Things that annoy me

Here is what I am annoyed with on a Tuesday:

• My husband did not even get me a card for my 1st semi-Mother's Day
• Something is wrong with the internet at work- so every time anyone on the network tries to access an https site, the internet boots you off. It's been this way since yesterday.
• My cell phone slipped off the couch arm last night and of all the places it could fall, it fell into my glass of iced tea sitting on the floor. Now it is not functioning and therefore is for sale on ebay for parts.
• The cell phone that we had at home for me to use right now is a crappy phone that I do not like. Annoying.
• We still have not gotten our tax return or stimulus payment. I really want to work on our landscaping, pay down credit card debt, and buy a crib for my sweet baby-to-be. But no, I have to wait on our sloooow government
• It is May 13 and we are still having shatty weather in North Idaho.

The good news: the tax return will come; the weather will change; and after all this, my life still doesn't suck so bad!

Family

I have a half-sister on my dad's side. She is 14 years older than me, and was born from a summer fling that my dad had while in college. She was never really apart of our lives- her mother remarried and that man adopted her. She lives 6 hours away from us, and needless to say we are not close. She is a nice person :has three children, no education, a minimum wage job, and a kind of dead-beat husband. What bothers me about her is that she thinks my dad is her bank. She asks him for outlandish amounts of money all the time for various activities her children are involved in. She even had to ask him for gas money to come to my wedding! It is just ridiculous. Thankfully, my dad is a little smarter then that and does not give her money. I do think she has formulated this idea of my brother and I- I think she thinks my parents are loaded and give us everything. Well I'm here to tell you they don't.

So, here is the latest and greatest with my sister. Apparently, she is coming to visit with her three children in August. August 17th, to be exact. I'm a little pissed about that. Let me remind us all, my due date is August 21st. I figure I will have had the baby, be in labor, or be really not to fun to deal with around August 17th. Let me be blunt: I don't want her here during my time. I know that is selfish of me and she is "family" after all, but it pisses me off that my dad wasn't smart enough to figure out an earlier date with her. Now her and her kids will be infringing on our family's time- totally burdening my mom by staying at her house, loitering around the hospital room, not to mention distracting my dad from the most fabulous moment for our family. She is not a part of my family. She has never been involved or seemed to care about my life. My dad didn't even tell her I was pregnant- I stumbled upon the subject with her via email when I was 3 months along ! It's crazy and bizarre- and I tried to talk to my dad about it. He thinks it isn't a big deal and doesn't want me to worry about it. He acts like I'm a jerk when I bring it up. I am going to be soooo mad if they ruin this for me. I don't want my dad to feel like he has to bring them camping or something and not be there for the birth of his grand baby. It is out of my hands at this point and I need to learn to deal- but she ruins everything!

Week 25!

Your sweet dulcinea attains a momentous milestone this week: if she were born at this point in your pregnancy, she would probably survive, but would require lots of assistance from doctors. Her organ systems are formed well enough that she would be all right, albeit tiny. As if that weren’t enough, other big changes are happening: her skin turns opaque and the pigments start depositing, hair color starts developing and her spinal structure is forming. She may even begin to rotate out of the breech position in preparation for her upcoming gondolier-ship, where she’ll make the journey down the birth canal.

That, my friends, is exciting news. It is a GOOD FEELING knowing that my sweet angel girl would probably survive if I went into labor at this moment. Believe me, I want her to cook longer for sure, but it does make for a calming moment to know she has made it past the crucial growing period! I'm so proud of her :)

On another front, my mom wants to start stocking up on diapers when she makes her trips to Costco. She wants to have a hefty inventory for Kris and I when Ali makes her appearance into this world. While I cannot help but want to jump all over the generous offer- I have no idea what sizes to tell her to start buying. I know newborns and ones are what she will wear the first period of her life- but how many boxes of each is a good amount????

¡Ay, Mis Pies!

In recent weeks, my little feets (pies en español) have been killing me. To describe the exact feeling I would have to say that it feels like the heels of my feet are being pressed through the bone. So basically it feels as if I am walking around on skeleton feet. My heel-padding has given up on cushioning my feetsers- not too comfortable to say the least. It also doesn't help that I teach-on my feet- for most of my work day. I have been trying curb the throbbing pain while at work by teaching from a chair- which doesn't really work for me, as I consider myself a pretty mobile teacher.

Therefore, I have begun my quest for a cute solution. And by solution I of course am meaning new shoes! Here are the shoes I ordered today online:

Some sweet mary jane Crocs. I ordered black to be safe, and allow for diversity in pairing with my small variety of pregnancy outfits. Crocs do, however, offer a great variety of colors and styles. I am hoping these Crocs will prove to be my feet's salvation. I figure they will last the duration of the school year, can be worn with skirts, pants and capris, and will also be most useful throughout the summer. My feet can breath and be comfy in my new rubber shoes.

*Disclaimer: This isn't my first experience with crocs, I have been a lover and wearer of them for some time, I am just anxious to be stylish in these mary janes ! The Crocs I currently own are light blue clogs, not too stylish if you get my drift.

If anyone has any other cute spring/summer shoe wear for the pregnant woman, please pass along the insight!

Boo to the IRS-

So I called the IRS this morning to check on our tax return, which was filed March 13th. It seems at this point that all returns are taking the full 12 weeks to process at this point, meaning we will not see our money until around June 5th. And the fun stimulus check everyone seems to be spending!? Ours will not come until after our refund has been processed. Sweet. Did I mention I love having dirt for a back yard?

A productive weekend

We finally had some springtime weather around here! The hubster and I took advantage and got a lot of things done around the yard, or what will be the yard. First, KK finished about thirty feet of fencing along the back of our property that had not been filled in because the house behind us is still vacant. That sh*t is expensive! We have vinyl fencing in our neighborhood, which I totally love because it is super nice, but c'mon, it's highway robbery what you pay for it! Oh well, at least we will only have to install it one time... now we are waiting for the house to the west of ours to sell so we can talk its tenants into sharing the cost of that side of the fencing with us.
We also started the process of raking the billions of rocks up out of our yard to prepare it for hydro seed. The nice part is we are doubling the purpose of the rock and using it as fill gravel for a flat stone patio KK will install, as soon as we get our stimulus check.
I was a busy bee out in the front of the house and planted perennials and bushes around the perimeter. I will post pictures of that ASAP. Still no grass in the front either, but at least adding some color spruced it up for now.

Overall, I'm pleased with the productive weekend, which I wrapped up by thoroughly cleaning the inside of the house, top to bottom. It feels good to be making process of what used to be a mountain of work. Don't get me wrong, we've still got a long list of yard projects to start and/or complete, but the end is in sight. We hope to have everything ready to rock by the end of May- perfect timing for summer BBQs- whoo hooo!

24 weeks!

R.E.M is not just an alt-rock band from Athens, Ga., it’s also something your little rocker is doing this week. Because her sleep cycles are set, she’s finally experiencing rapid eye movement.She’s also hard at work filling out that skin of hers, and is looking less like Iggy Pop every day. Her inner ear is fairly well developed, so even though she might not know what it means, she’ll be able to sense when she’s upside down or on her side.Not to be left out of the loop, her marrow is busy producing white blood cells which will enable her to combat infections and disease later on. And, over the next weeks, she’ll be adding blood vessels to her lungs in preparation for oxygenating her blood supply and not, as you may come to believe, to increase the decibel level of her crying.

I went for my 24 week check-up yesterday and am proud to report I am harboring a healthy, super-active baby girl! The doc said she must really be moving and groovin' in there, because her heart rate was up and very strong! I'm so proud :) I'm also happy to report I am right on target for weight-gain: and the nurse told me I am gaining all in my belly- the perfect, and correct, place for pregnancy weight to go!
Next month will be my last monthly appointment, in which I will consume the awful orange glucose drink to check for gestational diabetes. After that, I will go in every 3 weeks for check-ups.. we are chuggin right along- and I'm so happy because I want to meet this girl already!