Kids will be... monsters

Shawn was working on his car at a friend's house for the better part of the day today so I didn't really do much. Normally I would've been going out of my mind trying to find something to do but I just kind of hung around the house all day. My mom came over later in the evening on her way back from the boyfriend's house. Can you believe she went there with her camera and didn't take a single picture of his dogs? Shame, shame. He has a few hunting dogs and they all sound adorable but no pictures for me to see for myself. ;) I never thought my mom would be in a relationship with a hunter but as far as I can tell, he's one of the good ones. He's not one of those idiots who is out to destroy every animal he can just for sport. He wants to preserve the animals that he hunts and wants them to have places they can go that they won't be hunted. He also doesn't hunt bambi, which for me is a big plus in his favor. Sounds like he's more into pheasants and animals that he can hunt with the dogs. I'm not sure if that includes turkeys or not. I'll be sure to grill him on it eventually. ;) They don't talk about it much being as we're not... into that.

Later in the evening, after Shawn got home, I began to quickly lose my patience with Jasmine. Most days, I'm the one that can handle most of her attitude without getting too bent out of shape. For whatever reason, I'd just had enough tonight. Since just about the day she turned 3 (six months ago), she has had this attitude about her. It's literally like living with a teenager. She slams doors when she's pissed about something, talks back and in general acts like a brat. This isn't all the time but it's when she's not getting her way. We rarely give into her and try to stay as consistent as possible but it doesn't seem to be improving much. I think tonight I'd just had enough. My husband walks in the door and while he's in the bathroom, she throws a fit about something and slams her door. I hadn't been spanking her for quite some time as it didn't seem to be making a difference in how she acted. Tonight I'd just had it and she got a spanking. (she slammed her door and then began throwing toys at the door) Please don't comment or email me if you think I'm abusing my child by smacking her on the butt. I don't want to hear it. She climbed onto the couch and started crying. (she was sitting with me) When her daddy (who recently she's been pronouncing Dad-T... probably because I've made so many comments about how cute it is when she says it that way) came out of the bathroom, she said to me that she was going to tell daddy on me and I would get in trouble for hurting her feelings. Daddy told her she was in trouble and that mommy wouldn't be getting in trouble. She cried some more. She mouthed off a few more times, and a few more times got told to knock it off, the crying continued. Thankfully, she's not normally a crier as that aggravates me way more than the attitude. My husband sort of took over from that point forward with her. I think it was around the time that I said I just want to get in the car, drive away and keep going. After I had an hour or so, I was better. Not normal, but better. The rest of the night she was quick to cry over just about anything. I just know this is going to get ten times worse right after this baby is born. I think I'm getting frustrated that she doesn't seem to be getting past this. I don't think we're doing anything wrong. Maybe she's just a little more headstrong that some kids her age. We never let her get away with the mouthing off or the attitude so you would think eventually, she would try another tactic. Then again, she's recently learned that sweet manipulation works wonders. When she wanted Shawn to come play with her dollhouse the other day, she first said very sweetly please and then she kissed his forehead and told him she loved him. She laid it on so thick that no one could've said no. Today when she was asking me for something she said please, please mommy with sugar on top and smiled innocently. I'll take that over screaming at me any day. It was really funny when we were in bed and she asked Shawn for something and he asked her what the magic word was. She paused and said Abracadabra.

You hurt yourself HOW?

I mentioned yesterday that I had an OB appointment today. The appointment went fine, every thing's normal, blah, blah, blah. It was before the appointment that things went south. My husband was in charge of getting me up. When ever I know I have an appointment and that the alarm isn't set, I get paranoid that the person designated to wake me, will be late. Ok, so this is usually my husband's job if the alarm doesn't take care of it and I can't recall a time he has ever been late enough that he made me late for an appointment. At any rate, I tend to wake up about a half hour before I need to and toss and turn trying to sleep till he comes in to get me. When he came in, I had been awake for a while but my bed is so warm and comfy, I just stayed there till I was forced to get up. For whatever dumbass reason, when I went to get out of bed, I got up as if I wasn't pregnant. Just hopped out of bed like it was a typical morning. And was met with some of the worst pain I've ever felt. I think I very badly pulled a muscle on the right side of my abdomen. It was the kind of pain that leaves you feeling sick. By the time I got to the OB's office, it was dulling so I didn't make a big deal of it but made sure to say several times that I thought I pulled a muscle. (and let me tell you, I felt like a huge ass saying that I pulled a muscle just getting out of bed) On the way home, it was still hurting but not as unbearable as it had been. Two hours after the pain began, it was gone. So when it was after ten tonight, I didn't think it would come back. I had plans, things to do, things to clean, etc. I decided to quickly put together the baby's bed since I was just waiting on the washer to finish it's cycle. The bed is actually a co-sleeper that sits next to our bed. It basically pops open, locks in place and you pull the side down. When I started putting it together, I didn't have the directions. It became obvious that I wasn't going to figure out how to get the side down on my own so after some searching I came up with the directions. All I did was reach down with my hand to release one of the sides of the sleeper. It's something I could've done with my foot but it was easier on my pelvic bones to reach down. I didn't come back up from the floor for a solid ten minutes. The pain was suddenly back. I must have used that same muscle that I'd hurt earlier in the day. Thankfully, it only took about an hour to feel normal again. I still finished that damned bed though. I come from stubborn people. It's in my veins. ;) Husband grounded me after that however. The dishes and kitchen cleaning will have to wait till at least tomorrow. Even then I'm under strict hubby orders to go slowly since he won't be here to help me if I end up on my ass for a few hours again. (he's taking his car to a friend's house to work on it) I'm sure I'll be able to work the dishwasher though. I'll just refrain from picking up anything heavy, at least till he gets home. ;)

The Plastic Wars

I think I may have to ban my husband from the mall for a while. It's gotten to the point that he's started assaulting the mannequin's. His side of the story is that he was walking along, minding his own business, when she attacked him but I'm not buying it. All I know is when it was all said and done, she was missing an arm. His claim is that she threw it at him in retaliation for all the times he's said degrading things about the other mannequin's. *sigh* Afterwards, they had words. Yes, I said it. He turned to her and said 'wtf did I do to you?' I had to drag him from the scene for fear that she would soon lose her leg as well. Macy's will never look the same. ;) On our way home I warned him 'You know this is going on the blog.' His reply? 'She started it damnit.'

Eviction notice

This is for pregnant women to their unborn child. I thought it was funny and at this point, fitting. Found on a pregnancy website. (go figure)

I am issuing 30 day notice for EVICTION. Tenant will have 30 days in which he can either gather his belongings and promptly vacate the premises, or wait until the final day. After which, he will be physically removed from the property.
He's being evicted due to breech of contract and destruction of property. Expansions only to the FRONT of the house, within reasonable limits, were discussed. Not only have these limits been exceeded, but additions to the back of the house were also made!
Remodeling and gutting of the home was never approved, nor was changing the initial layout and base structure. And due to property damage, there are now leaks in both the upper AND lower levels of the home. On top of which, the landlord has received numerous complaints about nightly disturbances.
After 30 days from this day that he doesn’t comply with the notice will result in immediate and forceful removal at my discretion.

I've never been so grateful to see the end of a day

My child woke up entirely too early this morning. I pawned her off on my husband and went back to sleep. When I woke up, several hours later, she hadn't taken a nap. She had spent those hours in her room, playing with her dollhouse. Apparently, when I woke up, it kicked her into some kind of pixie stick, cracked out state. Lack of sleep for my child is not good for us, the parents. It was a l-o-n-g 'effin day with that girl. She was bouncing off the walls, none stop. She wouldn't listen to anything we said or anything we asked her to do. And the only time her mouth stopped moving was the few minutes of peace we had when she passed out in the car on our way to the grocery store. I swear, getting her socks and shoes on before leaving was like trying to tie down Taz from the Looney Toons. I eventually said that if she didn't let me put her socks on, I would go without her and leave her at home with daddy. (it was obvious his nerves were wearing thin, even to her... daddy wasn't pleased at being used as a threat... but it worked) I shit you not, the second she woke up, she was right back to acting crazy. We decided in the car just to stop and get something to eat and while we were waiting for our little buzzer to go off, she was trying to lick my face, bite my fingers and stick her hand down my shirt. Pretty much all at the same time. *sigh* Mommy was actually extremely tolerant today, lucky child. If nothing else, for a while, I had a hard time stopping laughing to protect myself from her onslaught. Once we were sitting down, one of the managers (a male) came to talk to us. My daughter *huge sigh* got out of the booth and spanked his ass... twice. My god, I'm glad we know the guy's niece or it would've been even more embarrassing than it was. I don't think she sat still during the entire meal. I could see the veins in my husband's head throbbing from across the table. Jasmine, smartly, avoided that side of the booth. It didn't get any better when we got into Walmart. Thankfully, she stopped spanking people's butts. (she had also spanked a female managers butt while we were there but it wasn't as embarrassing because we're friends with her and she LOVES my daughter) We looked like those parents that have absolutely no control over their child. My husband was getting extremely frustrated and finally I said, just let her run the damned aisles, maybe it will wear her out. (please, please let it wear her out) It wasn't busy or I probably wouldn't have allowed it to that extent. It didn't wear her out. We got home and it was more of the same. Not listening, running through the house, tormenting the animals, more of the not listening. When she passed out (and it was definitely passing out... there was no falling asleep to it) while husband and I were watching Traitor, I actually said to him 'Thank god it's over.'

I eventually got photoshop to work late last night. It took uninstalling most of my larger programs but at least it's working. I didn't need any of the other stuff that was on there and had probably only used it once or twice in the three years I've had the computer. I spent a good two hours on it just playing with all the features it has. Not going to be able to do that tonight however. I have an OB appointment in the morning so I can't stay up too much later. I hate going to the doctor every single week. I don't look forward to not sleeping when this kid is born but at the same time, I'm ready for this to be over with. I feel a little bad saying that considering this is quite possibly my last pregnancy. (husband doesn't want anymore and I'm not sure I want to go through this again but if a whoops happened some day, I wouldn't be upset) I should enjoy every little foot trapped in between my rib cage because I may not get to feel it again. But, it hurts like hell and I just want my body back to myself. I'm REALLY going to regret saying this when I'm on two hours of sleep and have a baby that won't stop crying and a toddler who wants my constant attention, on top of a house that's a mess because when I'm not dealing with the two of them, I'll be sleeping. And then there's trying to feed myself and my husband. Psh, not going to happen. I'm sure the first few months I'll survive off of air and the occasional piece of food that some how ends up in my mouth. Crap this is going to suck. ;) (I'm 38 weeks for those who are unaware)

They say its your birthday

One of my birthday presents is seriously frustrating me. My husband bought me Photoshop. For whatever reason, any time I go to change a photo at ALL, the program freezes up and won't do anything. I have to end the program all together. I'm not sure what the issue is but I want to bang my head against a bed of nails. I've been wanting this program for years and then to have it in my possession and on my computer but not have it work... yeah I'm frustrated. I haven't let on to my husband that I'm having issues. I don't want to upset him that my present isn't cooperating. He also made me a photo album of pictures from the time we first got together, to now. Some of the pictures I don't remember ever even seeing before. It's also enforced the fact that I want to lose this baby weight as fast as possible. My pre-baby body and my post-baby body... yeah need to get back on my pilates. What I'm looking forward to more than the pilates however, is Dance Dance Revolution. My mom got it for me for Christmas. I've been asking for this game for years now. My brother seems to think it's a ridiculous game but I call it motivation. I don't like to be beaten by a video game, even if that video game requires me to bust a move. ;) I'm thinking of trying to find a game pad that doesn't work so that Jasmine doesn't try to steal mine while I'm playing the game. Shawn seems to think that my pilates mat will keep her occupied but the kid is really smart and I don't think it will take her much time to figure out that they're way different. The arrows on the DDR pad should be a pretty quick giveaway.

Why do my cats follow me around the house meowing even though they have food and water? They've also gotten tons of attention throughout the day. Yet they still meow.

My birthday started off with a trip to the mall. I received $70 worth of gift cards to Gloria Jeans (my family has come to terms with my addiction apparently... haha) so I thought I'd get myself a coffee without the guilt of spending $5 on a drink. While at the mall, I wanted to stop in to Sephora as I also have a gift card there. We didn't stay long. I want to buy some lip gloss or stain but it was crowded and my husband quickly became.. annoyed. An obviously well off woman practically walked through us while we were there.... several times. I could've understood once but she did it over and over again. It was as if we didn't exist, we were air. For once, it didn't bother me. I was looking at make-up, I could've cared less what she was doing. My husband however, threatened to put a make-up pencil through the woman's eye if we stayed much longer so I made a quick retreat to the Disney store, where there are few sharp objects. ;) Afterwards we went to see Marley and Me. I had read the book and knew that the end would be sad but had forgotten to warn my poor husband. I knew without looking at him that the tears had started when he pulled his Bears hat down a little further on his face. Poor man. As soon as it was over, he said to me, 'Could you have picked a sadder movie??' Even though I was aware of how it would turn out, I was nearly sobbing towards the end. Wow, they really knew how to bring out the tears. You could hear half the theatre sniffling. Which, of course, being the inappropriate person that I am, caused me to laugh a little... during a silent part in the movie that was extremely sad. And I wonder why it's so hard to get people to go places with me. ;) An example, (and I know I blogged about this at the time but it's been a while) of one of my... moments. We were out to dinner, Shawn, Jasmine and myself. I had noticed the middle aged couple sitting next to us as soon as they sat down. Eventually I had to ask.
Me : "Excuse me, I have to ask, are you guys newly married?"
Woman : "No, we're engaged to be married in three weeks"
Me : "I had a feeling you were either newly married or having an elaborate affair, otherwise I would've had to ask what you secret is to stay married so long and still have 'that' look."
My husband turned so red you would've thought he was going to catch fire. The woman, however, seemed flattered that they were so obvious about the newness of their love. I'm sure, at the very least, it gave them a fun story to tell people at the wedding. haha Back to the movie, Jasmine noticed I had been crying and kept asking why I was sad. She even tried to wipe away any tears she could find and then kept poking my nose to get me to smile. After a while, she figured out what was happening in the movie, buried her face in my lap and cried as well but was quiet about it and it was short lived. The kid can be so sweet when she wants to be.

Christmas and Ice

Soooo, my husband got into a car accident today. With a parked car. He's fine, our awesomely white trash truck is fine but the lady's van is trashed. We had a relatively nasty ice storm this morning and before leaving the house, my husband neglected to watch the news. He was on his buddy's road when he hit the van. Ironic considering he was going over there to work on said awesomely white trash truck. I think Shawn may have some soreness tomorrow but will overall be fine. And obviously, the lady that owns the van is fine and was in her house during the crash but was super pissed considering the van is five weeks old. Oh yeah, our insurance is going up.

Christmas was good. Jasmine didn't open all her presents before we left for my mom's. Once she opened up her dollhouse, it was all over. She didn't care about any other presents. We had her open them when we got home later. By the time we got to my mom's, she was ready to open more and tore into them like you'd expect a child to do, not all dainty like she has been. Me and my husband bought the (almost) exact same thing for each other. I bought him a Bears shirt and a Bears cup that goes in the freezer. He bought me the EXACT same shirt, only Packers and a freezer cup, Packers. And we opened them at the same time. It was pretty funny. And the night I bought his present for him, I told him after Christmas I was going to buy the same thing for myself. Guess I don't need to now. I also bought him a remote controlled car and without telling him, bought one (a much cheaper version) for Jasmine and they had fun driving them all over my living room. I got my mom a pencil drawing of a dog she owned a few years ago. We had him for less than a year when he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. I wasn't sure she would ever own another dog after he died. I was worried about how it would turn out since it was being done online but I think it turned out great. All modifications were ones that I had asked them to do.

This is the picture they based the sketch off of.

And this is the end result.

http://www5.mydavinci.com/Pesonalized-Art/HandDrawn/DaVinci-Sketch.html

I'll post more about Christmas later. For now, I'm going to lay down. Tomorrow we'll probably go see Marley and Me for my birthday. I want to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, however, I don't think Jasmine will sit through it and I've heard it's rather long. Marley and Me should keep her attention for the length of the movie.

Merry Christmas

Suddenly none of it matters anymore. Not the fact that he left the chicken in the oven to thaw... three days ago. Not the fact that I didn't realize it was there until the oven was done preheating for my cookies. (plastic burning was a give away) Not any of the other things I had been bitching about in my head. All that matters is that it wasn't him. My husband was on his way home from dropping off movies we rented a few days ago. He had been following a vehicle that was driving erratically. He was on the phone with 911 while he followed the man. Suddenly, the car slammed head on into an oncoming vehicle. All I can think is thank god it wasn't him. I manage to think of someone else other than my own family long enough to ask if everyone is ok. The lady had some shoulder pain (air bags deployed and had her seat belt on) and the man that caused the accident had some pretty bad cuts. He says the woman will be fine. Not sure on the guy. If he was drunk (which is my guess) he'll probably be fine. If it was something medical, who knows. My husband counted ten cars that the man almost ran into. Ten families whose Christmas would've been a little less bright. Or maybe not. Maybe this woman will go home, hug her family and be more grateful than ever that she is there to spend another day with them, another Christmas, given a little more time. I know I'll be hugging my family a little tighter. Be a little less quick to anger. And just be grateful for another day with all of them.

Merry Christmas to everyone. Hope you're with the ones you love, safe and warm.

Merry Christmas Eve

I believe I am now the food provider for the little stray kitten. She didn't seem to be around yesterday but has come by the house at least two different times today to eat. The last time I went outside to check her food, it was obvious I had just missed her. The only thing that bothers me is she seems to be after my rabbit. Anywhere there are rabbit tracks, there are kitten tracks. Hopefully, the increase in food will make her a little less interested in Mr. Hops. If I am ever able to catch her, she'll be fixed and get some shots. She seems pretty street savvy so I'm not sure if she would fall for a trap or not. If I don't catch her on my own, I'll borrow one from the rescue.

Tomorrow is sure to be a busy day. Lots of cleaning to be done and lots of baking. I'm making cake balls, cream cheese sugar cookies and chocolate chip chocolate cookies. I was also going to make some cookies with mini M&M's but I don't think I'll feel very up to it after cleaning all day and rolling out the sugar cookies. (god I hate cutting cookies) Oh and I have to make the icing for the sugar cookies as well. By the way, mom, I have NO idea how you're going to bake all your stuff in one day. Our family is going to be on junk overload Christmas day. I'm making those three things and my mom is making a TON of various goodies. My grandma is sure to make something. You'd think we're having a huge get together but it's just us, my brother and his girlfriend, grandma and my uncle. I'm assuming at least one of my cousins will be there, with or without his girlfriend. (please be without!) Not enough people to eat all that junk. Whatever we don't want of my cookies, I'll be sending to my husband's friend's house. He's never too full for junk food. Two days after Christmas is my birthday, which my husband is planning on trying his hand at baking a cake for me.

Today, I had my OB appointment. I'm a little annoyed with the office. They have two sets of doctors, the docs that deliver at one hospital and then the docs that deliver at my hospital. I have been seeing "my" doctors since the beginning of my pregnancy. It seems recently, some of the other doctors have started delivering at "my" hospital as well as their own. Now I have to see the three of them. It would've been nice to have had this taken care of months ago, rather than at the very end of my pregnancy. I'm pretty sure I should've had an exam today but the doc I saw claims they do everything different on that side of the office. I'm also measuring a week behind, although he didn't seem concerned. Unless they lecture me or ask me about it, I just figure everything is fine. (unless I'm in pain or it's something worrying me) Next week, I see another doctor from that side of the building. This one is a woman, the only female in the office that sees OB patients.

I just got up with Jazz so she could go pee. I looked out the window while I was up and saw the kitten had been back again since the last time I was out there. I swear she's messing with my head.

I need to go to bed

These were taken on the same day, several hours apart. In the time between these photos, both cats had gotten up to drink and eat before coming back to this spot. The white one, Isaiah, was always the first one back and then Saffron would lay down with him.

There is a heating vent under this bath mat, which I leave open so the cats have a sort of heated bed.

This was taken on the 3rd of the month.

This one was tonight. You can see my rockin' new pj's that I just purchased tonight. The shirt doesn't button all the way down due to my belly but it makes no difference to me.

Feeling a bit defeated

I mentioned that it's really freakin' cold out right? Right? I wake my husband up for work this morning a half hour early, (due to getting stuck in the driveway last night, we wanted to make sure he had time in case there was a repeat... there wasn't) and he immediately goes outside to start the truck and get it warm. It's not till he's getting ready to leave that he mentions that there was a kitten sleeping in our trash can. (our can has just enough trash in it to force it to stay slightly open, hence how the kitty was sleeping inside it) As to be expected, I ask him a million questions. Are you sure it was a kitten? Are you SURE it wasn't a opossum? Did you try and catch it? He thought it was a little bigger than Saffron and yes, he tried to talk it into coming up to him. The cat hesitated and then ran off. I (of course) decided to go out in the -3 degree weather in my pj's and call for the cat. It was sitting outside of the trash when I went out but immediately ran off. I could only tell that it was dark in color. I called for a few minutes, and then went in the house. I went through the usual, get cat food, put cat food outside where cat had been. Then I started thinking about how cold it was and took a cat carrier outside, put the food in the carrier. I still felt awful. I gave it about ten minutes and when it didn't come back, I let my dogs out to potty. The last one out is almost always the pit bull since he has to go alone. When I let him in, I went to get ready for bed. I turned off the kitchen light, when what do I see? That cat just laying in the middle of the damned driveway. This time, I grab a can of food, opening it as I'm walking out the door. The cat goes to run but stops when it hears the metal of the can. (I swear, even strays and ferals KNOW that sound) I kneeled on the ground for the LONGEST time trying to convince her (from far away, it looked like a dilute calico) to come to get the food. She never moved from the spot she was in... until I stood to try and creep just a few feet closer. Off she went again. By then my fingers were starting to become one with the metal can so I dumped the can in with the rest of the food and went in the house. I hate to think she's going to be out there in this stuff. I mean, this is the kind of cold that people die in just from shoveling their sidewalks. She looked so cold and fluffed up. If she had just let me get a hold of her, I would've brought her inside and put her in a dog crate at least for the night. (my husband suggested just watching to see who won between her and evil cat but we all know how that would've turned out) I wish I would've had something better for her to eat inside of but off the top of my head, a cat carrier is as good as it gets without coming in the house. *sigh*

Update :: I just checked to see if the kitty had come back and eaten anything. She ate everything I put out, wet and dry food, including the small amount of wet food that fell in the snow when I opened the can. I put more out in case she comes back. At least she'll have a full belly.

More of the same Brrrrrr

As many have posted before me, it's god awful cold out right now. The temperature is -2 with a wind chill of who knows what. The wind is blowing like mad and even when it's not actually snowing, you still can't see a damn thing because the wind kicks up the snow already on the ground. We had a hell of a time getting home from my dad's house. (go figure half the way back is all fields) Jasmine did not end up with anything I had already bought her. Score one for the parents who don't have to run and return something to Toys 'R Us only days before Christmas. She did get something that I believe my grandma bought for her however. I'm going to have to have a talk with my dad next year to at least let me know what he's bought her so that no one else buys her the same stuff. I got... *shakes head* footie pajamas. You know, the ones that babies wear. They're one piece, zip up and have feet. I'll look like some kind of freaky Easter bunny (with a tumor in it's stomach) when I put the thing on. (which I only did at the insistence of my three year old) While we were there, I had two pepsi's. Normally, I drink water or icee pops. (the frozen slushie things at ever 7-11) I wish I'd remembered at the time why I don't drink pop out of the can while I'm pregnant. The air that comes from carbonated beverages causes me extreme pain after just one so two was... just beyond awful. It didn't hit me till we were getting close to leaving and then I wanted to go out to the car just so I could cry and actually BE in pain, rather than pretend I was completely fine. The ride home was absolute hell. I was getting to the point that I wasn't sure if it was from the pop anymore or if there was something else really wrong. I had tears in my eyes almost the entire ride. Go figure, we had to go around 40mph the entire way due to the blowing snow. We finally get home and I start thinking I'll be able to lay down soon. We got VERY stuck in the driveway. The snow drifted over so badly that it was above the bottom of the doors. If my husband didn't have a 4x4 right now, my car would still be sitting down at the bottom of the drive. My husband had to pull my car up our driveway, which meant, while I was in a great deal of pain, I had to navigate the stuck car. It was only about an hour after being home that I started to feel a little better. No. more. pop.

Looks like this nasty weather is here to stay till at least Christmas. And it may even get worse. You can never be sure how accurate the weather guys are going to be until it's actually snowing. We may end up with only a dusting between now and then or we could end up snowed in. Winter sucks. I think I'll be saying that a lot this year.

Sorry my blogs are so long when you have so much to do

It is beyond the world of cold outside right now. We have a whole 3 degrees boys and girls. I'm not sure what the wind chill is as the radar isn't picking up any wind but I HEAR it. Stupid technology. It's supposed to continue being this cold through Monday and the wind chills are supposed to put us way into the negative numbers. Holy homophobic pastors Batman! (that's for you Beth dear)

I was aware it was supposed to be getting bitterly cold soon. When we got home from wandering around town, I immediately went to get the outdoor cats. (otherwise I would've put it off till it was even later and colder) I had forgotten that between the time I put them outside and now, there was a bitchin' ice storm. I should've taken an ice pick. Getting the locks open with all that ice on them was enough of a pain in the ass. I knew then I should've went and got Shawn to do it all for me but I didn't feel like watching his eyes roll and then the sigh that would precede it. (although I was scolded for not coming to get him after I explained how bad it was) I went to open the door to their enclosure and thought it felt funny. I wasn't sure how but there was something wrong. At first I thought maybe it was from the ice that was making it feel odd and then I noticed the gangster lean it was sporting. Damn. I don't know when or how it happened but the wood that the hinge is connected to, broke off with said hinge. Well, the cats will be indoors till that's fixed. Crap. It'll be really annoying to have them inside until spring. I'm not sure how my husband can get it fixed before then however or even how bad the damage is to the wood. After cursing the 2x4 for a few minutes, I went to retrieve the cats. Oh wait. I put a few pieces of heavy plastic in front of the doors so they couldn't fly open. I put them there to keep the cats warm and cozy. Now I can't get in. They are not only frozen to the door but also to the ground. Much kicking ensues. I get them loose and moved, door still doesn't budge. More kicking. Finally I get the door open enough that I can squeeze through it. However, not large enough that the cat carrier (that is now holding evil cat) to fit through. Now you must forgive me for what I'm about to reveal but by that time I was tired, pissed and freezing my pregnant ass off. I turned the carrier sideways... with evil cat in it. Hey, I was gentle. He seemed to have forgotten the ordeal by the time we made it indoors, at least he didn't scratch out my eyeballs or even turn into blow fish evil cat. (thank you Beth for that one!)

After Jasmine fell asleep tonight, I decided to go wrap some presents. I had already wrapped one of my moms and my grandma's earlier in the night. (ok so throwing them neatly in a bag doesn't count as wrapping but it's done) Everything is down in the basement for wrapping. Husband thought he would take everything that you could ever need to wrap presents with (except scissors, of course... he bought some damned frustrating thing with a blade that is supposed to be easier to use than scissors... I hate it) when he wrapped mine. I think he likes to torture me. You see, I hate the basement. It keeps me the f--k out. I hear things down there, I always feel like someone is watching me from one of the tiny windows that are at ground level. Most of all, I have this irrational fear that I will become locked down there and somehow die as a result. The room that is safest in a tornado, is the one I am most terrified of. It's made of all cinder blocks and has a giant hole in the wall that requires a ladder to get into. The hole is also finished with cinder blocks and is fairly deep but not very tall. It's like a giant coffin in my mind. I actually only went into the hole on a few occasions as a kid and even then felt uneasy. (for those who don't know, we bought my grandmother's house when she moved in with my mom so I've been in and out of this house, literally since I was an infant) That hole, holds my Christmas and birthday presents right now. My husband is a sadist. There isn't enough curiosity in my body to ever go in that room, alone. *shudders at the mere thought* Back to what I started this paragraph with. I would've preferred (obviously) to wrap presents upstairs but I'd of had a hell of a time carrying everything up those stairs and then going back down to retrieve the rest. (all the presents are also down there to keep little prying eyes from seeing) Therefore, I've given in and decided to wrap the stuff down there and hope I don't get murdered by a homeless axe murderer who broke one of said tiny windows and has been living in my basement. (active imagination much??) Of course, when I got down there tonight, it was full of odd noises, some of which I don't remember hearing down there before. I thought of turning on the radio but decided against it when I realized I may not be able to hear the axe murderer approaching over it. I ended up getting all but one of Shawn's presents wrapped, the two HUGE things of Jasmine's (that giant robotic dinosaur that you see everywhere and a dollhouse) as well as a few other smaller items for her. I also wrapped the present I got for my mom, which was nerve wracking. If even so much as a scratch appears on that present, it will not be by my hand. I didn't even turn it over to wrap it. It's wrapped upside down, so that you actually see the tape seam along with the name tag. I did it for a reason though. This way, there will be no turning over of the present to wrap it and hopefully, no tossing around of the present in the process of unwrapping. And then I set it on the far side of the room with the presents that my husband is forbidden to even touch.

Tomorrow (Sunday) we will be headed out (in the freezing cold) to my dad's for Christmas there. I was hoping to do his house AFTER Christmas so that if he bought her any of the stuff that we did, she would have already gotten it from us and I wouldn't have to take anything back. If I see one dollhouse or one large robotic dinosaur come out of any packaging... someone is going to be bleeding. And if I see both of them? Oh, there will be death. Everything else we bought her, not that important, those two, are the big items damnit and they're MINE to give. MINE. ;) Who knows, we may freeze solid on the way to the car and never make it there. We'll be a little family of ice sculptures for the neighbors to enough till it thaws. Maybe they're even hang a few strings of lights on us.

Irrational?

Something happened at my OB appointment on Tuesday and I wasn't sure if I'd blog about it or not. I'm not sure if it's as big of a deal as I'm making it out to be in my head but I was at the time and still am, quite offended. I walked into the office and there was a huge line at reception so I'm thinking 'great, we're going to waiting FOREVER to see the doctor for an appointment that takes all of five minutes.' While I was waiting, a girl came up on the elevator and she walked past everyone else in line. I wasn't sure if she was going to try and get ahead of those of us who had been waiting or if she was just trying to get out of the way of anyone else coming off the elevator. I was the person who would've been in line right before this girl. Who, for purposes of this story I must tell that her race was black. (usually I would just say girl or guy as the color of someones skin isn't usually important to a story IMO) She was extremely polite and was just trying to stay out of the way and never once attempted to cut in line. I went, sat down and within a few minutes (surprise) my name was called, at almost the exact same time as her's was. Her nurse weighed her first and then asked for her urine sample (those unaware, pregnant women are supposed to provide a sample every single visit) and she said she had forgotten it and had just used the restroom. (I actually saw her go into the bathroom, by the way) I was then weighed by my nurse (thankfully, she's not my normal nurse) and taken to a room. While in the room with the nurse, as she was taking my blood pressure, she made a comment that still has me wondering what she was thinking by even saying it. She said that she sometimes thinks that pregnant women don't bring in their urine sample because they're afraid the nurses are drug testing them. The way she said this made me very much think that the only reason she made this statement was because the girl was in fact black. She laughed as she was talking about it, all the while I sat there in stunned silence. I really didn't say much to her at all after that comment. Keep in mind this is a very nice OB's office and extremely expensive. (if I didn't have the insurance I have, there's no way I would be able to afford to go here) They don't accept payments of any kind and make it difficult for Medicaid patients to go there. (you have to jump through a lot of hoops, I know as I was on it when I was pregnant with Jasmine) I didn't think the girl acted strange at all about not having the urine with her. If I had to guess, I'd say it was her first pregnancy and it's an easy thing to forget about. She was also very early in her pregnancy so I'm sure her brain wasn't really trained to remember to pee in a cup every appointment yet. When I was pregnant with Jasmine, I forgot numerous times to pee in my cup and there were a few times I remembered to pee in it but forgot it at home. When you're pregnant, your brain is kind of foggy. You forget things easily and are extremely absentminded. I really feel like this nurse was out of line with her comment. Both me and my husband haven't liked her from the beginning, although we both love the doctor she nurses for. Another thing she did that irked me, this appointment was for my regular check up as well as my group B strep test. (I have no plans of explaining to you what that entails, if you're that interested you'll have to look it up) She asked me if I knew what it was and I said yes. I've been through this before and it wasn't that long ago. I haven't forgotten any of the tests that need to be done while I'm pregnant, lest of all, that one. When my doctor knocked on the door to come in, I heard her in the other room say to him that I "claim" to know what the group B strep test is but he might want to remind me. My doctor said, 'you realize, she's done this once before?' (Jasmine was in the room with me by the way and makes herself hard to miss) I'm so glad I won't have to deal with her this Tuesday. Unfortunately, I have to see a doctor that isn't one of my regulars as the three doctors I normally see were completely booked. As it is, the doctor I'm seeing is triple booked for that appointment. It will be nice when this pregnancy is over and I only have to see my regular OB and my regular nurse. (both of which are awesome... I wish I could have my nurse with me during delivery to be honest) After this appointment, I am going to (again) request to see my normal OB if at all possible since I've only gotten to see him for one normal appointment this entire pregnancy.

Today seems to have flown by. It was over before it began. We didn't even get around to making dinner till 10pm and then I wasn't even able to get into the shower till midnight. It wasn't one of those days where it goes by fast because you're having too much fun either. We were just in a blah kind of mood. I surely hope tomorrow is better. I don't have anywhere I need to go except for one place to pick up some finishing touches for a few presents, as well as grab some more wrapping paper and boxes.

Kitteh has (serious) abandonment issues

Saffron hasn't gotten the memo that not only does Mia HATE cats but she REALLY hates cats by her food.

I has a buddy. I gives him no choice in the matter however.

Any where you go, I go buddy. I can go any where you can go too.

We has a snuggly under the Christmas tree.

I smile when I have my mouse.

Even my human is stuck to me.

WTF is this shit?

Can someone please tell me why I have freezing rain when it is 20 degrees outside here? Isn't there some law that says when it gets below say 30 degrees, everything that falls from the sky is to turn immediately to snowy white shit? (I say 30 instead of 32 because that's just "at" freezing, I figure go a few degrees below freezing and the stuff is more likely to turn to snow rather than ice) What we have here is a failure to communicate. I just want to walk outside and curse the sky. Curse you sky! Curse you. I woke my husband up 20 minutes earlier than usual (as per his request) and told him it hadn't snowed, did he want me to wake up him as normal. Of course, like any normal sleepy person he gave me a thumbs up and went back to sleep. Now I walk outside and realize that there is an inch of frozen slushy balls everywhere. Sure the dogs thought it was cool. Run, run, run, STOP, sliiiiiiiiiiide, repeat. I doubt my husband thinks so right now however. Screw you guys, I'm going home.

To be or not to be

Just sitting here waiting, practically holding my breath. The storm is almost here. Now we just have to wait and see if it'll be as bad (or worse) as they predicted over the last few days. An hour ago, when I checked, the storm seemed to have gained some intensity instead of losing it, as I hoped it would. The only plus so far, it doesn't appear as if our area will end up with any freezing rain. I seem to be checking the local weather channel constantly. The weather seems to have had an effect on the little mean one as well. She's been bouncing between happy, hyper child to demanding evil child within a fraction of a second. There are some days, I really expect to see her head spin around several times and her eyes turn red.

Speaking of evil. I took the outdoor cats back outside tonight. Yes, we're supposed to get snow but it's not going to be bitterly cold till Sunday. (when I'll be bringing them back in) If I allow them to stay in the house for too long, I will be forced to leave them inside the rest of the winter as they will lose their winter fur. As I was taking Minka out in the cat carrier, Jake, evil cat, got completely in the house. Apparently, when I shut the back door, the door to the house opened from the change in air pressure. I walked around the backroom calling for him for a few minutes before the light bulb went off and I went flying into the rest of the house, hoping no one had been injured yet. Saffron is the only cat stupid enough to walk up to him. He's lucky that he's small enough that Jake doesn't see him as a threat yet. The other two cats were hiding in the darkest corners they could find. Jake was a puff ball walking through the house growling. When I went to pick him up, he stiffened in the same manner he had the last time he bit me badly. (badly infected arm, had to go to urgent care, etc) I decided to stick the cat carrier in front of him and shove him in it with my foot, rather than risk picking him up and having him bite me in the face. (yes, he's capable and willing) I set him down (in the cage of course) in the kitchen while I got some water to take outside. The cat gets so worked up when he's in the house with the other cats that he was starting to drool/foam at the mouth when I picked him back up. (didn't help that Saffron had been at the cage bars, sticking his paw in the cage as if to say 'Hey dude, wanna play? Dude? Dude? Dude?) And yes, he has his rabies shot. It's really scary when he starts acting like that. And then in an instant, he's back to being a normal happy cat when I put him in his outdoor house. Even when he was in the backroom, he was fairly normal. Ever since we moved into this house, he's been an evil cat. I'd better let the dogs out to potty before it starts snowing. I'd like to be able to see them when I go to let them back in as the aussie's tend to go to the very back of the property and it's hard to get their attention without using a flashlight.

You just know I'll end up in labor in this white crap

Last night pretty well sucked. Jasmine went to sleep a little after midnight. I fell asleep a little before one but was woken up about ten after. I'm not sure if it was Jasmine or Shawn that woke me up, he was snoring and she was pinching my arm. (it's a soothing thing she does for some sadistic reason) I stayed in bed for another two hours before I gave up and went to let the dogs out to go potty. While I was waiting for them to be done, I heard what sounded like someone talking. Here comes Jasmine down the hallway, crying because she woke up with no one to pinch. Normally I would've been pissed on the inside. I knew it would be a long time before I'd be able to fall asleep again, however, so I was just thinking what difference does it make if she's awake or asleep. We started to process of getting her back to sleep around five. I believe she fell asleep some where right before seven, as did I. Only to wake up an hour later having to pee. I then woke up just about every hour until just after 11am. (I have no idea why I kept waking up, it's actually weird for me to wake up after I fall asleep unless it's been seven or eight hours) Jasmine woke up at one. Gee thanks kid, six hours of peace and quiet. I turned Harry Potter on and went back to sleep. (she was in bed with me and if she moves while I know she's awake, it wakes me up so she wasn't going to get into anything) She fell asleep again before that was over but woke up long enough to wake me up and say the movie was over and to turn off the tv. Needless to say, I don't really feel like I got a whole lot of sleep. Each time I woke up on my own, I was awake for a while and then when she woke up, I was awake for a while. The only reason I'm positive I even reached REM sleep is because I kept having nightmares. I really hope tonight is a better one as far as sleep goes. Jasmine is still awake so that's a pretty good indication that she will sleep through the night. It's about 50/50 as to what will happen if she is asleep before or right around midnight. We'll both be grouchy as hell after this baby is born due to lack of sleep. Maybe it will put us on a more normal sleep schedule.

The next few days look awful as far as the weather goes. I'm actually a little nervous about Friday. Between about midnight Thursday and midnight Friday, they are predicting we will get around 6.5 inches of snow. That's a lot of snow to fall in 24 hours. I have no plans of leaving the safety of my house in those 24 hours either. Friday is normally my day to get out of the house and go somewhere but I'll skip it this week in exchange for keeping my life, thank you very much. Tonight I was making sure we had enough food for all the animals to last till at least Tuesday. (we're supposed to be snow free on Saturday and then Sunday and Monday are supposed to give us up to another foot of snow) Go figure, I have an OB appointment on Tuesday. Thank god my husband will be off work early in the afternoon and he can drive me. (besides that, the doctor I'm seeing is triple booked for that time and I could end up sitting there for quite a while, never fun to do alone with a three year old) Snow just sucks. It's pretty for all of a few seconds and then you realize that at some point and time, you'll have to leave your house and face that cold white crap. And on top of it all, I have to go to my dad's house for Christmas stuff on Sunday... in the snow and it's almost an hour drive from my house to his. We may have to take the awesomely ugly truck of my husband's as it has four wheel drive.

Couldn't resist

How ironic that this is one of the first photos on LOLcats today. :)

I don't think mother nature likes me much

It snowed something crazy out today. Can you guess when the snow started falling? Oh yeah, as I was walking out to my car to my OB appointment. By the time I was on my way home, well, I was gripping the steering wheel for dear life. Not a snow plow was stirring either. I still made it to the license branch however. (husband drove) Not the best picture I've ever taken but I'm sure it's not the worst. Apparently, you are not allowed to smile anymore. No, really. I always look extremely irritated if I'm not smiling. Oh and the OB appointment was the same as always. I have another one in a week and one every week after until I deliver. Being pregnant is such an inconvenience in ones schedule. ;) *yawn* Now I'm hungry, and tired. Any one placing bets as to which will win?

Cats, whining and more cats

By now, I believe most of you have received your Christmas cards from me. (this only applies to those I have addresses for so if you didn't get one, I probably don't have your address... stop sending dirty looks my way damnit) Some of your received a little something... extra with yours and if you didn't, it's because you don't have cats or I didn't know you had cats. I bravely stuffed (and was really concerned that I'd have drug sniffing dogs at my door within a day or so of sending them out) them with catnip. My hope was that from that point forward, your cats would all attack the mailman every time he/she went to drop off the mail, in hopes that one of the packages would have a little something extra in it. I know Beth's cat attacked the mail before she had a chance to open it. Hopefully, there were only a few battle wounds from trying to tear the cards out of your kitties paws. I literally had to lock up the cards the night before I sent them or my own cats would've shredded them. So that was the extent of my evil for the holiday season for those of you that were wondering why your card looked normal. ;)

It's been a day of aches and pains for this household. Husband hurt his leg at some point and time today. He's been hobbling since he got home. The baby has been laying directly on nerves that should never ever be pushed on so I have been doing my own hobbling, bordering waddling. I could not have been happier when dinner was done, I stood up and realized I was no longer in mind shattering pain. Tomorrow, if husband still feels awful he's going to go to the doctor. (normally when he's in pain I don't worry too much, he's always in pain but this time seems a little different) I already have an OB appointment and then I'm going to the license branch to update that little shiny card that gives me permission to endanger your lives on the road.

I gave in. Well, husband convinced me to give in. I brought the two outdoor cats in for a few days tonight. They looked like hell when I got out there. (mom, we're freezing, please help!) So far, evil cat has only attacked Minka once since they've been in the house. I think being surrounded by crated dogs all night is making him nervous, therefore, less likely to injure her too badly. My indoor cats are very aware of the fact that he's back there and have been regarding the backdoor warily. As if any minute the door will burst open and in will wander evil cat. They need not worry, evil cat will not cross that doorway. I have no patience for him or his teeth right now.

Baby it's cold outside

The wind is a howlin' out right now. I think the wind tends to freak me out more than any other kind of weather. To the west of me are fields, nothing to block the wind so it always seems to hit our house faster than it would on another block. I always imagine the walls just saying to hell with this and collapsing. Unlikely? However, I have a really active imagination and very little control over it. In the last three hours, the temperatures have went from 50's to 20's. The house is pretty toasty from being above freezing for a day or two but with the wind and steadily dropping temperature, the house will be freezing by mid-morning. The wind just seems to go straight through our walls, causing the house to feel a lot colder. I'm thinking I may have to bring in the outdoor cats in this next week or so if the weather doesn't improve. If they come in, they will not upset the balance of my household and will be kept in the backroom. Last winter, I brought evil cat in and the house was in an uproar for weeks AFTER he was put back outside. And I still have scars from that brief act of kindness towards evil cat. If he needs to come in, I prefer that all of us are able to keep our distance. (and fingers) The only way to do that is to lock him and his friend in the backroom.

I finished up with my grandmother's Christmas present today. Now I just have to get my mom's finished. My husband has been holing himself up in the office for the last several days doing something for me for Christmas. I've been doing my best not to think about what it could be. The more I wonder, the more likely I would be to go snooping. I plan on being extremely good this year and keeping my nose to myself. In past years, I've been so bad that my husband won't even use our home computer to look up my presents or information on them since he knew I would check the history extensively and am able to track where he's been even if he deletes it. I'm better now. Reformed if you will. ;)

We tried a new pizza place tonight. Well, it was only new to me as Jasmine and Shawn had it the night before. It's called (I think) Hungry Howie's. It's ok, nothing to write home about. Honestly, I thought the pizza tasted exactly like Pizza Hut's hand tossed pizza. And maybe Pizza Hut's cheese was a little better but really the same pizza, same sauce, etc. Their cheese bread was pretty decent but wow, I have some terrible heartburn from it. Would I go back? Probably if none of the better places were open but not if I had more choices to me. I'm still a Rocco's girl. (don't bother looking it up unless your local, it's family owned and fabulous) I'm actually hungry now but the heartburn is making even the idea of eating, nauseating. Besides, I should really be thinking about doing that sleeping thing, not the eating thing.

Grrrrrrrrr

I wasn't going to and then I thought what the hell. Plus, Beth has me slightly infatuated with him. ;) Grrrr, Rahm, it's what's for dinner.

Sleepy Ramblings

You'll have to forgive the following blog. I'm tired and irritable. It's not the blogs fault and anything I say or do, cannot be used against it. ;)

I was reading the local paper a few minutes ago (online version) and read that a 10 year old girl was attacked on Thursday by a dog. A pit bull. *sigh* Now the forums on that site are going bat shit over the news of another killer pit bull. I try never to write on those things and try even harder not to read them. I think the main population of posters on there are morons most of the time. We've all met them. The guy in the office that thinks he knows everything on every single subject and will argue with you at length about what he knows, even if you have a shit ton of documents from reliable sources calling him an idiot. It just frustrates me that people are so misguided about this breed. They have never been bred to kill humans. They were originally bred as working dogs on farms. They were used to control bulls and eventually, to fight them in sport. When bred to be "killing machines" they are bred to kill other animals, NOT people. A lot of these dogs that do attack humans are a result of their upbringing. They are extremely sensitive animals. They are sensitive to how they are raised, the conditions they live in and their environment in general. For example, if a couple has a pit bull and they are going through a nasty divorce, lots of fighting and tension, the dog is some how going to respond and it's usually going to be a lot stronger of a response than from any other breed. If you beat the shit out of them, they will respond stronger than any other breed. How they respond is different for every dog, just like it would be with any human that went through similar experiences. They may retreat and become depressed, introverted. They could have the response that many believe the breed to be, vicious and uncontrollable. They may become overly attached to their human, never letting them out of their sight and panicking when they are away. As I said, it's different for every dog. Most people are unaware that the pit bull's jaws don't actually "lock" when they are attacking something. Yes, they have very powerful jaws and it's extremely difficult to get them off of another animal when they are in that frame of mind but, no they do not lock. Another little known fact, a Rottweiler actually has a stronger jaw and more killing power than any pit bull. The Rottweiler has 328 pounds of pressure per inch in their jaws, they're also bigger dogs and can use their weight with those jaws, more so than a pit bull. They also attack more people each year than pit bulls. The dog that is most likely to attack you however, is a Chihuahua. They attack and bite more people a year than any other breed. It's not considered as big of a deal because unless you're an invalid, the dog probably won't kill you with their tiny rat sized jaws. I can understand people fearing pit bulls and I can understand a definite need for controlling the breed and those who own them but I absolutely hate it when someone says we should kill them all and that they're all killing machines. My husband's best friend has a pit bull that I don't believe would EVER harm a human unless they were a threat to her family or a child. Yes, some of these breed lines need to come to an end. By saying that, I am not suggesting euthanizing any of the dogs from those lines but to stop breeding those particular blood lines. These are the more aggressive of the breed, those who were at some point used for sport (pit bull fighting) and those who display traits that are unworthy of the breed. It is the duty of each breeder, of every breed, to only produce the best of the breed and to improve the lines of the breed. And it is the duty of the public to research the breeders, breeds and lines BEFORE bringing one home. You cannot blame an entire breed for the faults of a few.

On another note... why is it that the crazy guys who leave home to be completely isolated for months upon months always have freakishly blue eyes? I'm talking about the Italian who was in a row boat for ten months.
http://news.aol.com/article/man-stops-just-short-of-rowing-pacific
I'm telling you, stay away from the guys with the crystal clear blue eyes, they're trouble. ;)

A little stressed today

I had a package for Christmas delivered today. I have to say, this is my first time using FedEx over UPS and FedEx was a far better experience for me. I received an email the day my package was shipped out telling me when to expect it and then another stating that if my package had to go through Tennessee that it may be a day late due to weather. (it didn't) This afternoon, I received another email stating that it had been delivered. They put it in a place that I was sure to find it, unlike UPS. One time, we weren't home and UPS dropped off something, left it on the front porch (which at the time we NEVER used) and it was days before we realized it was there. With FedEx, even if they had left it somewhere we normally wouldn't look, we would've known to search for it due to the email. (none of which cost me extra by the way) In the future, if I'm given a choice between those two, I will choose FedEx from now on.

I was having major pain today, even when sitting so I made the decision that we would not be cooking. It just hurt to much to stand, let alone stand at the stove for an hour. It's a good thing we went out or I would've been absolutely miserable. After being home for a while, I had a little while where I wasn't in mind numbing pain, so I cleaned up the kitchen floor. Some days I look at the house and feel overwhelmed at the amount of stuff that needs to be finished (or that I would like to be finished) before this kid is born. Jasmine's room needs to be finished up before Christmas. She has some rather large toys coming to her and needs some where to put them. (there is a massive pile of clothes on one side of her room, none of which are hers) I would like the rest of the house as clean as possible (and to stay that way) as I doubt I'm going to feel like scrubbing or picking anything up after having a baby and then the sleepless nights that are sure to come with that. I didn't worry about any of this when I was pregnant with Jasmine because it wasn't my house. We were still living at my mom's and it made a huge difference. I knew things would be taken care of around the house, whereas now it's my house and there's no one around to do it for me. My MIL offered to come help us but I'd rather cut my pinkie finger off with a spoon.

A good clean painful time

Oh holy hell. The last few days have been fairly pain free for once. Then today, wham. It's like some is taking razor blades down my cervix and twisting them as they go. This is the pain that my doctor (male of course) smiles at as I'm telling him about my agony and says that it only gets worse with the more kids you have. It was about that time that I unhinged my jaw and swallowed him whole. ;) And wouldn't you know, the doctor's also claim that there are no nerves in your cervix. Right. The next time I have that pain, I'd like to have a pair of those same doctor's testicles in my hand. I'm now convinced that I'm pregnant with a tasmanian devil with a very large head. It'll be born, the doctor's and nurses will gasp in horror and then it'll tear them limb from limb. And afterwards I'll say I told you so. harhar

I finally did it. I gathered up an entire trash bag of Jasmine's clothes and am sending them to goodwill. The kid is 3 1/2 and I have never given any of her clothes away. I literally have five or six huge rubbermaid deals full of her clothes. It's time to go through them and get rid of those things that I'm not absolutely attached to. Tonight I pretty much said if it's under 4T, it goes. (I was in her bedroom and there were no clothes under 2T so nothing too itty bitty adorable to distract me) Even the fancy dresses are going. Even if I were to have another girl, it's unlikely that I would put her in all the same dresses Jasmine wore for the holidays. It's just too easy to buy adorable things rather than recycle the old. So goodwill is going to be getting a ton of lightly worn girls clothing this week and in the weeks following. At first I thought about keeping them in the basement and then having a yard sale this summer but I hate yard sales. I hate going to them and I hate having them. I'd much rather take just give them all away. I was also thinking of freecycling them but as I stated before, I don't like giving strangers my address. Apparently, we've recently had some issues with our branch of the freecycle network as well. People respond to ads, don't show up and then a few weeks later, the houses get robbed. I'm just freakin' giddy over the fact that I was actually able to get rid of any of her stuff.

I was also able to get around to starting my cake balls tonight. (my husband giggles like a fourteen year old boy each and every time I say cake balls... he will be 90 and still laugh at it, just you wait) It's takes some time so they're not yet finished. Basically, you make a cake as you normally would but keep in mind your going to demolish the thing within an hour of having it out of the oven so don't bust your ass on some fancy cake pan. Afterwards, once it's a little cooler, you crumb it all up in a large bowl and add about 1/2 a container of frosting. I used the mixer to get it all blended. Roll them into balls and place in the freezer for at least two hours. Take them out, dip them in the chocolate of your choice (I'm using the recommended chocolate almond bark and drizzling with white chocolate), allow chocolate to cool, harden and then eat. This is my first attempt with these. They smelled really good but then again, so did those chocolate truffle cookies. (ok so me, my husband and Jasmine were the only people that didn't like them) Mine are currently in the freezer. I don't have any toothpicks to stick them onto while I dip them so I may just wait to go any further till tomorrow. Just depends on how adventurous I'm feeling after Jasmine goes to sleep. Something about this pregnancy has really brought out the baker in me. Everyone my husband works near is in heaven. I can't finish all these baked goods myself so off they go to work with him.

Husband? We no have husband here

My husband may not make it through the backdoor before I murder him when he comes home from work tonight. It's almost 8 and I'm still awake. I would've been asleep. I would've been relaxed and comfy. Unfortunately for me, my husband walks through the house at 4am like a drunken elephant. A drunken elephant that slams every door it goes through. Alas, the drunken elephant woke up Jasmine and it took me almost four effin' hours to put her back to bed. Four hours of laying there while she did everything in her power to keep from going back to sleep. I don't understand why they do this. She's been through it before. Mommy starts off nice and understanding. Then an hour goes by and mommy starts to turn into a bitch. Two hours and mommy is a raging alcoholic bitch. Four hours and mommy is reduced to sobbing and begging. I've tried being nice and the 'honey you have to go to sleep now so we don't sleep all day. If you sleep all day, you won't have as much time to play and watch your shitty cartoons that you do so love.' It DOESN'T work, EVER. The only thing that works or at least pretends to work (hey if she's pretending to sleep, then she's at least not moving around so much) is acting like I'm going to throw her through a wall at any minute. Although I did feel bad about an hour before she FINALLY fell asleep. She had said earlier that she had to pee but she says this a lot as a way to get out of bed. It's either I have to pee or I need something to drink. I told her to go to sleep. When she asked again I was at the raging alcoholic bitch mommy so I just grabbed her off the bed and hauled her into the bathroom... where she proceeded to pee for longer than what most adults have ever done in their entire lives. She now believes me to be bi-polar as by the time we got back to the bedroom I was feeling guilty that I had been purposely trying to render her kidneys null and void so I was ever-so-nice mommy. (also known as mommy with her tail tucked) It still took another half hour for her to fall asleep. I think I will absolutely, positively lose my effin' mind if I go back in there and she's awake. Husband will come home, Jasmine will have her cartoons on and be oblivious to mommy, mommy will be repeatedly banging her head into a wall in a crazy person rocking motion. I thought before I had her that I had reached my limits on frustration. You know those days where you think there's no way that I could ever be more frustrated than at this very moment. I was full of shit. Kids will frustrate you to the point that you want to get in your car, drive at a very high rate of speed and crash into something sturdier than the car. And then, if your limbs are all still working well enough, go steal a car and do it again. Only then, will you feel like your frustration has eased. That's my version of count to ten and take a deep breath. F--k the breathing and the counting, just drive into a wall, much more satisfying and maybe you'll get a new car. ;)

We've got a long one

I was just in the basement looking at the stuff we got Jasmine for Christmas. Trying to figure out what Santa is going to be giving. Damn that Santa, does none of the work and gets the glory. He's going to be giving her something on the smaller side. No way is Santa getting credit for the huge dinosaur that was so expensive, it could've put her through college or the dollhouse that she's sure to use with every single toy that she can fit inside it. No, I think Santa will be giving one of the things I bought from the Disney store... all of which was at least 25% off. (and for once really was the cheapest place to buy any of that Disney crap)

My husband thinks we should buy my dad and his wife something for Christmas. We have every year before but a part of me feels like saying we just can't afford it this year. Most years I've bought them a gift certificate, except for one year that I made my dad a photo album of pictures of me and my brother from the time we were little till the present. I'm just not that excited about buying for anyone other than Jasmine, husband and my mom. The only person out of that bunch I have to buy for still is my husband. Which I may end up doing this weekend... I'm just concerned about taking Jasmine with me because she has a big mouth. The more I think about it, maybe I'll wait till I have my mom to distract her for a minute while I grab a gift and pay for it. I also need to get something for my brother and his girlfriend. If we get something for my dad, I'll just make my husband decide on something. The only person he absolutely has to choose a gift for is me so he can take on one more. ;) (his mom doesn't celebrate holidays)

I really need to get to the license branch tomorrow and renew my plastic right to drive. (I know, months ago I said the thing was a year behind but I was wrong... it expires this year) I hate having a driver's license picture for the next four years that has me pregnant. I know, vain but those pictures suck enough already, why make it worse? Shawn's going to drop off my Christmas cards on his way home from work. This year, they will get sent out. Last year, I would say every day that I was going to make them out, and buy stamps... and then actually put them in the mailbox. And it never happened. So if you wonder why I snubbed you last year, I didn't, I was just extremely lazy.

Behind our house is a corn field. For about a month now, I've been finding corn cobs in my house. I had no idea how they were getting there. I just knew I hadn't seen a dog come in with one. Apparently, when they harvested the corn this year, tons of the corn ended up over the fence (I'm not sure if this has ever happened before) and my dogs (ok, so only the Aussie's) seem to think they're a delicacy. I don't know if my husband isn't very observant or didn't care that the dogs were bringing them in. I make them (usually Rodeo) drop them before they come in the backdoor, otherwise they eat all the corn off and then chew the cob into itsy bitsy, painful to the bare feet, pieces. I found another one in the house tonight. Time to have a talk with husband about feet and corn.

I cleaned the ferret cage tonight and while I was doing ferret laundry, (yes they have things I actually have to wash, hammocks, and such) I decided it would be interesting to see how they reacted to snow. As you can imagine, they've never seen it, smelled it or touched it before in their life. I gathered some up in a bowl and set it in the cage. (they're absolutely not allowed out during the Christmas season... ferrets enjoy shiny things, like Christmas lights and they will eat them before you can get them out of their mouths) I wish I would've been recording their reactions. A lot of touching it and then jumping halfway across the cage. Bindi jumped right in and tried to dig to China, flinging snow through the room. It didn't last long however as I had just put a new bed in their cage today. It's not "made" for ferrets but I found it and knew they'd use it so what the hell. It appears to have been a grocery bag but it's so old that the wording is faded. I hung it up in the cage and they were taking turns jumping in and out of it all night. (ok more like shoving each other out of the way to jump in) The ferrets are the main reason I would like to find a cheap sewing machine. Their bedding is expensive and it would be a lot easier to make the stuff myself than to order it off ebay. (the ebay stuff is way higher quality than the stuff you buy at the store) It'd also come in handy for making the dogs something to sleep on since they can't have actual dog beds without eating them or destroying them.

Food, the good, the bad and the crispy

I don't know what the hell happened. I've made these cookies a hundred times and they've turned out great every single time. Tonight, they came out more like chocolate chip biscuits than cookies. Crunchy things they are. It wasn't till I got out two dozen that the obvious answer came to me. You see, the cookies looked great while I was cooking them till the very last minute and then they flattened out. It didn't matter how long I left them in the oven, they all came out flat. Bastards. I used the exact same ingredients that I use every time and mixed them the same way as always. You better believe the F-word was a popular one in my kitchen tonight. I have a basic understanding of baking, it should NEVER have taken me as long as it did to figure out how to fix them. I added a small amount of flour to the mix until it was thicker. Next batch of cookies came out normal. I KNOW I used the right amount of flour. I'm not sure why they came out all funky. I'm sending the crunchy ones to work with my husband. I was half tempted to toss them but his friends would have a fit if they found out the trash can ate them. Tomorrow I'll probably make some triple chocolate brownies to make up to myself the nasty cookies today. What I really wanted to do was throw the entire plate on the floor and stomp them into oblivion.

I think me and Shawn were still quite exhausted from all the running around yesterday. We never really got up. So when dinner came about, we didn't want to cook so we headed out to dinner. Shawn got one of the more expensive dinners and mine wasn't exactly cheap. We had an appetizer and after a while started to wonder where our dinner was. We had a great waiter and he kept telling us it would be out soon. Suddenly, he appeared and said we'd only be paying for the appetizer seeing as how the kitchen had screwed up and sent out seven orders before ours. I was thinking holy cow that was an expensive meal and we just about got it for free. Our waiter's tip was more than our actual bill. Can't complain about that.

Questionaire Stolen from Lisa

-What is your favorite word? I'm going to go with those before me and say, Love
-What is your least favorite word? Well... I'd really rather NOT type it out. I NEVER say it and it makes me cringe to even spell it for my own reasons. I HATE this word. It starts with a T and rhymes with what and that's as good as you're going to get from me. Actually if you remove the H from the word what and put the T in front of the W, that is the word I hate.
-What turns you on? Intelligence, a caring nature, humor
-What turns you off? Arrogance, ignorance, racism, close mindedness
- What noise do you love? My daughter REALLY laughing
- What noise do you hate? The alarm on my clock
-What is your favorite curse word? Well, I use the F-word way more than is acceptable. (I'm working on it!) I use damnit quite a bit now in it's place. Drop something - Damnit! Cat breaks something - Damnit! It's snowing outside - Damnit to hell
-What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? Well, at the moment, I'm a stay at home mom so the doors are wide open on that one... maybe pet grooming
-What profession would you not like to do? Anything that deals with large amounts of humans or with ANY children. (my own get a pass on thus one)
-If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates? You should've listened to your uncle. See? He was right all along. I DO exist. ;)

Anyone have any snoring cures? I could always smother my husband but I'd prefer something a whole lot less messy and with less police involvement. I told him I'm going to knock him out with a frying pan, drag his body to the doctor and have them cut out half the back of his throat in hopes of stopping the noise every night. Nine years ago the man never snored, five years ago he rarely snored, now there's rarely a night where I'm not kicking him, jabbing him or pulling on his leg hairs to get him to shut up. (yes, I really do pull leg hairs... he also sleeps like the dead so it takes a fair amount of pain to stop the noise) If it doesn't stop soon, I'll be forced to pinch more.... sensitive areas. Ugh, someone shut him up.

Shopping

I am so tired. It's the kind of tired where you don't know if you'll be able to fall asleep however. Jasmine's Christmas stuff is done. It was done long before we stopped spending money. I don't even want to look at our bank account right now. She did good at my mom's. She called us twice to see how much longer we would be and when told we were getting her presents she said will you just come home already. ;) Getting home was easier said than done. I don't think the snow ever stopped today. And at times it was really bad. When we were only a few miles from my mom's, you couldn't see the road anymore. The snow had drifted over the fields and across every inch of road there was. It was a guessing game as to whether or not you were in the field or on concrete. I was freaking out, my husband seemed fine. I kept imagining a drift just sucking us into the ditch on either side of the road. You know it's bad when you're driving down the highway, speed limit 60 and everyone around you, including those with 4X4's, are driving 20. I'm glad it's all over and I'm at home in my bed, where the snow can't get me. ;)

Grumpy retail therapy

Today didn't start out great for my mood. It did get better eventually. I expected husband to be home by the time we got up and he wasn't. Turned out, he had a flat tire (something I could've foreseen happening but who listens to their wife?) and he bought some new tires. He was supposed to go with his friend to put in some plumbing at my mom's, which he STILL hadn't gotten done when I called him to find out where the hell he was. Eventually, I called him again, only to find out he was eating and still not at my mom's. The more time that goes by, the more annoyed I'm becoming. I'm hungry and that makes me grouchy. I wanted a pizza and don't like to drive by myself to the neighborhood in which said pizza makes it's home. I'm also becoming frustrated as I look around my house and see all the things I need done that he keeps promising to get around to and never does. I'm sitting there feeling pretty unimportant to him. I've been pregnant for nine months now, and there are things I've been asking him to do since I found out I was pregnant. (pull up the carpet in the bedroom for starters) I'm basically thinking when someone else asks for help with their stuff, he jumps and when I ask, he puts it off. The next time I talked to him I was not pleasant. I took a shower and decided if he still wasn't home by the time I was done, then I was heading out to the mall for a little while.... and I ended up at the mall. I felt better after me and Jasmine found some sales (for Xmas shopping for her tomorrow... she's young enough that she just thought she won the lottery and got to look at toys for an hour, not that mommy was making a list) and I had some much needed coffee in my blood stream. Husband finally made it home around 10:30pm. I was like whatever, I'm starving, get me food and we'll be good again. ;) He did get an ear full about the lack of effort he's been putting in around here however.

Tomorrow we'll be dropping Jasmine off at my mom's house so we can do her Christmas shopping. It'll be the first time she's been apart from both us in six months or even more. It seems like I left her at my mom's once during the summer but I'm not sure. I've tried preparing her as best I can. I started off for a few hours telling her we'd be going to grandma's tomorrow and eventually, she knew she'd be staying at grandma's while mommy and daddy went out and bought her stuff for xmas. Let's hope she doesn't freak out. It's difficult for me to leave and enjoy any part of my day if she's crying when I leave her.

These are a few of my favorite things

My family has been harping on me for a Christmas list. Give them something, anything on paper. I have come up with nothing. I find that usually, the gifts that people pick out on their own are the gifts that I like more than the ones I asked for. Years ago, very shortly after my dad left, we had our first Christmas. Two days later, I had my 16th birthday. I know at the time my mom felt like my gift sucked and wished she could do more. However, it's one of my favorite gifts that I've ever gotten. It's funny too because it's such a simple gift. It's kind of a jewerly box and it's made with a really unique wood and carved into the lid is a fairy, which is also painted. I still think it's the coolest jewelry box I've ever seen. This is the list I decided to provide them. *Grin* They asked for a list, they did not ask for specifics. *Bigger Grin* This was a list of things I like. (ok so I don't own one of those but I like the IDEA of them, if they work properly)

Sephora
Books
Green Bay
Socks
PJ's
Shoes
Photography
Unique things
Clothes when I'm not fat
Coffee
Baking
Sleeping
Napping
Back Massages
Summer
Animals
My computer
Food
Winning of the Lottery
Jasmine
Cat Genie Box
Sleeping
Comfy sleeping

210,000 Lights

I'm just glad they're not my neighbors. I have issues sleeping with one light on, let alone 210,000.

http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-157278

Boredom, actually the devil's playground

Some of you will be receiving Christmas cards from me. Some of you will have a surprise. I wish I could've included a camera to capture the moment. I feel very much like Mr. Burns... hands together whispering "Excellent." I think there's an evil streak in me some where. Apparently, it comes out around the holidays. Exxxxxxcellent.

Can't recall anything interesting happening worth mentioning. People are fine, animals are fine, it's extremely cold out. Did I mention extremely cold?

Xmas Time

I'm trying to finish up my shopping list for Christmas. My mom and grandma are done. We already bought Jasmine that ridiculously expensive dinosaur and will be finishing up all her stuff (including a dollhouse but not the one she asked for because the reviews on it sucked) on Saturday. It's usually harder to stop spending money on her than it is to find something she would enjoy. My husband... has been a real pain in my ass as far as gift giving. He's into electronic crap but he has most of it. He likes the Bears, Bulls and Cubs but I there's nothing out there that is Christmas worthy without spending more money than we have. He's given me a small list (via speaking, not actually writing anything down... as if I have a memory worth a shit right now) of things he would like. I don't typically go off any one's list. I tend to find what seems like the perfect gift (and I think usually is or at least a damn good one) and go with that. However, buying for men, sucks. I may end up forced into going with the list. At least I'm happy with the gifts I've gotten for everyone so far.

Fine

Everything is fine. No major contractions after that one. I just got ridiculously sick after that last post. There are days, I think my stomach hates me but I guess you can't blame it with some of the stuff I eat.

Shit, I just had a hard contraction. Not one of those fake braxton hick things either. I forgot how uncomfortable those things are. The kid didn't seem to care for it much either, seeing as how I'm getting the crap beat out of me right now. I'm going to go to sleep and hope this goes away.

Then there's always cookies

Doctor says everything I'm feeling is normal. Apparently, the more times your pregnant, the more pain you seem to feel in your uterus and cervix. He also stated that if I go into labor anytime from now on, they will not stop it. I gave him just about the same look as I did when I was pregnant with Jasmine and he wanted to strip my membranes... and the nursery for the kid wasn't done yet. It's kind of a the hell you won't look. ;) He refused to do anything for my restless leg syndrome, which I expected. He doesn't seem to like writing prescriptions. At least it will start to fade after the baby is born.

I made probably the best cookies I've ever tasted today. (recipe to follow) I've had this recipe for a while but it just didn't sound that appealing to me. How wrong was I? I almost started a second batch as soon as the first was done but by then it was midnight and I thought, really I don't need that many cookies. (I'm sending half of what I have to work with my husband) I even told my husband that if these cookies were human, I would leave him for them. ;)~ After trying one, he said the feeling was mutual. I know I'm good at baking but sometimes you wonder if you just like it because you're used to it. You can grow up eating sub-par food and think it's pretty good, until you try someone else's cooking. So it was a little ego boost when my husband told me what one of his friends said. His friend has made comments many times that I should do this for a living. (I prefer animals to cookies however) He even went as far this time as to tell my husband he'd be willing to back me if I went into business. He also said that every cookie he eats, he finds himself comparing to mine. Granted, my opinion of the guy isn't real high and that I think he'd eat almost anything short of rat poisoning but it's nice to know that someone else (other than family) enjoys my cooking as much as I do. While I enjoy baking, I would hate it if it were something I had to do for a living. That being said, if one of Shawn's friends needed me to bake something for an event and wanted to pay me, I'd be more than willing but it's not something I want to do everyday. Not that I didn't enjoy the momentary inflation of my baking ego.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cup cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups chocolate chips of your choice (semi-sweet, caramel/milk chocolate swirl, chocolate/white chocolate swirl)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

In a large bowl, beat butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla extract until light and fluffy. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt; stir into the butter mixture until well blended. Mix in the chocolate chips. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake for 8-10 minutes or just until set. (when cookies have slight cracks in them and no longer appear to be "wet") Cool on wire rack or risk a burned tongue and eat them immediately.

When making these I divided up the batter into several bowls before adding the chips. I wanted to try them with the caramel/chocolate swirl, the white chocolate and the white chocolate/chocolate swirl without making three different batters. They all taste really good but by far, the caramel/chocolate swirl chips were the best. It was like those little swirls were created just for this recipe. They're definitely cookies that go well with a glass of milk or hot cocoa. If you like cookies at all, I think you'll enjoy these. I was worried that they would be too chocolaty tasting but they're just perfect. (I made chocolate truffle cookies last week and I couldn't stomach the amount of chocolate that was in them, however they were a big hit at husband's work)