headed out the door to the party. Baby Bean was soooo happy that day and was a good girl all night.


Hubs went as a renaissance beggar. He is very much loved by his wench and daughter. I was going for the "ridden wench" look, but I think I missed it a bit.


Hubs begged for coinage at the party, in an attempt to pay for my services. No one had change. Lame.


This fantastic girl is my best friend. She went as Ragge.dy An.n from hell. She made his costume herself! She is going to make me a new renaissance dress for the festival this fall. This is also the very same best friend who takes the 3, 6, and 9-month photos of Baby Bean. Yes, she is seriously talented.


My friend got a little cozy with the freakiest guy at the party. Don't they make a cute pair?


All of us beautiful gals work at the same place. They are every bit as much fun as they look in this photo.

Sadly the wolf got axed from the party.


The fun continued at work on Monday. My best friend and I made a new friend from our new IT guy. He also likes to go to the Ren Fests Hubs and I go to.

And finally, I leave you with a somewhat sultry vixen of a renaissance wench.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Mowing the Lawn with Mags

Somehow, for the past 30 years of my life, I have gotten away with never once mowing a lawn. I always had my dad, brothers, or husband around to do it. When Hubs and I got married, we got a dog, and then moved to a townhome with a yard for her to play in. It was always my responsibility to pick up poop so he could mow. That was the deal. However, when we bought our house last year and he would be derelict about mowing the lawn, it would sometimes make it difficult for me to find all of the presents in the tall grass. That always turned into a circular argument about me not being able to find the mines because the grass was too long, but he would have mowed the lawn if I cleaned up the dog logs, but I would have picked them up if the lawn wasn't too long. Sometimes we argue about this for hours.

A couple of weeks ago, Hubs asked me to pick up the dog logs. I told him I would, and then it rained... and rained... and rained. It rained for 8 days straight. I'm not exaggerating either. It rained 24/7 for 8 stinking days. You know that rain that recently flooded Georgia? Well, it started here.

Needless to say, our lawn got really long, and there was no way I could find all of the puppy pressies, so I offered to mow the lawn. It was a total shock, I'm sure. I had never touched a lawn mower before, and here I was, offering to mow our massive back yard. Hubs had to show me how the mower worked and how to pivot around corners, and he told me how to make sure I didn't miss spots.

Maggie is a border collie, so she LOVES to heard. I had seen Mags attack the lawn mower when Hubs mowed many times and laughed my butt off. One time I got it on video. He always told me it was funny, but it made it really hard to mow in straight lines. I had no idea how strong that little girl was until yesterday when I tried to mow the lawn. I took a little video of my experience of trying to mow the lawn with Mags. I hope you get as much of a kick out of it as we do.

What It'll Cost You

Straight from the pamphlet that accompanied my traffic ticket:

• Leaving dog feces - $500 (Does it count of your pooch has the runs?)
• Running a red light/stop sign - $204 (I knew I shouldn't play with the traffic signal wires [ignore the man behind the curtain!])
• Improper turn/not signaling - $204 (I can hang a "Louie" but those righties always get me)
• Inadequate bed - $264 (I hope my bed is adequate! Who decides this? Does the fact that I just had a baby mean it's adequate? LOL!)
• Load on non-load surface - $264 (Explain.)
• No safety chains - $154 (I better get some chains!)
• Open container in vehicle - $364 (Quick! Hide the container from your lunch salad!)
• Unnecessary use of horn - $154 (Is this like the unnecessary use of pain meds?)
• Barking dog - $150 (Shut it Mags! Each bark'll cost ya!)
• Animal at large - $149 (What gorilla?)
• Soliciting after hours - $169 (I'll let you make fun of that one on your own)
• Littering - $264 (It would cost me more to liter than to speed)
• Glass container in park - $280 (Oookayyyy. I get it. But really?)

Interesting....

Random Picture Post

As promised, and finally, here is my picture post. Let's start with Baby Bean's finally finished nursery.

Baby Bean, sporting her new changing table.

The entrance to the fabulous nursery,
complete with pictures from our last photo shoot.

The "swing" wall. Baby Bean spends many happy hours sleeping in this
fantastic swing next to her large Po.oh bear.

The window wall. Yep, the room is so small the furniture is literally wall-to-wall,
but that's what happens when you only have two fully usable walls.

The crib wall. The glider was a pressie from the grandparents,
and grandma made the pillow in it.

This is the plate we made at Co.lor Me Mi.ne last week. I couldn't wait until father's day to give it to Hubs, so he got it yesterday right after I picked it up.

This is our latest flooding incident last weekend. Do you think we have drainage issues?

The water was probably 2-3" deep.

So there you have it, my random picture post!

Welcome Back

Why is it that whenever I'm not sitting at my computer, ready to do a blog post, I can think of a million and one things I want to blog about, but the second I sit down, everything that was in my head quickly vacates the premises? For example, last night in the shower I had three ideas for posts. I thought I should write them down really fast so I wouldn't forget them, but realized I was still in the shower, so I told myself that this time would be different. This time I would remember. Now that I'm sitting here, not so much!

Mother's Day yesterday was a pretty good day. Baby Bean decided she wanted to tell me happy mother's day really early... as in 3:45 a.m. She has been sleeping until at least 6:30 a.m. and sometimes even until 9:00 a.m., but not Sunday. Nope, she wanted mama to come in and feed her super early. I thought that would mean she would make it to her 9:00 feeding just fine. Guess again! I was awakened next at 7:45. By 8:00 I was up and ornery as a hibernating bear awoken a month early. I had spent the whole day before cleaning the house and ehausting myself. I needed the sleep I wasn't getting. The worst part? I wanted to be pissy because I was seriously sleepy. But the second I went in to ornerily dress Baby Bean, she was all smiles and coos. Gah! It is impossible to be upset when she is so freaking cute! After I got her dressed and fed, Hubs took over and I went back upstairs and slept until her next feeding at 1:00.

That night we went over to my friend's house for a cookout with her, her husband, and all of her family. We stayed for a few hours and had a great time. She is an absolute doll, and after meeting her family, I could see where she got her personality. They are a great bunch of people. (The food was pretty tasty too!)

Today, my door was darkened by the visitor who has been absent for over a year. Yep, I'm back in the cycle saddle. As usual, I have mixed emotions. Part of me is sad I have to deal with this crap again, but part of me is excited because it means I get to start counting down the months until we get to try for baby #2. The other downside, I get to meet another new friend... Nu.va Ri.ng. Again, mixed emotions. Part of me is afraid of the potential hormonal wench it could turn me into, while the other part of me views it as another way to count down. I only have to use 8-9 rings and then I'm done. The infertile in me is scared to go on it because I am afraid it will throw things out of wack again and I'll be back in the doctor's office for stims and shots when I'm done. But all things considered, I am surprisingly almost excited to begin. I thought it would be really hard to go on birth control while my brain is still adjusting to how ironic it is after being infertile, but I am okay with it just because of the countdown factor.

I'm going to cut this post off right here because Hubs is ready to watch a little TV and snug. I hope you all had a great weekend. Hooray to Monday being down!

Everyone Else is Doing It

Apparently all of us bloggers are on the same "random" page today. I was totally going to do a post of random things, but found that a couple of you have already beat me to the punch (or is it in the air?). So here are my random thoughts:

• I listen to music a lot. In the shower, in the car, at work, etc. So when I get an itch for new music, I need to give into the urge ASAP, otherwise I will end up going overboard like a starved person on a calorie cutting diet in a confectioner's shop when I do finally give in. Instead of buying 1 CD, I'll buy 5, and then go back two days later and buy 3 more.
• Hello, my name is Chelle, and I have a spending addiction. It makes me happy. Gets me high. I love it. Retail therapy always cheers me up. Its my friend.
• I can be good about not spending money for maybe a couple of months at a time, but when I walk the slippery slope of purchasing something big, I end up back in the confectioner's shop. The thing that did me in this time? Purchasing the remaining items on Baby Bean's registry. Oh yeah, I slid down the slope like a mad woman within minutes of pressing the Purchase button.
• iT.unes is of the devil. I won a $25 gift card for it at my work Christmas party, but have managed to never log on to the store until Sunday... and then all hell broke loose. $80 later and my need for new music was still not curbed. Thank heaven for Hubs! He told me to knock it off and get away from the computer.
• We had so much rain over the weekend our back yard flooded big time. We had several inches of standing water back there. I took pictures. Will post later. They also closed the road to Lo.ews because it was flooded.
• We went to Lo.ews and Hubs bought shelves for the garage. YAY! He even put them up the next day. YAY! YAY! Now I can start our food storage. YAY! YAY! YAY! When we left Lo.ews it was pouring so hard I got completely soaked through running from the truck to the front door of the house.
• The day of my LMP was 5/4/08. That's right, it's been over a year. One year ago, I was upset and ready to throw in the towel. I thought I would never be a mom.
• One year ago I realized I could have a kid by that same time the following year, and I do!
• I have been going on walks almost every single day and doing ab exercises every single night for the past 4 weeks and still look 4 mos pg. But the What.to.Expect website said it is completely normal and it will go away. "It took 9 months to get it on, give it 9 months to get it off." Okay, but I'm impatient, and I want it gone yesterday. I just need to keep plugging away.
• Tonight I am going to a place called Color.Me.Mine with my friend to paint ceramic plates. I am totally excited! We're taking Baby Bean and are going to get her foot prints on a plate.
• My next post will be a picture post with pictures of the nursery (finally finished!), the flooded yard, and the cool things my friend and I make tonight.

That's it for now.

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

Yay for Weekends

This weekend was a crazy fun weekend. Saturday morning Hubs and I got up and went up to my parent's house where we picked up my dad and headed to the chiropractor. After the chiropractor I rushed back to my parent's house to get Maggie to the vet by noon for her yearly shots in the bum. Even though she didn't like being checked over and getting shot in the butt, she got a clean bill of health. Once we got back to my parent's house again, we went out to Famous Dave's for some birthday BBQ (for my b-day). After lunch was over, Hubs packed up Mags and headed home, while my little bro and I went to do some retail therapy.

This weekend's retail therapy session included a trip to the pet store to spoil Mags with some new toys, a new pet bed, and a new case of canned pooch food. Up next was Target. My little bro and I had a mission to find PEZ candy without the dispenser because I love the candy and could care less about the dispensers. We were unlucky with the PEZ mission at Target, and I mentioned to the checker girl that we were on a PEZ mission and that Target didn't have any, so she told us about a local candy store she frequented that had a whole PEZ section. The next stop was, of course, the candy store! Sure enough, upon finding the PEZ section we found a whole basket of loose packets of PEZ. We cleaned the store out, 49 in all at .20 cents a piece. We gleefully skipped back to the car with $10 worth of PEZ candy. The last stop of our retail therapy was the medical store to buy bandaids and a device for my dad.

We rounded out the evening spending some time with my dad, and then heading off to a hockey game. My little bro and I used to love to go to hockey games and have had plans to go to a few this season, but everytime we had plans to go, it would snow. Normally snow would not be a big deal, but I live 35 minutes away from my parents and the drive includes a nasty moutain pass that I do not brave when it snows. So we made it to our first hockey game of the season. Of course hockey games mean you have to get some combination of goodies including, "a game dog", some nachos, ice cream, cotton candy, soft pretzels, candied almonds, and soda. This game saw us with a plate of chicken nachos, a soft pretzel, ice cream, and sodas.

"Want more Nachos?"

"Is there a fight going on behind me again?"

After the second quarter when our team was one goal behind (since shoving an opposing team player into the goal net didn't count), we decided to head home. Our team just wasn't playing well and we didn't want to sit through the third quarter just to be faced with parking lot traffic. My little brother drove me home and spent the night watching movies with me.

The next morning we all slept until noon and spent the day just taking it easy. Needless to say, the weekend went by way too fast, and before I knew it, I was landed back at work this morning. All I have to say now is, "Is it Friday yet?"

Wonderful Weekend

This past weekend my little brother came down for an entire weekend visit. He headed down Friday afternoon after he found out I had left the office for the day. I layed around while I waited for him to get here, and for Hubs to get home from his business trip. After a rough week, I decided that I deserved a little bit of shopping. So once my brother got here, we headed to Best Buy to exchange some software, then to the mall where I spent $80 on eye shadow (yeah, its worth every penny, but that's a post for another day). After the mall we headed back to my office to pick up my office's corporate ski passes so my guys could spend the next day skiing for free. We rounded out our shopping adventure with a trip to the pet store, where I spent $35 in doggie products for Mags, including shedless shampoo (to help curb Maggie's obsessive shedding problem lately), some special paw pad pampering soap (because her paw pads are dried out from the cold [kind of like my hands]), and a bit of ginger doggie cologne. Spoiled pooch? Oh yeah. Later that night my little bro's girlfriend came down, and the three of us set out to buy the best tasting pizza we could buy before Hubs got home.

My baby brother, the morning he headed out to Iraq.

The next morning my guys got up and went out for a day on the slopes. While they were gone, Mags and I went for a walk to the park where Maggie proceeded to not only sniff every bit of yellow snow left by other dogs, but to lick it as well. Once we got back home, I took a shower, and then Mags got her first ever in-home spa day with her newly purchased Dog Spa goodies. (She gets bathed on a regular basis, as she is an inside dog, but she'd never had a spa day anywhere but the groomers.) After our respective showers, we commenced cleaning the house until the guys came home, tired and starving. We headed out to our favorite local burger joint and ate until we were in food comas.
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Bird and Mags watching TV at our old apartment.

We spent the whole rest of the weekend watching movies, playing video games (Lego Star Wars), sleeping, eating lots of PEZ, and just plain relaxing. It was an awesome weekend.