Ramblings of a Mad Woman: An Editorial on the Subject of Opinions

I've entered a phase of my life where I can no longer have consuming thoughts roaming about in my head. I'm easily distracted and these thoughts will destroy any hope I have of accomplishing anything. Hence, I find myself making a lot of lists, having conversations with people to get things off my chest that have been bothering me and writing things down simply to get them out of my head. It's quite freeing. I find that I can go about my business with a clear mind after I've written down my Target list and made notes of all the things we need to buy before the baby comes.

This brings me to my point of why I'm writing today. I'm writing today to clear my head of consuming thoughts. I'm not going to go into detail about what events bring me to this point because, quite frankly, it doesn't matter. What matters is that I now have things bopping around in this skull of mine which are distracting to my efforts to get anything done at work and are in turn raising my blood pressure to unsafe levels. Read on. Or don't. I really don't care. This is my forum to express my thoughts and opinions and I'm happy to share with you. You may take what you read with a grain of salt and write it off to the mad ramblings of a pregnant woman with too many hormones raging through her body - and that's fine. It's your opinion, and you have a right to your opinion. I expect you to have an opinion.

What I don't expect is that you will actually tell me that MY opinion is wrong, and then list the reasons it is wrong, mainly because it differs from yours. There are a lot of people out there who work this way. And I find it quite infuriating. Perhaps I am a person who just does not derive any pleasure from the art of debate. I am so ingrained in the position that we are all entitled to think what we want that I cannot see the point of trying to persuade someone to my point of view. This is exactly why I am not good in arguments. And now that I think of it, perhaps I'm just not a very interesting person to have a conversation with, either.

Don't get me wrong - I AM a very opinionated person. I guess I don't know if I come across this way or not. I don't want you to mistakenly think that because I don't express my opinion in conversation that I don't have one. But I think what I think, and I don't really care to discuss it. You will never find me in a heated political discussion, especially after I find out that your opinion completely differs from mine. I can listen to you, I can try to see your point of view and I can try to see why someone in your situation would come to that opinion. But I will never try to tell you that what you think is wrong. You have a right to think it. Sure - I may think to myself that you're a moron, but I'm not going to tell you that. Unless you're drunk and won't remember anything I said in the morning.

On the flip-side, I'm quite wishy-washy on a lot of issues. These issues probably don't have much impact in my daily life. I will shamedly admit that I remain an ignorant person on many topics - most of national and international news levels, simply because it is easy for me to turn off the news or not pick up a newspaper and be confronted with these issues. But once something is going to have an impact on me or my family, I will have an opinion. Until that time, I remain blissfully ignorant. It's not an especially good stance to take, but it's my right to take it.

In all of my musings throughout the morning, I came to try to understand the WHY behind my inner-workings. Why don't I tell you why I think you're wrong? Why don't I throw my hat into the discussion ring? What am I afraid of?

I think I came to the conclusion that the point of origin for why I am the way I am is due to the fact that there weren't a lot of peers my age around growing up. I had a couple of cousins that I'd hang out with on occasion who were close to my age, but otherwise, we lived out in the country and until I was older and could drive, I was with adults most of the time. And I certainly wasn't going to speak up and voice my opinion to a bunch of adults, especially if it differed from theirs. So I think this lack of interaction with others my age started my shyness, which fed into a fear of rejection later on once I started interacting with kids my own age. I wanted to be liked and accepted, so didn't speak up. Which is quite possibly the same motivation behind my actions now, as an adult.

Now if you asked my husband, certain friends or certain members of my family about all of these ramblings - they'd probably proclaim that I'm too opinionated. I guess what it comes down to is that I have to have reached a certain comfort level with you before I'm okay to speak openly and freely with you. I have to know that you accept me unconditionally. Others, apparently, do not have this safety zone, are probably more confident in themselves, or just don't give a damn and feel okay saying anything to anyone. Which is fine. It takes all kinds.

I still don't understand how someone can just say whatever comes to mind without any thought for who it may affect or offend, but again, I guess it's their right to say it. I don't understand how someone can think that every action and opinion they've ever done or had is the correct one, but again, I guess it's their right to think it. I don't understand how someone thinks so highly of themselves that they push and give their advice to everyone, but again, I guess it's their right to give it.

I stand firmly in my positions on politics, abortion, mothering, breastfeeding, voting, women's rights, animal testing, the death penalty, guns, Heinz ketchup vs. Hunts catsup, and many other important topics. You may not know where I stand, and may never know where I stand. And that's okay. You may ask, and I will tell you. But I am not going to offer up my opinion merely for the sake of debate or dish out advice merely because I think I'm right. That's just not the kind of person I am. And I'm okay with that. You can think what you think and I can think what I think. It's what makes this country great. Or something.

If you've made it to the end of this - welcome to my ramblings. Now you know what kind of stuff is floating around in my head. I didn't really have much of a point to all of this except to clear my head, to get it out and written down so that I don't have to think about it anymore. Now I can get back to work. :)

Are you a Wheel Watcher???

Well, you'd better be on WEDNESDAY, MAY 31st! My good friend, Kari, from high school, got to live one of her dreams and be a contestant on Wheel of Fortune. We always knew she was destined for greatness! You can click on this link the week of May 29th for more info on the contestants appearing on the show during that week. For the local newspaper's coverage of Kari's exciting trip - click here.

I've been Snoogled!

And I'm loving every minute of it! I received the BEST GIFT EVER for Mother's Day. Of course, there's always the undying love of my husband and child - yadda, yadda, yadda - but what I'm talking about is the Snoogle Total Body Pillow. :) Patrick surprised me with this gift on Friday night (that's right, I got treated to a whole weekend of Mother's Day bliss!) because he had gone to buy it and was feeling really bad thinking that he would have this gift in the house that would help me sleep better and wouldn't be able to give it to me until Sunday. And let me tell you - he's going to have a hard time ever topping this one. I can't believe the difference it's made in my comfort level at night.

Besides the fabulous body pillow, I got treated to crepes and biscuits and gravy for breakfast, a salmon dinner, a date-night package promise for a babysitter / dinner / movie, AND got to spend all day Sunday with many members of my family (and neighbors who have become family!) for a birthday / Mother's Day celebration at Grandma Janet's. I can't think of a better way to spend Mother's Day weekend! I hope you all were able to enjoy good food, good company and good laughs as much as I was.

What's Up Pussycat?

This post would be a LOT cuter with a picture.

But here's the deal. I think our hard drive died. (Oh - I'm using Pat's work laptop, in case you're wondering.) I went upstairs a couple of weeks ago, and the power light on the hard drive was flashing, and it was making a clicking sound. I know, you may be thinking that was just me hearing things again, but it really was. So I turned the power off at the surge protector and left it so I could go take a nap. I was assuming we'd break out the manual or something and take a look at it after I woke up. Well, Pat decided to unhook everything from everything and carry the darn thing downstairs to the kitchen where he was going to "take a look at it." Considering all of his expertise in Computer-Related Things, I'm not sure what he was going to be looking at or looking for. So I gently urged him not to take it apart, and so there it sits, next to the stove, right where it belongs. Long story short, we have no way to download our pictures from the digital camera now, since the program is on that computer. I suppose I could be adventurous and go to Target or Walgreens or something, but I think we all know that's just not going to happen. So you'll have to stay picture-deprived for the time being.

Anyhoo. Josie was digging in her toybox before we left this morning, and found a headband with kitty ears that I had gotten at a bachelorette party a couple, okay - a few - years ago. She decided that kitty ears were exactly what she needed to complete her ensemble for the day and proceeded to put them on and wear them to daycare. Super cute. You'll have to trust me. Someday I'll have a picture to post to prove it :)

28 week update

Weight: Up 3 lbs. from last visit 1 month ago.
Belly measurement: Right on 28 cm.
Blood pressure: 122/70.
Baby heartbeat: 160.

Doc did decide to check me, and thank goodness, there's nothing going on yet. "Thick and closed," if you want an exact quote. As long as all continues to go well, I won't go back for another visit until 32 weeks.

Uffda

This was a harsh Monday morning for all of us. For Josie, because she was able to sleep in for the last 5 days in a row - and given this opportunity, she will sleep until 8:00 or 8:30. 6:30 in the AM does not bode well for my little girl after getting to sleep in. For Pat, because mornings are just hard. And for me, because I got up for a nightly bathroom visit at 2:30, came back to bed, and heard a noise. Not a loud, startling noise, but a constant, ticking or dripping noise. I thought maybe Pat was making this noise somehow (I guess I didn't really stop to think how he might be ticking or dripping,) and asked him if he was making noise. He wasn't. And not only was he not making the noise, he didn't volunteer to either get up and figure out what WAS making the noise, or to lie awake beside me in my misery and see if he could hear the noise. Jerk :) So I got to lie awake, listening alternately to Pat peacefully slumbering away and this mysterious noise - the cause of which has yet to be discovered. So, all of us were moving a little slow this morning. If Josie could talk, she would have told us to get the h-e-double-hockey-sticks out of her room and let her go back to sleep!

Let's see - what else is new with us...

Pat:
Hockey season is over. No more 10:00 pm ice times and coming home at 1:30 on a Tuesday night - well, Wednesday morning. For now. But softball has now begun, so instead, he'll be rushing to the fields from work to make 6:00 and 7:00 double-headers. He's even been hitting the batting cages this year - what's up with that??! I'll keep you posted on how many homers he racks up. Work is going well, and that's about it for him. Other than the aforementioned lactose intolerance, which is still a sore subject :(

Josie:
Like all little kids, she LOVES to be outside. So we spent a good portion of the weekend enjoying the beautiful spring weather. I don't know if this is normal or not, but all she wants to do outside is find things to climb on. Steps. Chairs. Plastic pool/sandbox turtles. We climb up the steps. We climb down the steps. Then back up. Then back down. Over. And over. And over. I even stopped at the park on the way home from a walk with her in the stroller, which has quite lovely play equipment, and all we did the whole time we were there was to climb up and down the steps in front of the community center. Her feet never even touched the sand in the playground. This isn't that big of a deal, except that she's not quite proficient at climbing down or off things yet, so mom or dad must be close by to prevent her little head from smacking the little concrete. We're successful most of the time. :)

You all know that Josie resembles her daddy very much, but she also takes after his mannerisms, as well. I have to laugh when sitting at the breakfast table with the two of them, and I look at Pat and he's staring blankly out the window, then I look at Josie, and she's staring blankly across the room, captured in whatever daydream has her attention at the moment. I also busted the two of them licking off their dinner plates one night a while ago. *sigh* Oh, and of couse, don't forget the "not-morning people" thing, too. Very much takes after daddy on that one.

Watch out if you're around her any time soon - she has a fascination with my belly all of the sudden, and is constantly lifting up my shirt to take a look. But then she's lifting up Pat's shirt and daycare Betty's shirt, and a tucked-in shirt won't stop her quest to see your tummy! She'll pat my belly nicely for a minute, but then gives a little pinch or scratch now and then, too. Why do I have a feeling this may be the way with the new baby, too?

At almost 16 months, she's in personality-plus development mode right now. She's developed quite a sense of humor, will laugh when we laugh and do things to "tease" us, dances all the time - music or not, will make funny faces and noises and "pretend" plays. Pat and I were cleaning yesterday, Pat had finished vacuuming and I was sweeping the kitchen floor when I found a empty roll from wrapping paper behind the garbage can. She took this great new toy and pretended to vacuum for the next few minutes. Of course, she also hit the dog with it and poked the cat, but that's a given.

Me:
Closing in on 7 months preggo, and doing fine. I think I was on my feet a bit much the last few days as I'm kinda sore today, but all in all, am doing well. Getting a bit uncomfortable from time to time, but I'm sure I felt the same way with Josie. I have a very short memory for that type of thing! I think I'm in full "nesting" mode as I am making lists of things to get done and constantly thinking about what the new baby will need. Offer Pat a kind word as I'm sure I'm already driving him up a wall. And we've still got a ways to go! I have my 28 week appointment on Thursday. My last doc checked me at 28 weeks and that's when she discovered that I was already dilated to a 1, but I'm not sure if this doc checks yet or not. Guess that will be a surprise. Since my only personal frame of reference is my experience with Josie, I am already mentally preparing myself for the same experiences I had with her, i.e., Terbutaline, bedrest and delivering a month early! It's going to be a rough end of the road if I end up going over 40 weeks with this one, but I'm hoping for a smoother last couple of months than I had last time. Time will tell, and of course, I'll keep you posted, whether you want me to or not! :)

Exhausted. But happy.

Whew. Patrick and I just spent the last two days purging the basement and closets of useless items that had been taking up valuable space for much too long. We did a good job. You can actually walk around the basement now without tripping over a box of my clothes from 1997.

I'm tired. My feet are tired. And my legs are tired. I think I'll go to sleep now. At least until my 1:00 am bathroom trip :)

P.S. Congrats to the Rosenbaums! Baby Vivian Jade made her debut this morning and I wish all three of them the best!

Everything That Is Lovely

To my sweet Josephine:

We're home from work now.
It's time to go inside.
You cry. You scream.
We wipe the tears away.
There are your eyes. They're lovely.

The meal is done.
Spaghetti sauce on your face.
Potatoes in your hair.
A moment to clean you off.
There is your face. It's lovely.

Your diaper needs to be changed.
Running, crawling, squirming, turning.
Fighting, twirling, wailing, laughing.
Quickness of a parent's hands.
There is your smile. It's lovely.

Playtime is here.
You walk and run, hide and seek, laugh and dance.
You fall.
You get up.
There are your hands. They're lovely.

Bedtime has come.
Lullabyes and a soft blanket.
Rocking and snuggling.
Your face against my cheek.
There is your breath. It's lovely.

You are my light. You are my love. You are everything that is lovely.

Random Stuff on a Rainy Monday

Yes, Daily Dose fans, I did find my stapler and my lowly box of belongings on the same desk where I left them last Thursday. Although I am still quite skittish, and only unpacked the bare necessities in case another move rears its ugly head any time soon. Which I think is not far from the truth since I saw a notice that a position has been filled in the department I'm sitting in, and I have a feeling that's going to result in my homelessness once again. Perhaps this time I'll put my belongings in a red kerchief and tie it to a stick. Or maybe if I started sneezing all over the desk all of the time, or wiping boogers on the cube walls or something, they'd decide just to leave me be. Hmm - I might have to brainstorm some good "leave me alone and don't make me move" ideas...

I have a crabby husband this dreary Monday. No, not because it rained all weekend and not because the Twins suck right now. Because it would appear that he is lactose intolerant. He saw a doc a couple of weeks ago, and was told, due to some stomach issues, to lay off dairy products and see what happened. Unfortunately, the stomach issues were not as much of an issue after a week of being dairy-free. We came to this conclusion after he binged on cheese yesterday and, sparing any disturbing details, was not in a happy place afterwards. It's going to be an interesting adjustment period for us as we consume A LOT of dairy products.

Josie has discovered Brewster's food and water dishes. The food dish isn't a big deal since it's always empty as our chow-hound consumes every niblet of food the second it's put in his dish. But the water dish has been a battle. We often will catch her being "sneaky" and going over to the dish, dipping her hands in, and licking the water off her fingers. Yummy. Dog drooly water. And of course, just for the heck of it, sometimes she has to tip the dish over.

Why do the makers of maternity-wear insist that every pregnant woman simply MUST want to show off her bountiful bosom every moment of every day? I was looking at the maternity shirts that I have, and almost all of them appropriate for the weather during spring and summer are v-neck and low-cut. Which would be okay if I had more "undershirts" with a higher, rounded neck. But I don't have that many. I do have some lovely cami-type shirts which work quite nicely, but leave a little more hanging out at work than I would really care for. And I really don't want to invest more money in more maternity clothes, but for the sake of coverage, will probably have to. I don't want to give people more to look at than my growing belly is already offering. :)

I'm quite excited as I only have a 2-day work week this week. Patrick and I are taking a couple of vacation days to get some projects done around the house while Josie is at daycare. Nothing really fun, just getting some closets cleaned out, cleaning the basement and perhaps staining the privacy fence, weather permitting. These are the projects on my "to do before-baby" list that just never seem to get done on the weekends. Oh oh - and we got to cross off an item on our "to buy before-baby" list as one of Pat's co-workers gave us a toddler bed. Yea!

I believe you have my stapler

It happened again.

So I received an email about 2 weeks ago letting me know that there were going to be some major rearrangements going on around the 5th floor, and lucky me, I was going to be part of the fun. No biggie - I've gotten used to not getting too attached to whatever desk I'm working at for the time being. My official "move date" was to be tomorrow, Friday, but oops, I don't work on Fridays. hee hee :) So I planned to have my whole, whopping, 1 box-full of stuff packed and moved by the end of today. Which I did. I was happily cleaning and rearranging my new desk, and unpacking my Dilbert calendar and sparkly pencils when the supervisor of the area I'm currently assisting walks by. We make some polite conversation, she leaves and I go about my business. She returns a few minutes later and looks a bit puzzled. Then she asks, "weren't you supposed to be moving into so-and-so's old desk?"

"Huh?" I replied.

"Uh, yeah," she says, "I think you're supposed to be over there because... blah blah blah..." I'll save you the boring explanation. Basically - it comes down to this - the department responsible for associate moves and changes was supposed to email me during the last 2 weeks since I received the first email about the move and let me know that my new location had changed.

Yeah. I never got that email.

My only response was "you've got to be kidding me."

This will be my 5th move since I started in this department in January. At least I'm moving closer to the department I'm working with, or I'd really be getting suspicious! I'm so paranoid now that I didn't even bother to unpack my box before I left today. I'll believe that's the desk I'm supposed to be at when I go in on Monday and my stuff is still there! Yes - I am thinking of changing my middle name to Milton. I'd give you my new extension, but I can't remember it. *sigh*

Getting a leg up

Josephine's time lately is mostly spent seeing what she is able to climb on. The objects she's attempting to climb now include, but are not limited to - the coffee table, couch, crib railing, kitchen chairs, footstool and dog. She assesses everything in her path for climbing suitability, then tries to throw her leg over it. She spent about 15 minutes this morning grunting and struggling to climb on one of the little chairs that goes with her kid-sized table. Although she never quite succeeded, I'm sure we'll be giving it another try tonight. She's a tenacious little bugger.

Oh - and she's entered a new stage of independence as she no longer wants us to hold her hand when we walk the sidewalk to Daycare Betty's house. This allows for maximum mobility as we pass by the front steps at Betty's that are, of course, perfect to climb on. I knew toddlers liked to climb and explore, but didn't know that is ALL she would want to do!

There's something just not quite right...

... about driving around Winona in a minivan. The big weekend has come and gone. We attended the 15 year anniversary celebration for Patrick's fraternity on Saturday night in Winona. Driving into the town with so many college memories (some crystal clear and some a bit fuzzy!) was strange - considering I haven't been back there in about 3 years, and driving back in a minivan made it even more strange! It was great to see the town again, to see the new stores and improvements made, to drive by campus and to have lunch at Bub's again. They have the BEST deep-fried cellar mushrooms you have ever tasted - yum! It was fun to catch up with people we haven't seen in years and to find out who has kids and who's getting or has already gotten married and divorced. I have to say it did feel a bit strange to be near the fraternity house with a baby bump... I couldn't quite bring myself to go in. It would be a little like taking a baby into a bar. Just not right.

A big thanks to my mom for watching Josie overnight on Saturday night. It was the cutest thing ever to drive back into the yard on Sunday and see mom pulling Josie along in the garden wagon, with Brewster not far behind, of course! Everyone survived - mostly unscathed. :)

Hey - if anyone has any pull in the building of cell towers - put in a good word for the community of Winona, would ya? It's like being in a black hole - can't get a cell phone signal in that place for nothin'!

Out of Commission

So the past 2 days have been a giant, sleeping blur for me. I came down with a nasty cold (thanks Miss Josie for bringing that one home from daycare!) and perhaps a bit of seasonal allergies on top of it. Big bummer not really being able to take anything for it. And Tylenol is for the birds. I suppose the anemia jazz didn't help with the run-down feeling, either... and I slept, and slept, and slept some more. I'm feeling back amongst the living, but still not quite 100%. But much better.

Otherwise, not much new going on. Heading out of town this weekend to my mom's, then Pat and I are off to Winona on Saturday for a fraternity anniversary thing while Josie-bean babysits Mom and Erwin. Someone's got to keep an eye on those two. Should be fun!

25 weeks today - and baby is kicking like a champ. Except now she's decided she should stay up at night and exercise instead of doing it during the much more acceptable afternoon hours. Oh, well. Gotta get used to not sleeping again, sometime!

Hey - Josie turned 15 months yesterday. Wasn't she just born??

Week 24 Update

24 weeks and all is well.

Weight: Up 3 lbs. from last visit 1 month ago.
Height: Oh, yeah. They don't check this.
BP: 124 / 78. Not too shabby.
Belly measurement: 24 cm. Right on.
Baby heartbeat: 150 bpm. Exactly the same every time. This kid's consistent.

Had the big, bad glucose screening this time. And passed. Whew. Less than 140 is good - and I was a 126. Yeehaw. I was nervous. Really didn't want to go back for that 3 hour torture test.

My hemoglobin was a 9.9. I have no idea what that means - except that it's low. Supposed to be a 12 or something like that. Gotta go do some research on that one. ***Did research. Ah ha. Possibly anemia... I should have known that one. I'm tellin' ya - pregnancy stupids. I'm sure my clinic will be giving me a call to talk about that. The low hemoglobin, not the stupids.***

Oh - and I have a "tall" uterus. I didn't know this was possible. Normally at this stage, the fundus (that's the top of the uterus, for you laypeople) is about an inch above the belly button. Well, I guess mine is a couple inches above that. Perhaps something to do with baby being breech? I dunno. But that does explain why I'm popping out up higher than I thought I should be at this point. (I'll get a picture taken... really, I will. I only think of it when Pat is gone... sorry!)

Doc Ro' said that he took a look at my u/s pix from last week - and everything appears to be just dandy. No concerns that he could see with baby's kidneys. Thank goodness.

Can someone please tell my why my darn tailbone hurts so doggone bad?? Man. I sit for more than a few minutes in one position and it feels like the sucker's going to poke right on out of there. No fun. That's it. No more gripin'.

Baby is kicking like an all-star. Josie did, too... and she hasn't stopped ever since. She has to either step on or kick everything in her path... including our cat, Baxter, much to his displeasure.

Good night - gotta go watch CSI!

You have to be smarter than the window

I just mentioned to Meg that I've had a pretty bad case of pregnancy stupids lately. That brought to mind the following example of such stupidity. Which, normally, one probably wouldn't want to share, but what the hey. We're all friends, here, right?!

Although... now that I think about it, Pat did the same thing, so I'm not sure what his excuse is. Except for having to put up with a wife with pregnancy stupids, which is plenty of excuse in and of itself.

So after we bought the minivan, Pat decided to take it to a full service car wash and have it fully cleaned and detailed. (Not that you can even tell anymore, but at least now I know the dirt on the floor is mine and not some strangers.) It was sparkling quite lovely, and the friendly people at the Downtowner ever so kindly cracked open the one of the third row rear windows (which is the type of window that ever-so-slightly opens outward from the vehicle) for us since you're supposed to leave a window open a tad for the first 24 or 48 hours or something after having the carpets cleaned.

The only problem was a torrential downpour which was going to happen within the aforementioned 24 or 48 hour timeframe.

Now Patrick and I, having never owned a fancy-schmancy minivan before, were having a lot of trouble getting that back window closed again. (You can probably see where this is going, right??) Pat tried and tried one morning in the parking lot before work, and just couldn't quite get the window closed. I tried and tried one evening while waiting to pick Pat up from work, and just couldn't quite get that window closed. That darn window latch was stuck open. In the process of yanking excessively on the window dealy, we got this greasy junk on our hands and proclaimed ever-so-wisely to each other that the window must never have been opened before.

Yes- that was it, we were not inept, it was merely stuck open due to lack of use.

Well, about a week ago, we had a gloriously warm, beautiful day. A day beautiful enough to have the windows open while driving around. I did exactly this while on my way to pick up Pat from work. While waiting for him, and adjusting the driver and passenger windows to allow for optimum air circulation without massive wind gusts which blow my hair all over the place and make me quite cranky, I noticed just below the driver and passenger window controls two more window control buttons.

"Well, isn't that strange?" I thought to myself. "Why would there be a second set of controls when minivans have sliding passenger doors that don't have power windows?"

So I pushed one of the controls, and heard this strange whirring sound and looked around, quite puzzled. I pushed it again, and still couldn't figure out where this sound was coming from. Hmm. Maybe they're just there and not connected to anything. I was in the process of pushing the other unexplained window control button when I caught a glimpse of something moving in the side mirror.

AH-frickin'-HAH. As I was pushing the mysterious buttons, the third row rear windows were opening and closing, just like they are supposed to - WITH THE POWER CONTROLS.

Wow. I got quite a kick out of showing Pat this fancy new trick when he got to the van. What will they think of next :)

More Josephine Pictures

We are SO lucky.

Overall, Josie is such a good girl. We dragged her all over the place over the weekend running various errands, getting her picture taken at Penney's, picking out new rollerblades for Pat, meeting friends for lunch... and she didn't complain at all. Granted, she is finding new ways to test us - rubbing food all over her head, dropping food on the floor (on purpose, all the while looking at us to see our reaction,) and throwing her leg repeatedly over the side of her wagon while on a walk after I freaked out that she was going to fall out. I know this is just the beginning, and I know that it's all in exploration of the cause - effect relationship to see what our, well, mainly MY, reaction will be. So I'm getting good, okay - better, at withholding my freaking- out response and trying not to give a reaction at all since that's all she's looking for. She's a stinker, but such a good-natured stinker :)

And yes... Peg and Becky... we will get a picture of my belly up here for you soon, I promise!

The Tree Man Cometh...

And the tree stays. For now. Pat called a tree service and had them come out and give us an estimate on taking down the birch. Can you say "holy moly!?"

After talking with the Tree Man, he said that he didn't think it was in that bad of shape. Yeah, it isn't as alive and vibrant as it could be, but give it a little pruning and should be okay. For now. He assured us that in his opinion, it's not going to fall on Old Crusty's house. We're in more danger of losing a limb or something in a big storm, which could cause damage, but doesn't pretty much anyone anywhere anytime have this danger if you have tree anywhere near your home? Sure, the nice, neighborly thing to do would be to pay the money to have it taken down, since the sum we'd pay is pretty much the same as the deductible we'd have to pay if it fell on Crusty's house. But you know what? I'm not feeling all that nice. Or neighborly. Toward her, at least.

Changing the subject, I uttered a phrase the other night I didn't think I'd ever say. "Honey, don't shove that broccoli up your nose." Josie has discovered her nostrils, and boy, are they are fascinating. The PERFECT size for little fingers and other objects. Geesh. Thought I had a while before needing to worry about nose-picking becoming an issue.

Changing subject again, we had our follow-up ultrasound yesterday afternoon. All is well. The tech said she didn't see anything that looked like cause for concern regarding baby's kidneys, but of course, the u/s pix will be forwarded to my doc to take a look at. I see him next Thursday so will have more info then. Oh - and no boy parts have appeared in the last month, so we're still going with girl gusto for the time being. Baby is breech right now, but has tons of time to head south for the winter. Or summer, in this case. Based on baby's size, the "guess date" is off by a day, but no biggie.

We took Jo for her first wagon ride today. A bit on the windy side, but she LOVED it nonetheless. I have a feeling we're going to be logging a lot of miles in ye ole wagon this summer.

More pictures to come soon. But maybe not this weekend - it took 6 minutes to upload this one picture on dial-up. Ugh.

Exercise your right...

... to help name our baby. There are new girl names to vote on. And you can now vote for more than one choice, if you wish. I thought this might be necessary since the list is getting longer instead of shorter. Ugh.

Again, we're still open to suggestions. But don't bother suggesting Sierra Misty, because Pat's brother already did - and I had to shoot him down. Sorry. But if you're pregnant or thinking about becoming pregnant, please, feel free to use it. ;)

And let me explain my reasoning behind Eleanor. I think it's kinda classy - and before you say "wait a minute... Ellie Daly, I don't think so!," it wouldn't have to be Ellie for short, it could be just Elle. Which isn't so bad. Or Nora - which, yes, Pat doesn't like, so my chances of winning on this name are slim to none. But I still like it. So there.

Anyone know a good lawyer?

Because apparently our next door neighbor is going to sue us.

If the tree in our front yard falls on her house.

Here's the deal. We have a grouping of three birch trees in our front yard. Now - our house is "cozy" to put it nicely and there are a lot of improvements that an improvement-minded couple could undertake - but those birch trees and the size of the kitchen and the fireplace are what sold me on the house. I don't claim to be a... well... whomever it would be that would know a lot about trees, so I don't know, maybe the tree is dying. But is it going to fall over today? No. Tomorrow? No. Next month? Probably not.

Let's back up. Old Crusty, as we'll call our evil neighbor, first approached Pat last summer. They were having a conversation about whatever, and Pat mentioned that we needed to take out the row of poorly-maintained shrubs that separates our yard from Old Crusty's. And she agreed that would be great- they were unsightly and we hadn't touched them since we bought the place in 2001. I know we are not the most desirable of neighbors from time to time, our lawn tends to be a tad underwatered, undermowed and undertended in general. And we have a big dog. Who leaves big poops. But damn it, yardwork just isn't our bag, baby. And we live next to ALL RETIRED PEOPLE WHO HAVE NOTHING TO DO ALL DAY BUT WORK ON THEIR YARDS. So that makes us look even worse. Anyway - back to the story. So then a while later OC comes a-knockin' on our front door. I answered. She hands me a card for a tree removal guy and says that she just used him for a tree in her backyard and he was reasonable and we should use him for the birch because he said it was dying and she'd hate to have to sue us if it fell on her house. *crickets chirping* I wasn't sure what to say to that. So I just said "yes, Old Crusty, that would be too bad, wouldn't it?" And closed the door. ???!?! What the hell?

Fast forward to last Friday. I got the mail and noticed an envelope hiding at the bottom of the closet under one of Pat's shoes. I'm not sure how long it had been there, could have been there a while or could have been left that day. (Let me explain our mailslot... it goes from the outside of the house directly into our front closet. It requires acrobatics to make sure you retrieved all of the mail. Big fat pain in my big fat butt.) The thin envelope was simply addressed to "Pat" and contained one sheet of lined paper. This is what it said:

Pat,
Please take down that tree in the front yard. If it would come down on my house I'd have to sue you. It would be better to pay for the tree removal then damage to my home.
Old Crusty

I'm not *always* a completely unreasonable person. It would be unfortunate to have a tree come down on her house. I'm not begrudging her that fact. But what the hell is up with this suing us business?? That's the second threat we've gotten and if she thinks she's scaring us, she's sorrily mistaken. If anything her scare tactic is completely backfiring and we're going to leave the damn tree there just out of spite. AND if anything else, the part of the tree that leans the most toward OUR house may be the most damaged. I don't know, I guess we just need someone to come out and look at it, but I don't want to give OC the satisfaction of thinking that her harassment has worked. Ugh. I'm so incredible peeved. And sad - I really like that tree. Yes, it's a birch and it drops a bunch of twigs as birches tend to do, but it's pretty and I like it and I'm sad that we didn't water it as much as we should have a couple of summers ago when it was ungodly hot and we should have known better and watered more. I know it means a lot to get along with your neighbors, but I don't think I'm being unreasonable in being very annoyed at her threats. She never even asked us reasonably about the tree. So I let off some steam by writing her some nasty letters back - which I threw away, of course, and good thing since the nicest of them told her that she was old and so was the tree so we were just going to let nature take it's course with both of them - and now I guess we just sit and wait. And see which way the tree falls. So if you know a good lawyer, let us know, just in case the wind isn't blowing in our direction that day.

Alright, so maybe we'll give in and have the blasted tree removed... but we're sure as heck going to let her sit there and stew about it for a good while first. Oh yeah - stew away Old Crusty One, stew away.

The case of the missing sock

If anyone is mysteriously missing a sock - let me know - my dog probably ate it. So I walk into Josie's room on Friday afternoon to get her up from her nap, and Brewster, as always, joins me. She had taken off one of her socks, so I pick it up and am messing around with the dog, hitting him in the head and face with it while he opens up his mouth and tries to get it. This always gets a laugh out of Jos. Well, I stop for a second, Brewster grabs the sock and takes off across the room with it, and it's gone. I bolt after him and open up his mouth - and it was truly gone. He ate her sock. No report yet on whether a bright pink sock has shown up in our yard. Gross.

If you're up for a little Lawrence Welk sometime, stop on by. That is Josie's new favorite show. No Dora or Dragon Tales for my little girl. We like the classics. She had the remote on Saturday and was flipping through stations (one of her favorite things to do) when all of the sudden she stops at Larry, puts the remote down and smiles the biggest smile and starts dancing away! She didn't quite understand that if she continued to flip stations, she'd lose the tunes and would get very mad until we put it back on the station with the delightful polka melodies. She has turned into a music fiend lately and definitely has an affinity for classic rock over any of her "educational" music CDs.

Everything else is going just fine - I'm feeling good in my 22nd week. I have my follow-up ultrasound this Thursday. Feelin' a little groggy this morning due to the time change, but am sure looking forward to more daylight in the evening. BUT we do have to get darkening shades for Josie's room. Nighttime could be a battle until we do.

Cheerier posts

Not sure if "cheerier" is actually a word. *shrug* Anyway - I'll try to have more uplifting posts from now on. I really wasn't in a depressed mood yesterday, I swear.

On a good note - I can't remember having a bad dream last night. But then again, I didn't sleep very well, so maybe that's why. I remember having strange dreams - like one where a former co-worker now has her own massage business and comes back to the office to do massages in conference rooms. But a "big-wig" in the department I used to work in frowns upon it, so everyone has to be sneaky about getting massages at work and make sure that there is nothing scheduled to be in the conference room at the time they want to get their massage. Oh, and I was in a fashion show in my house with all of these skinny models. Tyra Banks brought us the clothes to wear, and she got them from Macy's. Hmm. Perhaps I watch too much television. :)

Give your kids a hug

This story really moved me. Please take a minute to read. If you're from the Cities area, you may have already read a story or heard a news segment about this family. Take a moment to read this, say a prayer, think a kind thought, make a donation, whatever you want. But most of all, be grateful for what you have and the time you've been given.

Poor kids

You know who I feel sorry for? Kids who have a home address in Albuquerque while they are learning to spell and write and type. I just had to type - that city - about 5 times, and I tell ya, it's not easy. :)

Disturbing

I've been bugged the last couple of days by the disturbing nature of the dreams I've been having. Since getting pregnant again, I've been dreaming a lot, but lately, the dreams have been more vivid, more violent and more detailed than I've had before.

I'll highlight the last 3 nights for you. A couple of nights ago I dreamed of getting stabbed in the throat and seeing every detail of what was going on around me in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. The ambulance had see-through sides, and we were making our way through downtown St. Paul, and I could see all the people staring in at me. The next night - without going into too much detail because this one was gross and gory, I dreamed I was about as far along in my pregnancy as I currently am and that I went to the bathroom and there was blood and "stuff" everywhere, and basically, by the end of the dream, I had lost the baby. Last night I dreamed that I borrowed the SUV of a guy I went to high school with (and wasn't even friends with, by the way) so that I could make it to one of my good high school friend's house because she lived way down in this weird valley with a really winding, curvy, twisting, bumpy road. On the way down, I flipped the SUV and had all kinds of bruises and cuts all over my face.

I'm getting a little paranoid that something horrible is going to happen to me! It seems like I dream all night, granted, who really knows how much we actually dream, and not all of the dreams are horrible. I wake up remembering one yucky dream every morning. I'm already starting to get uncomfortable at night without having these nightmares to look forward to, as well. Anyone have any insights?

"O"

Do me a favor. Open your eyes really wide. Now form a perfect little "o" with your mouth. Hold it...

There. That's Josie's new favorite face to make. This face can be used in a variety of situations. For example - "whoa, Brewster almost knocked me over!" or "I think Daddy tooted!" or "I just tooted!" or "I just threw my cup on the floor!" or "where did that darn cat go?" or "I'm feeling sleepy. I must stay awake!" or "Daddy's driving too fast!" However, this face is difficult to form while crying, but she still tries. Feel free to use this face if you encounter any of the above situations, or apply it to any scenario you find it useful for. Try it - you'll like it!

We have no bananas.

I am 21 weeks pregnant today. I eagerly opened my email this morning awaiting the news of which fruit or veggie is now in my uterus. But babycenter.com has let me down! All I get is "your baby is now three-quarters of a pound and approximately 10 1/2 inches long." Are you telling me there are no foods of this size to reference any longer? What will I do?! If you know of an appropriately sized edible object I can visualize in my womb, please share.

So I was discussing my work situation with Pat the other day when he pointed out something disturbing. Not that there's anything interesting going on - we were just talking about how there was a time a few weeks ago when I kept getting shuffled around to different desks while they figured out where I could sit and not take up a desk for a newly-hired associate. It was mildly annoying to come in on a Monday morning after schlepping all of my stuff to a different cube only to be told that oh, yeah - I guess you can't sit there after all. No biggie. Anyway - Pat pointed out that perhaps, I am the Milton of Securian. (If you haven't seen Office Space, don't worry, you aren't going to get it.) I was laughing so hard I thought I might pee my pants. Which doesn't take much anymore. I really need to get a red Swingline stapler. And I was told I could listen to my radio at a reasonable volume from nine to eleven. If I come in on Monday and find I've been moved to the basement, then I know I'm in trouble. :)

New pix

Drat

I had a bunch of pictures edited and ready to post (I burned them onto a CD and was going to do it from work... soooooo much faster,) but apparently the ones I had ready to go are not on the CD. Shoot. Guess I didn't transfer those from the Kodak program to the computer. Alright, I'll try again tonight to post from home. Sorry.

Can you believe Josie is 14 months old already?? I can't! Happy Monday - more to come...
csd

Miscellaneous stuff on a Friday afternoon

Happy St. Patty's Day! Josie and I went downtown to meet up with Pat and some of his new co-workers (funny, because they're some of my "old" co-workers) at lunch today to take in the annual parade in St. Paul. Basically a bunch of Irish families, social groups and bagpipers walking in groups up 4th street, along with a LOT of drunken parade-watchers and those who wish they were partaking of the drinking but are merely on break from work. It's a good time that brings back a lot of memories of younger, more care-free, pre-kid and pre-pregnancy days!

Um - let's see. I had my 20 week appointment yesterday. Dr. Rolando said that the ultrasound pix from last week looked good. But. They are a little concerned about the size of baby's kidneys. So I'm scheduled for a follow-up ultrasound in 3 weeks. Dr. R is sure everything is fine, some babies just have bigger kidneys, but wants to stay on top of the situation in case there could be something wrong. If this u/s shows similar results, then they may request another, more specialized u/s that can look specifically at particular regions. Otherwise, everything was normal - my bp was 120/76, weight up 1 lb from previous visit (yahoo!,) tummy measuring at 21 cm, and baby heartbeat right on 150. Oh - and babycenter.com says baby is the size of a large sweet potato. I know you all are dying for those wonderful fruit and veggie updates!

Josie is a tornado. She is in to everything from the various garbage cans around the house to the books on the shelves in her room. Her job is not complete until everything within reach is strewn all over the floor. Then she is satisfied and can move on to the next project! She is getting good at also putting things back... but that's not nearly as fun. :(

She is loving her books right now. And mommy is loving that she's loving her books! She will often scoot away from us and crawl (not walk, yet, you'll notice) into her room and just sit for quite a long time on the floor looking at her books. Her favorite is "Good Morning, Good Night." A touch and feel bedtime book. Illustrated by Melanie Mitchell. You'll probably notice that we read this one a lot. A. Lot.

Patrick's new job is going great. So far, he is really enjoying it. I think he'll be a wonderful fit for his position and is going to get along fabulously with his new co-workers. Oh - funny story. His first day was Wednesday. Someone walked around asking who wanted to put in a dollar to play the Daily 3. He said sure and put in his numbers. Well - I guess they've never really won much before, but on Mr. DALY'S first day playing the DAILY 3, they won $500!! There were 10 people in the pool, so each got a lovely $50. Hope that's a sign of the good luck he's going to have from now on!

Pictures to come soon. I promise. Maybe tonight after Josie goes to bed or tomorrow when Pat's around. Darn dial-up stinks for posting pix from home. Gotta go. Toddler getting very impatient at the lack of attention!

Potty Mouth

Apparently we already have to start watching our language around Josie. Granted, this would be a good habit to start regardless of having a toddler, but I didn't think that we'd need to worry about it quite yet. Boy - am I going to be in trouble. ** *Note to self--- don't ever agree to start one of those "mommy will put money in a jar every time she swears" deals.***

Anyway - on Sunday, Patrick was making an attempt to get the Desitin out of the rug in Josie's room. If you don't know the story, read the earlier post named "Just TRY to tell me things don't happen for a reason." We have a lovely steam cleaner which we thought would do the trick. We were wrong. If anyone has tips for getting Desitin out of a rug, PLEASE let us know. Josie and I were sitting in the room watching the fun, when Pat decided to give up the fight. He was rolling the cleaner out of the room, and I guess the part that holds the water wasn't quite latched in correctly, and when he lifted it to help it over the runner in the hallway, the water tank fell out. As you can guess, water spilled all over the hallway. Pat proceeded to give his best sailor impression and throw out a few choice expletives. Keep in mind, Josie is sitting on my lap, taking in all the fun. For the next 20 minutes, with the same tone and volume in her voice that daddy just used, she yells out what I swear (no pun intended) was "dammit." Over, and over, and over.

She definitely doesn't miss a thing. When the dog has tripped me in the kitchen for the 10th time and I yell at him to get out of my way or he slobbers all over Pat's pants and he yells at him to go lay down, pretty soon Josie is "yelling" at him, too. Yet another thing we'd better try to curb. Or when we visit Meg and Joel, and Meg gently reprimands Joel for setting the television he's moving temporarily in a rubbermaid container not designed to hold televisions, then soon Josie is "reprimanding" Joel, too. I think we're going to have a bossy girl on our hands!

Other than the potty mouth, which actually was pretty hilarious, we had yet another lovely weekend. Taxes are done, and we're getting a dandy of a refund- thank you very much Miss Josie! Laundry is done, the house is "somewhat" clean, and we got to play and play all weekend long. Jo kept daddy busy toodling around the house - she now sits on the floor and holds up both arms while opening and closing her hands signaling whoever is "driving" that she's ready to go. I really hope she takes those first steps soon! Oh - and now she won't walk unless she has your thumbs. I guess the thickness of the thumb is the most conducive for toodling. She jabbers and jabbers all day long, loves to chase the cats around the house, and is more and more animated and vocal every day. We're starting to see the mood swings, hitting and kicking mommy and daddy when she's tired or not getting her way, then the tears flow when we tell her "no" and she seeks out the other, nicer parent for comfort. The fun is just beginning!

IT'S A...

GIRL!!!

At least, that's what the ultrasound tech is going with. Pat made the gametime call and said if she could see well enough to hazard a guess, to go ahead and tell us. She said she would never say 100% either way, but she looked a couple different times from different angles, and is thinking girl. So knowing that anything can happen, we won't actually believe it until we see it - or don't see "it," in this case. Figures - we were pretty set on boy names. :)

Based on the measurements taken today, we're staying with August 2nd for the due date (I know I had been saying August 3rd... but close enough.) Baby was moving around a lot the longer the ultrasound lasted. Hope she's not quite the kicker that her sister was!

2 girls. Yikes! I'll see my doc again next Thursday and we'll be able to go over the ultrasound at that time to make sure everything looks like it's progressing well.

Make sure to vote again in our girl name poll. Choices have changed. Middle names to be determined. We're open to suggestions!

Ultrasound day is here

The big day has arrived. Well, I guess I still don't know for sure how big of a day since Pat and I have not come to a decision yet as to whether we will find out if it's a boy or girl. He keeps saying we should flip a coin for it. Phooey. Guess it will be a game time decision. 3:00 appointment - we'll keep you posted.

Oh - I'm 19 weeks and baby is the length of a small zucchini.

I have nothing to say about that.

Congrats to the Gronau family and new baby Edward! We were so happy to finally meet him! Check out Pants Central for pictures and the birth story.

Delightful

We had a lovely weekend at the Daly house. Friday, Josie and I picked up Pat at lunch and went to finish up some paperwork for the van, then after we dropped him off, we went to Toys-R-Us and did a little shopping. I got an activity walker to help Josie along - she's very close to taking those first steps on her own. We also picked up some of those fridge magnets in alphabet shapes - both purchases were a big hit. That evening we met Pat's brother at Green Mill for dinner, then Josie and I headed home while Pat and Brian went to a high school hockey game.

Saturday we got to spend some time with some relatives we don't get to see very often, the Meyer family from Grove City and the Olsons from Omaha. All were in town for the high school state wrestling tournament at the Xcel Energy Center as my cousin Greg's 10th grader, Ben, was competing in the 112 lb weight class. He ended up taking 4th, while his team took 3rd place. It was a fun day, and Miss Josie enjoyed all of the yelling and clapping very much - she clapped and yelled right along with everyone!

Josie let us sleep in until 8:00 on Sunday - always appreciated! She and daddy went to mass while mommy finished up some laundry. She took a 2 hour nap for us, which allowed mommy to also catch a little nap. She was just a delight - so happy and funny, she had us cracking up all weekend long. Her favorite things to do right now are to climb on the dog when he's laying down - then give him hugs, to play telephone with whatever object happens to be close - including graham crackers, which apparently work nicely as phones, and to "help" mommy fold laundry by taking clothes in and out of the basket and then climbing in the basket when the clothes are all inside. Socks are the best - she'll play and play for hours with a few socks, which also do double duty as kleenex if need be. Needless to say, I end up washing some clothes a couple of times before they get put away!

It's About Time

I like to be on time. I've always liked to be on time. I used to pride myself on being prompt. In fact, I was always early.

This, of course, changed once I had a child.

Gone are the days of grabbing my keys and running out the door with nary a care in the world except my own being. Now it's hats, coats, bags and belongings of that sort for multiple beings. Tracking down these various items invariably leads to time slipping away, and *gasp*, being LATE. Granted, looking back, I did seem to be a "hurry up and wait" kind of person. Arriving 10 minutes early to classes just for the sake of having that safety bubble, being able to grab a seat in the back and watch others arrive, not wanting those others to get there before me and look at my butt as I took a late-comers seat in the front. Having a cushion of time to get my refreshments, go to the bathroom, check my e-mail or just stare into space for 5 minutes while not "on-the-clock" at work used to seem so important.

That luxury is gone. These things are now getting done "on-the-clock," and that's just the way it has to be. We now sometimes arrive for appointments, work and social gatherings LATE, and that's just the way it has to be.

Now each minute of the morning at home is preciously allotted to the needs of someone else before my own. I hurriedly get showered and dressed before everyone else because if I fall behind schedule, then the morning is shot, and *gasp*, I'm LATE. Of course, I'm not in this alone. My husband often sacrifices breakfast in order make sure our child is dressed and gets her milk in the morning or ends up wearing a wrinkled shirt because he didn't have time to check it as he was chasing the little one through the kitchen to make sure she doesn't head for the basement stairs. If I look at the clock and it's 6:15 instead of 6:10 when I'm feeding the dog, then I know for certain that I'm going to be LATE for work because now the whole morning is off schedule and we're going to be leaving the house at 7:10 instead of 7:05, and crap! it's recycling day and we didn't put ours out last week and it has to go out today and where is the lunch container, oh- never mind we don't have time to make lunch, get Josie's coat we have to go, wait- you're wearing white socks with black shoes - go change, hurry up, where are Josie's mittens, did the dog get let out? stop staring at the cat - we have to go, we're LATE!

Yes, I COULD get up 10 minutes earlier. But I refuse. I already get up at 5:30 and just. can't. get. up. earlier.

I admit to having a mild panic attack at the thought of adding another being and another being's belongings to this chaotic mix. I know at first it will be hairy, but just as everything worked out the first time, it undoubtedly will again. We fall into a comfortable routine, disrupt the routine with a life changing event, struggle, adjust and fall into a different comfortable routine, only to do it all over again.

I realized this morning when I got to work (only 3 minutes LATE, mind you) that not only am I obsessed with watching the clock, but I'm now obsessed with watching the calendar, as well. I turned on my computer, pulled up my Lotus Notes, checked my calendar (why, I'm not sure as I never have much going on!) for today's schedule, opened my desk calendar to March, tore off yesterday's Dilbert cartoon on my daily calendar, and made sure the Avon calendar on my cube wall was, in fact, turned to March. Of course, it was.

Why the calendar obsession? Pregnancy. We count down time before baby arrives while counting up how many weeks along we are. 18 weeks today, by the way. Baby is the length of a large sweet potato. We count and count until we reach that magical 40 weeks - well usually, unless baby decides to come out at 36 weeks and 3 days, or as is the case for some of us, we hit 40 weeks and just keep right on going. But it's all about time. Because that's what we were given when we were born. Minutes in an hour, days in a week, years in a lifetime to fill with loved ones, hobbies, friends, and in my case, calendars.

Perhaps my preoccupation with time is an unhealthy obsession that leads to premature gray in my hair or ulcers in my stomach, but it's my obsession to have and I know I can't give it up.

I don't have time.

Let's Give the Boy a Hand!

A Big Congratulations to Patrick for being offered and accepting a job in the Agricultural and Association Sales Department! After toiling away in the Life and Health Sales Center for almost 6 1/2 years, he decided to venture out and move on up to the penthouse of the 401 Building, the 13th floor... where he'll join the likes of esteemed colleagues such as one Mr. Joel Gronau (although, they will be in different departments, which is probably a good thing!) This could be dangerous - I don't know if the 13th floor knows what's in store for them! Way to go, hon - I'm very proud of you!

We Did It! We Did It! Yea, We Did It!

Okay - maybe I've been watching a little too much Dora lately. Josie doesn't seem to care for it yet, but I love it!

What did we do, you may ask? We bought a minivan. Yup. We are now the proud owners of a Ford Windstar. Oh boy, if my father were still around, he would not be happy that we have become the owners of 2 Ford vehicles! But the price was right and it has some awfully fun options, like a power sliding door and a beeper thing that starts going off when Pat almost backs into the neighbor's garage. And it makes life SO much easier to be able to just place Josie in her car seat instead of performing Feats of Strength maneuvering her in the backseat of the Taurus. Needless to say, I'm excited to be a minivan owner. AND we got groceries on Saturday, and were able to just lift the back gate and put all 1 and 1/2 carts-full in the back. Fabulous.

Let's see, what else. Oh - I had a doctor's appointment last Thursday. My weight was only up 2 lbs. from the last visit. I was pleasantly surprised, considering that my butt seems to be growing at a much faster rate than my tummy. My blood pressure was 120 / 80 - which they didn't seem concerned about, but seemed high to me. I think mine is usually quite a bit lower than that. Baby's heartbeat was 160. My belly is measuring at an 18, so about right on. I'll have an ultrasound at 19 weeks and another doc visit at 20 weeks.

Josie has started to "talk" on the telephone. She'll grab our cell phone or the home phone and hold it up to her ear and pretend to talk. Adorable. I know every kid does this sooner or later, but it's just so darn cute. Granted, it won't be so *cute* in a few years when we can't get her off of the phone. We were playing phone last Friday and she handed it to me, so I was talking into it, and she got flustered that she didn't have anything to talk into and just held her hand up to her ear and started jabbering away. Oh - and she's jabbering quite proficiently now. Perfectly formed, nonsensical sentences. She also has discovered the toilet. And toilet paper. No major mishaps yet, but I can just see the gleam of possibility in her twinkly little eyes. :)

This pregnancy seems quite different from Josie. My appetite is much greater, but yet, I am very sensitive to food this time around. Example - I threw up Saturday night because the smell of the roast and carrots we had in the crock pot all day sent me over the edge. Very disappointing considering that I love roast! It also may have been due to the weird combo of food I had eaten earlier in the day. I remember last time around the smell of taco meat really bothered me, but not to the point that I actually had to throw up. I can stomach a lot of gross stuff and never thought that the SMELL of food would actually make me sick!

Gotta go for now - have a Happy Monday!

On the Mend

Everyone in the Daly house is doing just fine this morning. After a very hectic afternoon yesterday picking up Josie from daycare, taking her to the doctor's office, going to Target to fill her prescription, (ooh - bookclub girls, I actually witnessed Meg looking at digital cameras, YEAH :) !) going to the vet to pick up Brewster and getting into the house with toddler, bags from Target, Arby's for dinner, very excited dog and very excited dog's medications all in one armload, I was pooped! Not to mention that Pat had to work until 6:00 last night, so I got to do it all by myself. Can't wait until there's another baby to throw in the mix!

Josie's doctor appointment went well - the doc decided that he didn't see any reason to put her back on antibiotics again and gave her a prescription for Prednisonal, or something like that, basically prednisone, to help open up her airways and hopefully get rid of that nighttime cough. No more vomiting, so that's a good thing. He said all that gunk in her tummy just wasn't going to go anywhere but back up again, so all the milk on top of it just was enough for her to get rid of it once and for all.

And Brewster. He got the okay to come home, they think the zinc poisoning danger has passed. We have to give him a pill twice a day to help settle his tummy since he went through quite a bit of trauma yesterday, and we have some meds for his nasty ear infection. We'll do a follow-up appointment in a week to make sure nothing is showing up in his blood, and he'll have the official all clear after that. Whew. Still a little shaken by the close call on that one. He was VERY excited to see me last night and practically jumped right into my arms - no laughing matter when we're talking about an 80 lb. dog!

I have my 16 week appointment this afternoon, even though I'm officially 17 weeks today. (I thought I'd better work one "full" week last week after missing the entire week before!) Babycenter says my baby is the size of a large onion this week. I can't think of anything more disgusting. Thanks, Babycenter.

Just TRY to tell me things don't happen for a reason

Call it a higher power, call it divine intervention, call it whatever you want - but there's SOMETHING or SOMEONE out there watching out for each and every one of us - animals included. Here's a long story to prove my point:

We were having a pretty normal morning. Although Josie didn't want to finish her milk this morning, which is strange for her. But we didn't really see any red flags. We get her to daycare, start taking off her coat and hat and mittens, and she proceeds to throw up on dad. Sorry for the detail here - but it's necessary for the story. What she threw up was pretty much curdled milk and lots of mucus. She's had this cough and runny nose for what seems like forever, and she doesn't know how to cough that stuff up, so it all goes to her tummy. She is not showing any other symptoms of being sick and does not have a fever. She actually now seems quite happy to have that nastiness out of her system. Betty says to leave her and she'll call us if anything else seems amiss. Perhaps not the best decision, but she REALLY seems to be just fine. So we leave her - all the time wondering what is going on beyond the cough and runny nose. Allergy, lactose intolerance, what? I make a note to call her doctor and try to get her in today.

Problem - Pat is covered in puke. We need to go home so he can get cleaned up. So we do. For some reason, I go into Josie's room. What I find does not make me happy. Brewster has decided to dig in Josie's diaper bag, take out the tube of Desitin, and eat it. In doing so, he has smeared it all over the rug in her room. Pat looks at the tube, and sees that it says to call Poison Control if ingested. Hmm. This probably isn't good.

I call our vet. They quickly say that we need to get him to their office, ASAP. So we do. The dumb dog gets to go for a ride, and becomes very excited, even though we keep telling him that this is not going to be a fun trip.

Zinc is poisonous to dogs. If it gets into their systems, it can cause a variety of damage, including breaking down red blood cells and causing kidney failure. Brewster ate pretty much the entire contents of a full tube - which just happens to contain 40% zinc oxide. Fabulous. Of course, his health and well-being are our primary concern, but we can't help but begin to get sick thinking of the cost this episode is going to incur. (Remind yourselves of our $175 Chinet paper plate incident, if you will.) We have to leave him at the vet's office all day while they treat and observe him.

We get to work - me about 1 hour late and Pat about 1/2 hour late. We need to get Josie to the doctor to figure out what's going on with her, and now our dog could die. The vet calls after a while and gives us pretty good news. They induced vomiting, and because he had eaten this morning before he ate the Desitin, it stuck mostly to the food in his stomach instead of to the lining of his stomach. So now they have to give him medicine to stop vomiting, give him IV fluids and put a tube down his throat to get gel into his stomach which will, hopefully, absorb what is remaining of the Desitin. He is one lucky dog. And here is why:

If we would not have had to go home for Pat to change, we would not have discovered that Brewster had eaten the Desitin until 5:30 tonight. Which would have been disastrous. We had 3 things on our side: 1. He's an 80 lb. dog, so the effects would not be as serious as to a smaller dog. 2. He had a full stomach which inhibited absorption into his stomach lining and 3. We found him within 1/2 hour after he ate it, also inhibiting the time it had to absorb into his system. Now you tell me why this day of all days, we needed to go home? It gives me goosebumps just to think about it. I can honestly say that we have NEVER needed to run home quick before going to work.

The vet gave me an estimate, while still not exactly cheap, was not nearly as horrid as what we were imagining. This, of course, is true as long as we do not have to have him admitted to an Emergency Hospital for further treatment. Knock on wood. So this disaster is, hopefully, averted and on the way to a happy ending.

After hanging up with the vet and calling Pat to let him know the news, I decide to call Betty to see how Josie is doing. She had thrown up, again. Great. So Pat calls and gets her an appointment so we can figure out what in the world is going on with our little girl. So the drama in our life is not over, for the time being. We'll keep you posted.

Polls

Please be sure to check out the polls on the right sidebar. The names are definitely not carved in stone and will change often, so be sure to check back. :) We're open to suggestions... well, realistic suggestions. And no, Jara, if we have a boy, we're not going to name it Apu. Apu Daly. Ha ha.

***My thanks to Meg Gronau for her assistance in posting the polls. Now go have that baby already!

Grrrr!

This is one of Josie's favorite sounds to make - and this morning, one of mine, too! First off - it's Monday. Enough said. Secondly - it's President's Day, so that means many of you don't have to work today, but I do. And lastly - I could have worn stinkin' jeans today and I FORGOT! That is a rare treat and I can't even believe I didn't write it down or something. Damn! So I'm just going to have to cast evil stares at all of my co-workers who did remember. That will make me some friends on the 5th floor. Grrr. Perhaps I'll growl at them, too. :{

It's Thursday and there's an avocado in my abdomen

I'm 16 weeks pregnant today. Babycenter.com tells me my baby is now about the size of an avocado. I have an avocado at home, so I'll have to hold it up to my belly and see how it looks. Maybe I could stuff it in the front of my pants and pretend I'm having twins.

End of an Era

Okay - maybe that's a little dramatic. But Pat and I were faced with a harsh reality last night as we attempted to go out for dinner with Josie.

We can't go out to dinner with Josie.

Well... maybe if conditions are perfect, i.e. she's been fed, has napped sufficiently and is in a happy place, then we can take her out to eat. But on a rushed and harried work night, it's just not worth it. We picked her up from daycare, scooted home to let the dog out and to grab her diaper bag, crackers and sippy cup and went to one of our favorite Mexican restaurants. We thought we were going to be doing dandy as we trekked up White Bear Ave at 5:30... until she started to melt down in the backseat. That should have been our signal to turn around and high-tail it for home. But no. We persisted. Things were going fine in the restaurant as she was happy to be out of her carseat and in a bright, colorful restaurant and was enjoying her crackers and milk while we waited for our food. Well, we had to wait a *little* too long and the timing was perfect for her to become bored just after our meals arrived. It really wasn't THAT bad - just not exactly a relaxing night out for us as we tried to keep her happy and to not throw everything on the floor.

It used to be so easy when she was more readily entertained and we'd smugly proclaim that we didn't know what people were talking about when they said it's hard to go out with the kids. Hmm. Lesson learned. And we need to find a babysitter :)

Otherwise, it was a lovely day. I got roses at work. Yea. :) They're beeeeuuutiful.

Feeling Fuzzy

I'm wearing a new sweater today. It's a fuzzy sweater as it's partially angora. Not super fuzzy or anything so I look like an electrocuted rabbit, but just comfy and soft. So I'm feeling pretty snazzy as one does when wearing a new shirt, until I stand up and realize that my formerly black pants (1 pair of about 8 that I own wear... oh... pretty much everyday!) are now covered in blue fuzzies. Darn it all. Oh - and I just lifted my arm and realized that the sides and underarms of the sweater are now all covered in blue pillies. Frickin' fuzzy shirts.

My belly has now officially popped out. MUCH sooner than the first time. Whew. I'm on my way to looking pregnant instead of just fat. :)

Happy V-Day!

A lovely weekend

After quite the dreadful week last week, we had a very nice weekend. I went to a baby shower for my high-school friend, Janelle, in Owatonna on Saturday. It was great to see her and her beautiful baby bump! She is due on March 5th - and I wish her all the best with her new bundle! Sunday we went to the Charthouse in Lakeville for an afternoon wedding reception for my cousin, Elizabeth - aka, Buffy - and her new husband, Ryan. We had a wonderful time visiting with my family, some of whom we haven't seen for quite some time. The food was very awesome and very plentiful! Josie did *pretty* well, considering that she was missing her afternoon nap and was not too pleased about it. She had fun toodling around with Daddy - she is very fond of cruising around while holding onto someone's hands now. It's hilarious to watch as she either has her mouth open or tongue out the whole time! This walking business takes a lot of concentration! She was very tuckered out last night and definitely ready for bed.

I *think* we're all back on track health-wise, although Josie still has that hacky cough that she has battled for the past few weeks. She was diagnosed first with bronchitis and an ear infection, then with an upper respiratory infection (which is just a fancy cold, isn't it?) and an ear infection in the other ear, and was put on Omnicef both times. This last time, I don't think it did anything for her. So we'll probably have another trip to the doc this week to see what's going on. She needs to get healthy as she has not been able to have her 1 year appointment and updated immunizations yet!

That's all for now - back to work for me. Very tough to get back in the swing of things after a week out of the office!

Things That Make Me Happy When I'm 15 Weeks Pregnant

My loving husband, who throws himself heart and soul into whatever task it at hand at the moment. Even if it is shopping for The Dreaded Family Minivan. :) Granted, it may take him awhile to get warmed up to the aforementioned task, but man, when he does - watch out.

Ice cream.

And Hershey's syrup. God Bless chocolate goo.

Ritz crackers dipped in ranch dressing. Not that wussy fat free dressing - I'm talking about thick, rich real ranch dressing. Yum.

Fat, fluffy snow flakes that cover up the dog bombs in our back yard. I know I said that I can't wait for spring... but that's one part of the spring thawing process that is not so pleasant.

The return of Survivor to CBS Thursdays. Ahhh. Reality tv. There's nothing quite like it ;)

Well, at least I'm not covered in vomit...

***Disclaimer: The following post has scenes which may be disturbing to vomit-sensitive individuals. Read at your own risk.***

Just me, at home, trying to be positive and think of some good things.

Not being covered in vomit is a good thing.

Let's go back a few days to Sunday night. Right smack in the middle of the Super Bowl, in fact. So we had returned home after having a lovely weekend at my Mom's celebrating some family birthdays. Josie had done fine all weekend - well, other than being a stinker in the church basement and not wanting to eat anything. So Patrick had caught a ride with the Gronaus to the annual Super Bowl party while Jo and I decided to stay home. I had just finished giving her her "night-time" bottle (yes - she's still getting a bottle, we're working on getting rid of it) when all of the sudden she sits up, belches a lovely burp and then explodes like Mount St. Josephine. I was completely taken by surprise, first of all by the fact that she was throwing up, and secondly, by the sheer volume of vomit coming out of her little body.

By the time I got my wits about me, she was done and was giving me a relieved little smile. Of course, also by this time, she was covered from head to toe, I was covered from the waist down, the couch had fallen victim to vomit as well as the coffee table and rug. Now I'm trying to figure out how the heck I'm going to get her undressed, bathed, dressed again, myself cleaned up and the furniture cleaned AND get her to bed... by MYSELF. How the heck to single parents do it? Well, after a frantic call to Pat and gently carrying Josie into the bathroom and stripping her down in the sink, I somehow managed to *somewhat* get the majority of the offensive mess cleaned up.

Apparently, she had contracted the flu somewhere. Monday morning brought another bout of throwing up, although much less in volume this time around. I spent the day Monday, and Tuesday, and that's right, Wednesday at home with a sick little girl. Tuesday morning I thought she was doing fine, but in the afternoon I couldn't get her to consume anything other than the artificially fruit flavored Pedialyte, which, by the way, she LOVED. So not wanting to send her daycare without knowing if she was indeed well again or not, I stayed home, again. She did finally eat yesterday, although she was still a little cranky and clingy and slept quite a bit.

Relief flooded over me Wednesday night as I anticipated a lovely day Thursday outside of this STINKY HOUSE and a return to work... BUT. My stomach started feeling queasy. And my head started to hurt. And sure enough, this morning I'm battling a low-grade fever. Figures - if someone, somewhere is sick, I'm going to be sick, too. And I'm SICK of it! So I managed to not go to work at all this week. I'm sure they're thrilled with me. Now, why didn't Pat stay home with her, you may be asking yourself? Well - it boils down to this. Pat works in sales, and sales lead to bonuses, and bonuses lead to more money, and more money leads to a happy checkbook balancer, i.e., me. So if he's not at work, he's not selling. And if he's not selling, he's not getting the big bonuses, and if he's not getting big bonuses, I think you get the picture.

Wow. I'm rambling. Can you tell I've been couped up for almost a WEEK at home with no adult interaction??! Well, other than Pat :) Man - this has been eye-opening. I don't know if I could stay home with 2 kids. I think I just may lose my sanity very quickly. So here I am, at home, supposed to be resting, but not, and trying to keep a positive attitude. But at least I'm not covered in vomit. :)

Frickin' Groundhog

6 more weeks of winter?! Not the news I wanted, Punxsutawney Phil! I've got spring fever so bad this year. I suppose the fact that January was more like April this year just might contribute to that. And everyone around here is talking about baseball. And Josie smiles and smiles when we go outside, but it's just a little too chilly to hang out for any extended period of time quite yet. Hurry up spring!! I want to open the windows and let the stale, germ-infested air out of my house!

Supposedly, my baby is now the length of a lemon. While it's nice to have these handy fruit and veggie references to get a feel for the size of my growing little one, I can't help but actually think of my kid as being the aforementioned food reference. So right now, I'm picturing a happy little lemon with arms and legs floating around in my uterus. What's wrong with simply leaving it at "your baby is now approximately 3 1/2 inches long?" If I walked outside right now and went up to some Joe Schmoe on the street and said "Hey, Joe. Did you know that my baby is now the length of a lemon?" I highly doubt that he'd say "Oh! So about 3 1/2 inches, huh?" I don't think so. But come to think of it - maybe that's where the term "fruit of your loins" comes from. Sorry. Very random thoughts today :)

I'm having a lot of guilt this time around because I tend "forget" for large spans of time that I'm pregnant. This poor kid is going to have a complex before it's even born. It's hard to obsess over the progress of my pregnancy when I've already got one out in the world that I have to constantly watch to keep from tumbling off the couch, gouging the dog's eyes out and eating the newspaper. So I've made it a part of my morning routine to log on to Babycenter.com or some pregnancy-related site and read up at least a little bit on this baby.

That's all for now. I think it's time for lunch. Yum - food. And perhaps it's a Caribou day. Yum - expensive coffee drinks! Later, All!

Weekly update

It seems I'm only able to post about once a week lately! I started my new job on Monday - and since the computers at work are WAAAAYYY faster than ours at home (damn dial-up!) it's easiest for me to jump on at work and blog. BUT when you start in a new department, it's hard to tell what the environment is like for a while. Do they frown upon internet usage? Is lunch exactly 45 minutes or is an hour okay? Can I squirrel away office supplies in my bag to take home without anyone noticing? You know - the normal stuff. :) So it's going to take me a while to see if I'll be able to take a few moments once in a while to post at work.

Anyhoo - the new job is going... okay. Training is tough, and I hate being the low man on the totem pole. It's a big transition going from being a "go-to" person who had all the answers (or at least knew enough to bluff her way through made-up answers!) to being a "know-nothing" person who has to ASK all the questions. Everyone here is very nice - and time will tell how I fit into this department. It's a job, and my phone isn't ringing off the hook, and that is a good thing!

Josephine May Daly is officially 1 year old. We walked into her room on her birthday morning singing "Happy Birthday," and she got a huge smile on her face, scrambled to sit up and started clapping and dancing. She was on a very nice sugar high when we picked her up from daycare on her birthday last Thursday from the lovely cupcakes Betty made for the kids. We took party hats for everyone, and they were a hit. It seems that she turned 1, and made an instant personality change. She's much more independent all of the sudden, insists on feeding herself exclusively and is no longer afraid to voice her opinion, about everything! She's going to be a handful! Must get that from her dad. :)

Speaking of her dad - I didn't ask Patrick if it'd be okay to post this, but it's such a funny story that just has to be written about and preserved for posterity - so I'm going to share the other event that happened on Josie's first birthday. So we walk in the door at daycare Thursday night to pick Josie up, and Betty comes hustling into the kitchen asking "Okay. So who got Josie ready this morning??!" Pat and I nervously looked at one another and I quickly pass the buck and point to him. He gives a sheepish smile and says "Uh - me. Why?" Betty proceeds to tell us that after we dropped Jo off, the kids were all playing, doing their normal things and she noticed that there were these "spots" on the living room carpet. She thinks to herself - "we didn't have a dog here this week - what is that?" She goes to check and sure enough, they're little, fresh wet spots on the carpet. So she looks around for a possible solution, puking kid, kid spilling juice, etc... and spots Josie crawling away from her. Hmm. Picks her up and WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT... she doesn't have a diaper on!!!! OOPS. Daddy forgot the diaper! Too funny. After many vehement apologies from Pat and many many laughs from all of us, Betty tells us that one of the other dads was there when the bare-butt discovery was made and he proclaimed that he was glad to see that someone else forgets things in the morning, too! :)

We had birthday party #2 on Saturday the 21st with my family, and the stinker wouldn't let my mom or grandma hold her. She went to my niece Val and family friend Darlene, but that was it. Not only would she not let them hold her, she would give this little hand swat and grunt and turn away when they'd reach for her! As much of a pooper as she was being, it was awfully funny. She got so many lovely gifts - thanks to everyone for coming and for making her first birthday so special. We love you guys!

The fun weekend continued when I hosted bookclub on Sunday. Always a good time to get together with the girls, eat lots of good food and solve all of life's problems. Oh - yeah, I guess we read and discuss books sometimes, too. :) I'm not sure what I would do without this group of extremely smart, funny and supportive friends. We love you guys, too!

One more thing... I guess I had a birthday in there somewhere, too. And yes, it was a big one. Pat made the day very nice by making me french toast and bacon for breakfast, going to eat at LeeAnn Chin for lunch with me and picking up Green Mill to go and a Baker's Square pie for dessert. Hmm - guess that was a day focused on food!! What else do you expect from a pregnant lady turning 30?! No big party plans for us on a Monday night, in fact, I think I was asleep on the couch by about 8:30! Here's a picture to prove it:
Quite the party animal(s), huh?! It was a bizarre day as it was the same day I started my new job. Very strange to spend the day with a bunch of virtual strangers. But I survived, life goes on we've got yummy pie still in the fridge. Doesn't get much better than that!

It's a week of birthday celebrations!

So my Beaner turns the big "1" tomorrow! Un-freakin-believable. We had a very fun birthday party last Sunday with Patrick's family at our house. Josie thoroughly enjoyed the chocolate frosting from her cake, and thought everyone singing to her was a hoot. Godfather Ryan made the day with his gift of her new favorite toy - a lullaby Glow-worm. Anything that plays music is a delight, and anything that plays music AND lights up is the best! She got so many great gifts - thanks to everyone for your generosity!

Daycare Betty said that the kids have been practicing singing "Happy Birthday" for the last couple of days so they'll be all ready for Josie's big day tomorrow. Too cute. :)

My family is trekking up on Saturday for birthday party #2. Maybe Josie will actually venture into the cake part of her birthday cake this time and not just dip her fingers in the frosting! If she reacts to the sugar rush like she did last Sunday, we'll have to have the camera ready. She crawled around in circles for a while and was wired like we've never seen before!

A whole year has gone by - wow. Feels like just yesterday I was waddling around the house, waiting for the big day that came so much sooner than we anticipated!

The Stork Strikes Again

Alright already! The news is out, so now I can FINALLY blog about it!

That's right, Patrick and I are expecting another baby. I am about 12 weeks along and had my first doctor's appointment last Friday. It was a bit hairy for a while as Dr. Rolando could not find the baby's heartbeat. After doing some bloodwork and a pregnancy test, we decided it would be in my Best Interest to order up an ultrasound (Best Interest meaning so I wouldn't go insane for a week waiting to come back in to try to find the heartbeat again.) The only bad part - I was seeing the doc at 3:00 pm and wasn't able to get an ultrasound until 6:00. So I spent a couple of very busy hours at home washing dishes, doing laundry and anything else I could find to keep my mind occupied. But in the end, everything was just fine and we got to see our new little one squirming around as soon as the tech started the ultrasound.

Here are the answers to the most frequently asked questions we've had so far:

1. Are we going to find out the sex of the baby this time around?
--- I don't know. Right now, I think we're leaning towards not finding out... but I think I could very easily start to lean in the other direction. We'll see when the next u/s comes around.

2. Am I going to keep working?
---Once again, I don't know. We're kind of in a "damned if I do, damned if I don't" situation. If I stay home, it will be generic cereal and peanut butter all the time. If I work, it feels like it will be just to pay for daycare. So we're hoping ferociously to win the lottery between now and then. :)

3. Where are we going to put this baby in our already small and very full house?
---Great question! We're thinking that we will be moving upstairs to the expansion and will just keep the baby with us until it is sleeping through the night, then baby and Josie will probably share a room for a while, whether it's a boy or girl. We are thinking of turning what is our bedroom right now into a play/tv room.

4. Are we insane??! (or more accurately, asked by my friend Meg, also having babies very close together,) "Didn't you learn anything from us??!"
---No. Yes. Maybe? I don't know - I guess we knew we were going to have more kids and why not do it when we're still in "baby" mode? Plus, I felt like an only child growing up and knew I didn't want that. Not to say that we won't have an "oops" baby somewhere down the line, you never know. :)

5. When am I due?
--- August 1st, 2nd or 3rd. I've been given all three dates. By the u/s, I think officially it is the 3rd of August. Whatever.

6. How have I been feeling?
---Just fine! VERY tired, but no morning sickness. Thank goodness for Husbands Who Pick Up The Slack Around Home. :) Or at least Are Sweet And Understanding While Not Picking Up The Slack Around Home. Love ya, babe. Thanks for putting up with me!

So - you may speak freely about my pregnancy. It will be fun to keep everyone posted as we progress closer to having another baby Daly! And if you get tired of baby, baby, baby... you may not want to visit for a few... years!

A new adventure

Sometimes when you wake up in the morning and get that yucky feeling in your tummy because you really don't want to go to work, it's time for a change.

I finally reached that point.

And as a result, I will be venturing on a new journey here at Securian as of January 23rd. I will have my 6 year service anniversary with the company on January 18th and have spent the entire time in the Group department. I have worked with some great people, but it's time for a change. I'm leaving on good terms, no hard feelings or burned bridges. So I'll be getting off the elevator on the 5th floor of the 401 building and joining Broker-Dealer. Yup. No idea what they do, but that's where I'll be! And I'm excited to meet some new faces, learn some new systems and tackle some new projects.

I got the final details worked out yesterday, and can't believe the amount of stress and pressure that being unhappy in my job had been putting on me. I had a great night's sleep last night, the first in a long time. (It also could have something to do with the fact that we shut the cats out of our bedroom and I had my WHOLE side of the bed to myself - what luxury!) It is so easy to get stuck in a rut. I'm the Queen of Ruts. But this rut had gotten too deep and I woke up one day and realized that I had options to make me a happier me. So goodbye, Group! Thanks for the experience and the friendships.

Another country heard from...

Wow. It's been a long time! Where these past few weeks have gone, I have no idea. So sorry for having deprived you all of your "Daly Dose" for many, many days! Let's see... why don't we play catch-up:

• We had a lovely Christmas. Josie thoroughly enjoyed the wrapping paper, tissue paper, boxes and bags that her numerous, generous gifts came in! She looks awfully cute in her new outfits - I'll get some new pix up for you soon. Really - I promise it won't be another month! Back to the holidays - we enjoyed Christmas Eve with my family in Chatfield, and Christmas Day with Patrick's fam up here in the Cities. It really was a laid-back celebration this year, which we all very much appreciated. I am a very big fan of NOT trying to go 25 places in 2 days.
• Josie's newest accomplishments are drinking whole milk, pulling herself up on everything and moving back and forth between pieces of furniture, throwing mild temper tantrums when told "no," blowing kisses to mom and dad (although sometimes they seem to be 'angry' kisses, so I'm not sure what that means,) clapping all the time, and "dancing" to any sort of music from the radio to tv commercials to daddy singing "Iron Man," which, much to mommy's chagrin, seems to be her favorite. If she turns out to be a 70's and 80's rock lover, I'm in a lot of trouble! I guess she is her daddy's girl (as if there was any doubt before!)
• New Year's Eve 2005 (even though I was drinking out of a New Year's Eve 2000 glass!) was a blast. A big thanks to Tricia and Kevin for hosting a party at their house and for all the lovely treats and games and laughs. We got to spend quality time with a lot of our friends, even some who made the trek all the way from Florida and Wyoming. We are so blessed in this 2006 to have so many wonderful family members and friends!

Otherwise, there really hasn't been that much going on with us in 2006 so far, other than very busy work days which lead to very tired evenings and weekends. We had a miserable weekend as Josephine was battling the crud - ALL weekend. She developed a temp on Friday afternoon at home with me, and we fought it and a very runny nose and a couple of bouts of vomiting throughout the weekend. On the upside, she was very cuddly, but I much rather would have had my healthy, happy baby. Daycare Betty said she is doing well today, no fever, so that's a good thing. Still doesn't have her full appetite back, but seems she's on the road to recovery. And HOLY COW, she's approaching her 1 year birthday!

Well, my lunch break is almost up... again, sorry to have been out of touch for so long! I'll be more regular in 2006... wait - that didn't sound right! What a resolution, huh?! I'll post more often, you knew what I meant. :)