'Tis the Season

I am not ready for Christmas yet. It took us a week to get the Christmas tree up and we still need to put all of the ornaments on it! I have a few other decorations put up, but I think I need to finish cleaning the house before I can finish decorating. I thought that I had plenty of time to get things done, but it just dawned on me yesterday that I only have week nights left to finish! Where did all of the weekends go? I haven't even begun shopping because I have to wait until payday on Friday... and that is the day everyone is coming to our home! I am excited to host Christmas at our house this year, but maybe I should have thought this through and made a plan! Oh well, 'tis the season!

Is that correct? 'tis? I mean an apostophe usually replaces missing letters or numbers like 'til or '05, but what is 'tis short for? It is? If so, wouldn't it be 't_is? No, that doesn't look right either. I wonder if spell checker will flag it?

Wow, this spell checker is not very good. It said that I spelled apostophe wrong, but had no similar suggestions. I went into word, and it said that it's spelled correctly. It also said that 'tis and 'til are correct too. David - I hope you are not putting much faith in this spell checker!

Miss me?

I wonder if anyone bothers to check and see if I have blogged anymore. I have good intentions, but the baby is crying, so gotta go!

Death to Peace

Well, after 4 1/2 years of trying, I have succeeded! Yes that's right, the years of effortless neglect have paid off and my peace lily is has finally kicked the bucket! Mom keeps offering me more plants, but I have been saying, "Let me kill off the ones I have before I take on any more!" It did not take me long to kill the Schefflera because it is pretty picky about its care. The peace lily however, has really hung on despite my forgetting to water it for weeks at a time. When we moved to the new house, I replanted it, removing all of the dead portions. Though it was just a little sprout left, I thought it was going to pull through. I was wrong. I went in the spare bedroom this morning and there is not a single patch of green left. How sad! My other plants are doing ok. The ivy (I'm not sure exactly what kind it is) was looking great before we moved, but then it was left in my car in the heat as we moved. It really shriveled up and is just now starting to look healthy again. The mother-in-law's tongue always seems to do ok because it doesn't require much water. Lastly, my irises, which looked so pretty this spring that we decided to move them to the new house, are still sitting in a bucket on the patio. I am afraid that if someone doesn't plant them soon that they will be gonners too. So, Mom, you might want to get some more plants ready for me because I may be running out soon!

Full Term!

I feel like I have had nothing to blog about, but I know many of you would argue!

Here is the baby update...

Little Natalie Renee is doing well. She is passing all of her tests with flying colors! Unfortunately, Mommy is not doing quite as hot since my blood pressure is staying a bit high! Dr. Wootton has working only half days until baby gets here, and I am supposed to be taking it easy the rest of the time. It is hard to take it easy though when there are so many things to do with the new house and getting ready for the new family member!

I am officially "full term" now, so we could go at any time. At my growth scan last week, they estimated Natalie to be 7 1/2 lbs already! If I go to 40 weeks and she gains the average 1/2 lb per week, then we're looking at 9 1/2 lbs! I'm not sure I'm ready for that!!! Dr. Wootton does not want me going past my due date because of her size, so she said that we can induce anywhere from August 1st on. I would prefer for things to progress naturally, but I am also very ready to have her!

That's about all I can think of for now, but I will try to blog again soon!

38 down 12 to go!

I think it would be easier to tell you where I still need to go instead of where I've been, so here it goes!

Alaska
Hawaii
Washington
Oregon
Idaho
Montana
Maine
Vermont
New Hampshire
Massachusetts
Rhode Island
Delaware

Notice, I am missing the far North East and far North West, so I guess we will have to plan vacations to those areas along with Alaska and Hawaii!

As far as countries go, I have been to Canada, Bahamas, Spain and France. I can't believe I've never made it to Mexico! I guess that's on the vacation list now too!

Doctor's Orders

I was in a bit of trouble at the Doctor's office today. First, Dr. Wootton's nurse, Ruth asked me if I was going to get a lot of rest over the long weekend. I replied that I would be staying pretty busy since we just closed on our house yesterday. She drilled it into me that I need to take it easy and not to over do it. Then I went in to see Mary, who administers my NSTs (non-stress tests) and at the end of our session she asked if we had any plans for the weekend. I told her about our new house and that we were going to do some painting and fixing up before moving in a couple of weeks. She suddenly had the same expression that Ruth had earlier! She said I was definitely not to do any painting or heavy lifting, and that I should really not be doing much. I reassured her that we have lots of friends and family that have volunteered to help out, so I could just sit back and supervise. She reinforced that she did not want me coming in on Monday for my next NST and have to be put in the hospital because I over did it!

So, there you have it! I think I will sit back, relax, and eat bon-bons while my dearest friends and family slave over my old and new homes...Doctor's orders!

Oh, and thanks to those of you who have volunteered to help!

Warning! Not suitable for the weak of stomach!

Yesterday morning, I woke up and actually felt refreshed. I didn't have to be up quite yet, so I decided to eat breakfast instead of munching on something in the car on the way to work. I fixed myself a fairly large bowl of cereal and a glass of juice. I sat and watched part of the morning news, ate, and took my prenatal vitamin. Then I went up and took my shower. After the shower I started my regular routine... put contacts in, deodorant on, brush my teeth.

In the meantime, John had gotten up and was preparing to get in the shower, but had to "drop the kids off at the pool" first. Of course the smell hit as I was brushing my teeth. I gagged a couple of times, and then threw up a little in the sink. John figured that the smell was getting to me so he quickly finished up, put the toilet lid down, and scooted out of the bathroom. As he did that, I was thinking, "this is not going to go down the sink if I keep throwing up!" So, I turned to the toilet and threw up again, right on top of the toilet seat cover! I managed to get the lid open and threw up the remains of my breakfast in the toilet. To top things off, it even clogged the toilet!

My good start to the morning was gone, John was mad because he had to clean it up, and Roscoe was sad because I wouldn't let him "clean it up" too! I think that is the last time I eat breakfast first thing in the morning! (I'd rather throw up on an empty stomach!) And hopefully, John has learned not to stink up the bathroom while I am brushing my teeth!

My apologies to those who might have been embarrassed by my telling of this story!

Another Tale of Grades Gone Bad

Since I can't think of much to blog about, I thought I'd share my grade stories too, although it took me a bit to come up with the good!

So, I have always considered myself a good public speaker, but maybe taking two speeches to state forensics in high school went to my head! In my somewhat arrogant state, I think I forgot to ever prepare for my speeches in my college public speaking class. Either that or I was trying to top Krista at extemporaneous speaking. Anyhow, I don't even remember what kind of speech we were giving, but I decided to tell about camping in Colorado. I told all about setting up the tent, going hiking, making s'mores, etc. I thought the speech went very well until I got my grade. He marked me down to a B because I did not explain technical terms such as s'mores! Come On!!! The funny thing was that when it came time for our demonstration speeches, a young man in our class brought in an electric grill and demonstrated how to make s'mores!

The worst I can think of was my Freshman year in junior high. I was taking geometry and we were studying right triangles. Somehow, on the day of the test I totally mixed up which side of the triangle was the hypotenuse. To make matters worse, each problem built off the one before, so if you screwed up the first one, you missed the next five or so! I could tell something was wrong when the teacher returned the tests and instead of giving me my test, she asked me to stay after class. I got a D!!! I can remember standing at my locker crying and then crying all the way to gym class. My saving grace was that this teacher was very generous with extra credit and I raised my grade back up to an A with one extra credit assignment!

One other funny note was my freshman year in Honors Composition. Keep in mind that the entire class was made up of students that had always excelled in school. The first day, the teacher proclaimed, "Everyone in here starts out with a C and it is up to you to raise it!" You should have seen all of the horrified faces!!!

This and That

I guess my writing goes in spurts. I do real good for a week or so, and then... nothing. I have actually thought of fun things to blog about, but as I am sitting here I can think of... nothing. John and I have ordered Chinese from the new restaurant down the street. I hope it is good because I am hungry! John is watching Enterprise because he is a Star Trek junkie. Well, not the type that go to conventions and dress up as a Klingon, but he has a scanner, phaser, and a comm-badge, so you get the picture.

Baby Riggs is doing well. We had a check up on Valentine's Day. Dr. Wootton had trouble picking up the baby's heart beat with the Doppler, so we had a quick sonogram. He/She actually looks like a baby and not a lima bean like last time! It was amazing to see him/her wiggling around. Since we were looking I asked if she could tell the baby's sex. She gave it her best, but stubborn little Baby Riggs was butt down and wouldn't let us take a peek! Oh well, our next appointment is March 21st and we will get to do another sonogram, so maybe then!

Well, I took a break for dinner, and the Chinese was pretty good! It's nice to have something else delivered besides pizza! Then again, maybe we should just get our grocery shopping done so we have some food around here. I think I will do that tomorrow! Good night!

Donations Needed

For those of you who were saving up for the "Save My Toe" fund, I have another cause. We took the Lumina for a diagnostic check at Cottman Transmission this evening. Considering that the car will only go about 20 mph in second gear, things don't look good! The Lumina is 10 years old and has about 186,000 miles on it, so it's run the good race and nearing the finish line. Since I did buy a pair of shoes last week, I would like those of you that did not have a chance to donate yet, to transfer your gift over to the "Get John Some Wheels" fund. Krista, if you would like to extend your generous offer as you did last time, I can guarantee that we will be in Tulsa this weekend. Let me know if that works for you!

Sick Day

I didn't go to work yesterday. I am not sure if I was sick or if I just lost all desire to work. Here's an overview... I work up bright and early and started getting ready for work. As I sat by the window, putting my makeup on, I noticed that it was a beautiful day. I told John that I wanted to stay home and work on housework. I think he would have been fine with that, but I went to work anyways. On my way to work I started feeling sick to my stomach. Morning sickness? Who knows! I stayed at work about an hour and then decided to go home. I crawled back into bed and slept until 11AM when I got a MK phone call. Then I decided to run an errand and eat lunch. Then I came back home and went back to bed and slept until 5PM. At that point I still had no energy, so instead of working on housework I watched a movie. When John got home, I think he was a bit annoyed because I was not sick when I said I wanted to stay home in the first place. I think, as a pregnant woman, I am entitled to change my mind though, especially when I start feeling sick. I think that maybe I just over did it on the weekend. I feel fine now, so all is well except that our house is still a mess, all of our clothes are dirty, and we still have no groceries!

Prayer Request

Many of you know Tony Turner who goes to church with John and I at Parkway. He is one of our Deacons, works with the youth, and is just an all around good guy. Tony is a volunteer firefighter in Basehor, KS, and at a fire Saturday night, Tony was on a roof, feeding hose into an attic, and he slipped on some black ice, and fell to the ground. He broke both bones below his knee and his ankle on one leg. He was rushed to the hospital Saturday night and was in extreme pain. Sunday morning he went into surgery to set the bones, but before the Doctor could finish, they had some complications with his breathing tube and he was without air for about 30 seconds. The Doctor feels that he will not suffer any effects from this, but they will have to go back and finish the surgery tomorrow. Please keep Tony, Sheryl, and family in your prayers. Even after he is able to come home, he will be unable to walk and work for a couple of months.

Cookie Tossing

I thought this deserved a blog of its own... After Master Consultant today, Sarah and I ate lunch at Sweet Tomatoes. It's a salad bar with soup, pasta, and bakery items. It was very good, and I enjoyed visiting with Sarah very much. However, at the end of our meal, something went very wrong at the overly crowded restaurant. A woman and a preteen boy rushed past our table. I thought that the boy looked upset, but Sarah wondered if he was sick. Curious, I turned and looked down the aisle just in time to see that he had thrown up all over the place. I quickly turned to Sarah and said "We need to leave right now!" For those of you that know the Roscoe story, you will understand! (If you don't know that story, let me know and I will blog about it too!)

I just want to say, I feel sorry for the boy, how embarrassing! And I feel sorry for the people who were sitting at the tables along the aisle. I hope it did not turn into a "Stand By Me" Barf-O-Rama! And lastly, I feel sorry for the employees that had to clean it up!

Lady in Red

Jill (my Mary Kay Director) called me Friday afternoon with some good news. Out of the blue, my 3rd recruit, Katie Nichols, put in an order. You see, Katie signed up back in October, but was very busy with an upcoming move to St. Louis, so she never really got started. I have not done a real great job keeping in touch with her, so I may be a little to blame too! I will be in touch very soon to encourage her on, because she will do great if she pursues it! So, since she placed her order, I now have three active recruits and am an official Star Recruiter! I know this does not mean a lot in the outside world, but in the MK world, this means I get to wear the prestigious Red Jacket!

This morning, Sarah and I went to Master Consultant, which is an area wide training and recognition event in the KC area. Because of my new status, I got to go up on stage, take the Red Jacket oath, and I received a certificate. What a great surprise when I unfortunately have not been doing much on my MK business! Now I have that little extra motivation to get out there and work! So, watch out, I may be calling you soon!

My Toe

For the last week or more my big toe on my left foot has been hurting something awful! It hurts to bend it, to bump it, or just put much pressure on it. I first thought maybe I slipped on some ice and sprained it, but I think I would have remembered that. Then I assumed that it has something to do with my back hurting, which is because everything is shifting around in my body to make room for Baby Riggs. So maybe I am over compensating for my back and in turn it is making my toe hurt. However, tonight I discovered the reason (which has nothing to do with either theory!) I discovered that the heel of my black open back loafer-type shoes is cracked and each time I put my weight on it, it sort of squishes down to the left. Therefore, when I walk, my left foot is doing a funny tilting motion, causing my toe injury. I am surprised that it took this long for me to notice my shoe is broken.

The big problem is that I wear these shoes almost every day, and I don't have any other shoes to wear with my work clothes. Tomorrow will really be the only day I will have to suffer, as Friday is jeans day and then the weekend is here. I was thinking about posting a little PayPal link for people to donate to the "Save My Toe" campaign, but I notice that is not working too well for David and his guitar. Instead, feel free just to give me a call and offer to take me shopping. Better yet, just post your credit card number with expiration date in the comments section, and I'll take care of it in my spare time. Just keep in mind that I will need new shoes by Monday!

Thanks in advance to all who contribute!

Dream a Little Dream of Who???

I think I must have been visiting the past in my sleep this morning. I rolled over to hit the snooze alarm, somewhat annoyed that someone else had not not gotten in the shower yet. Then in determination to wake that someone up I called out, "KRISTA!" That is when I woke up and realized that it was indeed John that needed to get in the shower, not my older sister. I don't know if I had travelled back to college, or even further back to life with Mom and Dad, all I know is that John thinks I am weird now!

Well, I am off to bed! I'll try to be a better blogger this week!

Laku noć

Black and Blue

I had an appointment with Dr. Wootton today. John was supposed to go with me, but he forgot and scheduled an appointment at work, so I called Mom and she went with me. It's not that I can't go by myself, but I knew that Mom would like to go. The appointment went fine, but I am having issues with the blood sugar test.

Let me back up to Monday...

Moday I had my first sonogram which was awesome! We saw Baby Riggs wiggling around and we got to hear his/her heart beat. I was also supposed to have my blood drawn for a one hour glucola test, which measures blood sugar levels. Basically you have to drink this orange stuff about 30 minutes before you get to the Dr's office. Then you tell them exactly what time you finished the orange stuff. Then they draw your blood one hour from when you drank it. At least, that is what is supposed to happen!

Here's what really happened...

I drank the orange stuff at 10:30 AM (not too bad, like Sunkist with a bad aftertaste). John and I got to the Dr's office at 11:00AM and I told them what time I drank it. Then we went back and did the sonogram. We were back in the lobby at 11:15 to wait for the blood test. 11:30 came and still nothing, so I asked the receptionist. With a startled look, she quickly paged nurse #1 (names are ommitted to protect the not-so-innocent.) About 15 minutes later nurse #1 called me back to draw my blood. After looking both arms over, she thought my right arm looked better, so she tied my arm with a big rubber band, jabbed me with a big needle, and totally MISSED the vein! To make matters worse she persisted to try to find the vein by wiggling the needle around in my arm! Frustrated, she decided to give the other arm a try. She found a smaller needle that was attached to a little tube which attached to the collection device. Now, just skip back up to jabbing, missing, and wiggling again. You get the idea! A little tiny bit of blood came out this time, but it didn't even go all the way down the tube! I think she was feeling pretty bad by this point, so she went to get some help. Since it had been an hour and a half since I drank the orange stuff, I questioned the accuracy of the test, but nurse #1 assured me that it would be fine.

Fast forward about 10 more minutes...

Nurse #1 reenters with nurse #2. Just before nurse #2 was about to get another needle out, Natalia mentioned the time frame. Nurse #2 stated that on a one hour glucola test, you only have about a 5 minute time window to draw the blood. That translates to 11:35AM... which I was still in the lobby!!! Aggghhhh!!! So, since I was coming back on Thursday to see the Dr., I could just do it then.

And that brings us back to today...

When I arrived at the Dr's office I told them what time I drank the orange stuff and took a seat in the lobby. I needed my blood drawn at 11:20AM, so I was watching the clock like a hawk! At about 11:18 she (nurse #2) called me back. She was taken aback when she saw the large bruises on the insides of my arms. I reminded her of Monday's incident, so she decided to draw the blood out of the top of my hand. Ouch!!! And... She MISSED!!! What is the problem??? She proceeded to tell me that I have very bad veins, so I informed her that when I had blood work on my first visit, they had drawn it on the first try downstairs at the lab. So she sent me running down to the lab! Remember, we only had a few minutes left!!! When I got to the lab the guy made me wait! "Oh no!" I thought in terror, but soon I was called back and greeted by a familiar face, the girl who drew my blood the very first time. I explained the situation and she went to work. As she felt for my veins, she said, "Oh, I remeber you from last time and you have a real nice vein right here!" and the blood flowed, and flowed!

And the moral of the story is...

Go to the Lab and ask for Jerri in the first place!

Yes... I did it too!!!

Well, just as you probably expected, I was not going to be the last family member to have a blog! Plus, I figure that this is a great diversion for Mom on those slow days at work! Now, she can keep tabs on all of us, that is, if we make sure to blog every day! Better yet, I can keep everyone posted on the development of Baby Riggs! Well, as I read in a pregnancy book, my pregnant body is in many ways working harder than a non-pregnant body that is mountain climbing. Therefore, I am tired and I'm heading to bed!