Mysterious Mountain Pass

Yes, I'm on vacation and cheating but I had to post this vent. LAST week I wore clothes, washed them, and packed them. We get to Bend and I discover somehow over the mountain pass, my clothes shrunk. I'm not kidding. They literally shrunk. Well, I say they shrunk but I think it is I that is getting bigger. This was depressing as I am *TWELVE* weeks pregnant. Well, I'll be twelve weeks on Sunday. Can this be true? I would believe it if, for the last 2 weeks I've been totally pigging out, but the truth is I haven't felt that great to pig out. So it either was the pass that mysteriously shrunk my clothes or I'm going to be HUGE by the time 9mo comes around.

Vacation is going good. We were in Bend until yesterday, now in BC visiting the in-laws. We've had a great time and the last two days I've felt pretty good! I found a great buy at REI on a fleece jacket for $40 and Nate found a nice gortex coat for $139.99 (originally $270!) The guys are doing "manly chores" today while Sherrill and I piddle around. We went to our favorite store today - full of great picture frames, dishes, towels, quilts, etc. Two years ago I found some really cool lavendar soap at TJ Maxx. I gave it to my mother-in-law for Christmas as a) she loves purple b) she loves lavendar. It was one of those you'll never find again because that's just what the store had at the time. Well, she loved it! Ever since I've been trying to find it and couldn't. I couldn't even remember the name to look online. Well, today in this awesome small-town store -- there it was! So I bought her another bar...I'll have to buy a case and give them to her every once in awhile.

Has anyone else gain weight/grow bigger extremely fast with their second baby? I've heard you do and it's not as if I'm "showing" because I'm bigger anyway ... but anyway. It's my story and I'm sticking to it - and she'd better find twins in there to explain this :-) Actually ... on second thought ... no. No twins!

Vacation here we come!

Well, we are leaving tomorrow for vacation. I think this will be the longest one we've been on as we won't be back until July 2. We are relaxing at the condo in Bend for a few days, heading to Papa and Sherrill's in BC for a few days, then driving to Seattle next Saturday. We're going on our Alaskan cruise (childess!) for a whole week and won't be coming back until July 2. Case in point, I'll be missing in action for awhile! I hope it rains while we're gone so our yard doesn't burn up! Chat at you when I get back ... pictures in tow!

Our office has closed...

So, I'm pre-paying bills tonight as we are leaving for vacation soon. I like to get that out of the way so I don't have any worrying to do while we're gone. I rip open our phone/internet bill and find it's oddly about $20 more than it normally is every month. I'm guilty of just paying the bill instead of pouring over all the fine details, but this unsettled me. So I start looking closer - and for the whole month they have been charging us $0.06/min for LOCAL calls! (That tells you how many calls we make from our land-line, mainly using our cell phone). We live in a suburb but calls into town have always been free. I go to call the phone company (because I'm one of those "gotta fix the problem now" girls) and I hear "We're sorry, our office is now closed. Our business hours..." so I must wait until tomorrow to find out what the problem is. If the case is that the area we live in is now considered "long distance" I will just cancel our land line.

Yesterday went well. As the previous post explains it was the last day with Dr D. He was very sweet at the end of the day, reassuring me that although selfishly he wanted me to stay, he thought I was making the right decision. He got me the most beautiful bowl from Pier 1, and even picked it out himself!!! In a reverse change of order, he said he asked his wife what to get me and she said "Just get her a gift certificate". He turned his nose at that and said "That's not from the heart!" Ahhh, what a good man.

Tomorrow is my official last day, although they've already asked me to work 3 days in July. Could this be a trend? I am working Triage tomorrow, which thankfully the day goes fast when working that desk. I have written cards to my most close colleagues and have already gotten a few "Going Away" gifts. I'll truly miss seeing my "other" family on a regular basis.

Au revoir, Mark

Tomorrow will be the end to my 3.5 years with working with Dr D as he is off Thursday and Friday. When I told him I was leaving, I bawled the rest of the afternoon. One of my patients said "Allergies getting to you, too huh?" I hope that I can keep it together as my pregnancy hormones are sorta out of whack. So what makes him so special?

Dr D is a wonderful man and doctor. He is patient, kind, understanding, compassionate, and generous. When I asked him last year if I could cut a day out of my week and only work M,W,F he immediately understood and said he'd do anything to accommodate me. When we bought our house, he gave me fatherly advise on what to look for and constantly was asking how things were going with the house and even walked me step my step on how to change out my dishwasher. When we bought our BMW he spent his lunch hour researching the specifics on it and he even took me out at lunch to drive it - giving me his "good job" on picking it.

Working side by side I could read him like a book - often doing a lot of his ordering of tests, etc before he had even see the patient in turn cutting a lot of time out of his day. It's amazing when I had a bad day - he had a bad day ... and visa versa.

One thing I will miss tremendously miss about working side by side with him are his daily David Letterman Top 10 list every morning. Him laughing loudly, no matter how corny they were.

With just as sad I'm going to be leaving my job - I am just as happy to be able to stay home with Maysen and Baby II.

Here Ducky-Ducky...

My sister was here yesterday from Portland and we took Maysen to feed the ducks which is always an ordeal. He usually gets wet once and almost bit a couple of times. He loves it there and we had a great day. Here are some more great shots, courtesy of my rockin photographer sister.

Tomorrow is Nate and I's 7, count 'em SEVEN, year anniversary. I don't think we have any plans as our cruise to Alaska (ALONE) was sort of planned for that purpose. I'm going to a play with my mother-in-law in the afternoon, which will be fun. Maybe I'll get him to make macaroni and cheese for me (AND with the added bonus of him cleaning up too! Now wouldn't that be a treat!) Have a good rest of the weekend.

New Blog

I have started a new blog for Baby II. Please visit this one too and add it to your Favorites, if you'd like updates on Baby II (not that I won't post here, but just another stop to make. I'll include the ling also on the sidebar on this blog).

New Baby Blog!!

My sister is on her way - we're going to hang out today. We'll probably take Maysen to feed the ducks, let him swim outside. Just relax. Supposed to be near 80 today.

grab the benadryl ... oh ...

Maysen looks like a rabbit in this picture - gotta love digital camera lag. He had been a good boy during grocery shopping, so as promised he got new playdough. Why are kids drawn to EATING playdough? I was a kid once too, and yes - I even ate playdough. It's salty, bland, and nothing I'd put in a bowl and sit down with. So why are they drawn to eating it?

After playing with "snake maker" and "worm hatcher" with playdough, I let him play by himself while I made dinner. After about 10min things got very quiet. I looked over and saw this. My first instinct was that he was having an allergic reaction to the playdough as his face was covered in a rash. As I looked closer, it looked like he had make-up on. Playdough is now known as finger paints! Oh well ... no harm, no foul and we had a good laugh.

Tomorrow is Nate's stepdad's mom's memorial. She passed a month ago down in California and we're just now doing the memorial. I'm not taking Maysen to that - I can only imagine trying to keep a 2.5yr old still and quiet.

I love this part of my job: calling 85yr olds who can't hear you when you're standing 6" from their face, let alone over the phone. Best part? When they insist you SPELL things to them. Here's me, after working 12hrs, patience running thin: "F - as in Frank ... no F! Not M ... FRANK not MARY! .... B as in BOY. No, B! BALL ... no NOT FALL!!". I finally resolved it with mailing a letter.

Annnnnnnnnnnnnd the nausea is back. Goody!

denial

So I woke up the next morning after the post below and thought "Wow. I've got to apologize to my readers... " I had a few people call me "...are you ok?" So, I'm sorry. That was the 1am rant. I promise not to do that again ... well, at least not more than once a week. Deal?

I saw the most awesome sight tonight. Ok, picture this: older gentleman, big 'ole military-style glasses, pale robin-egg blue tight (like painted on) sweater, high water tight polyester plaid slacks, loafters from 1978, and the best part? Throw in the fact that his "part" started right above his left ear. You guessed it; the dreaded comb-over. But folks, this was amazing. It started just about an inch above his left ear .... and the 8" of hair extend over his shiny bald scalp to reach just above his right ear. He thought it was rockin and you could tell he really thought people were buying the fact that he still had hair, even though the 3 speghetti strands that there actually was were fading quick!! It's men like that that I'd love to have $1000 and a shopping spree with. Lord, if I'm ever in "that" bad of denial with the way things really are ... please give me a sign ...

absolutely ridiculous

Yep. 1:09am ladies and gents! I thought first trimester you were so tired you couldn't think straight. Well ... my problem is even more grand than that!!! Not only am I nauseated ALL frigging day long, but I'm exhausted. The fun part? Come night time I cannot control my mind enough to fall asleep: "I feel like my face is irritated by my pillow - I'm hot - I'm cold - Nate won't stop snoring - now the dog's snoring - my back itches - did I hear something in the backyard? - did I shut the garage door? Have I pooped in the last 2 days?" I know the last one was a bit graphic and most don't care but you get the picture here! (and yes, with some more 20min thought I HAVE indeed pooped). Then here we sit, 1am, yep and still nauseated, thinking "Hmm, my son will be up in another 6hrs" Well, actually that isn't all that true - I'm convinced he's had sympathetic insomnia as he hasn't been going to sleep-sleep until about midnight and that usually involves at least one rendition of me rubbing his back, re-reading a book, and eventually a short trip to Mommy's bed. Tonight was a rare night of sleeping at 10pm, followed by screaming 30min later and refusal to lay down until about 45min ago, which had to be in mom's bed where he kicked turned, tossed, sighed. Back to bed he went and I shut the door. I think he got up and turned his light back on. Oh well ... maybe we'll both get to sleep in tomorrow then. Regardless, welcome to my world for the last 2 weeks!!!! Oh, and we mustn't forget to throw in the days that I have to go to work, which luckily have only been few and far between. But then I have the added bonus of getting 5, count 'em FIVE, hours of sleep, work 12hrs, and come home to .... you guessed it! NO SLEEP AGAIN! About 15min ago I sat on the toilet and bawled. So sick and tired of feeling sick and tired!!

My nightly routine: Phenergan 25mg and Ambien 10mg (yes, it is safe per my OB doc) and hope for the best. Most people will sleep 3 days with a combo like that. Not me! I'll finally fall asleep 4hrs later ... for a whopping 2hrs because then I get up, pee, toss, turn, pee, "Should I take a shower? Have I paid the water bill this month? I think I have but what if I haven't, what if the bill got lost or Maysen threw it away and I haven't paid it and they shut my water off. Then what, Leslie!?!?". Blah.

I promise not to be come a raging pregnant psycho on here ... but thanks for the temporary rant. I think it saves my poor husband who has been catching the brunt of my psycho pregnancy hormones which I feel badly about but yet can't control. Tonight's big one? "Why don't you talk to me anymore". I got the wide-as-silver-dollar-eyes look and the "What the hell are you talking about now??" Which of course pissed me off, and I locked him out of the bathroom. The sad thing, is I know how whacked out it sounds coming from my mouth - I know this. Yet I have no control over that, then the crying. My usual non-emotional-even-keeled type of personality is sure shot at this point. I'm hoping this crap is over before Nate and my getaway to Alaska for a week. I do not want to be feeling like this then. Then REALLY poor Nate. Bwaaahahahaa!