5w 2d

Yesterday I had to give up on my black pants. They are my tightest fitting ones, but STILL…

Nausea has been hitting me from about 8am to 11am. Strangely it is not there when I first wake up, just about an hour and a half later. Go figure.

Tonight we have a wedding to go to – IF I can stay awake. 😉

Bionic Nose? Check.

I got home from a meeting at church last night and when I got to the top of the stairs something smelled… odd. I walked into my room and it was much stronger. Gave jay a kiss and asked him what the smell was. He couldn’t smell it at all.

So I stood in the middle of the room trying to discern what it might be and finally gave up (even though it smelled yucky) and went to brush my teeth and wash my face. When I opened the cabinet under the sink I realized what the smell was:

A closed bottle of Listerine.

Grammatical Giggles

Jay and I had a lovely escape to Las Vegas a couple weeks ago. One of the little booklets in our hotels room had us rolling with laughter. Yes, I suppose we are easy to entertain, but this little restaurant review booklet was hilarious. Whoever wrote it was heavily addicted to quotation marks. Here are a couple of examples:

Olives

The terrace view “overlooking the water show” is “nothing short of magnificent”, though a seat in the now-“more-open” interior of Todd English’s “remodeled” Mediterranean is no booby prize; this Bellagio outpost offers “original tastes, skillfully prepared”, so “you can’t go wrong for lunch” featuring “wonderful appetizers, salads and pizzas”, sided by “delicious olive tapenade”, bolstered by a “wicked-good tail” and chased by a “chocolate fallen cake that will lift anyone’s spirits” – even if the service is “sloooow.”

Blackstone’s Steakhouse

“When you want to be part of the old boys’ network”, sink into a “high-backed armchair” or “deep booth” at this “dark”, “red” beefery in the Monte Carlo on the Strip, have an “excellent” waiter bring you the “stellar wine list”, an “incredible T-bone” or “fantastic prime rib” and enjoy a “quiet”, “classic” meal; the only diners “disappointed” here are the ones “who order fish.”

I would type out some more but my quotation mark key is starting to cry.

I should note however that this booklet has 88 entries, almost all of which have random quotes throw all over them. I did find two entries that inexplicably didn’t have any quotes at all though – must have been a fluke.

Avoiding Morning Sickness

Big announcement: #7!

A friend asked me to write what I did to minimize my morning sickness last time – Here it is.

From the very start I did all these things:

1. drink 100oz of water per day outside of meals

2. lots of rest (ha ha ha!)

3. mega B6 – I am taking a 300mg extended release tablet every morning plus I am taking prenatals as long as I can, those have another 20 mg in them. The prenatals I have are a food based formula too, so they are not supposed to be any harder to digest than regular food. Even when not pregnant, I have trouble taking vitamins, and these I could take even without eating something with them. (Sprouts brand prenatals)

4. as soon as the nausea began (and since my stupid Dr at the time last time wouldn’t let me start out on Zofran right away) I started taking a half tablet of unisom every 2-4 hours, up to three tablets a day. I was super tired the first four days, but then that side effect wore off. This time I am seeing my doc next week (right at 5 weeks) and will beg on hands and knees if necessary to get on the Zofran right away. I am taking in a study I found that supports pre-emptive use of Zofran for severe morning sickness – I mean, I think I have enough history to support it, right? Oh and Zofran recently went generic so I am hoping htat helps my case too.

5. Ginger – it is wimpy for real heavy duty morning sickness, but sometimes it could get me out of bed so I could eat. I got ginger Altoids and kept them by my bed and in my purse. There are also ginger chews and ginger hard candy. I got it at Cost Plus World market but they have a website www.gingerpeople.com

6. I ate when I could, what I could.

7. I avoided all stress. Seriously, even intense TV shows made me more likely to get sick.

8. Because pregnancy means congestion (and gagging on drainage!) for me (I think I get pregnant in my sinuses or something!) I started on Claritin, and I also started on Pepcid every night to begin with, I will probably have to add the morning one soon. Yes, I feel guilty about all these : claritin, pepcid, zofran, unisom, etc. But it really takes all that just to get by (and stay off of IV fluids) for me.

So there you have it, my simple *8* step plan for only staying green-faced on the couch and not becoming a medical marvel yet again. 🙂

Christmas Carnage part 2

I am being attacked by toys. My house is so flipping full of toys that anytime I tidy up I can literally turn around and have it look worse than before. I haven’t even been able to vacuum my living room because I cannot keep it picked up for even *3 MINUTES*.

So I got fed up. After spending last night crying because the stress was REALLY getting to me, I packed up all but a few toys (downstairs) and put two HUGE boxes in the garage. Which would all be well and good except there are already 5 other boxes just the same out there. My ping pong table is now the Island of Misfit Toys. I put a sign up on the door from the house to the garage that says “NO KIDS ALLOWED!” Hell will freeze over, melt and freeze over again before any of that stuff comes back inside.

So now I need to try and start this upstairs.

But now my problem is – how do I clean out the garage? If I take any kids there toys will find their way back, I know it. Do I just pull and all-nighter and just Get It Done? Argh! How do my kids get so much stuff for Christmas – mostly stuff with little pieces?

Am I wrong to expect some kind of order here? Everyone waxes all poetic about how this time is so short and to cherish your children even in the middle of their mess. Blah, blah blah. But at this point everyone in the house is constantly yelling at each other because the stress level is so high because of COMPLETE DISORDER.

I feel like I am running as fast as I can and still losing ground around here. And what kind of ruthless mom takes away the new toys her kids just got for Christmas?

Can I be a complete dictator and say that they must ask permission before taking ANYTHING out, and then it has to be put away before they can play with something else? I have a friend like that and her kids finally just gave up on toys altogether – it was too much trouble, now they just watch TV and play video games, nothing to put away then. That isn’t what I want!
I did manage to get dinner on the table yesterday and I am pretty sure I can do it today too, since I prepared it all yesterday.

Today I…

  1. did my bible study and entered 3 old studies onto the blog
  2. planned a weeks worth of meals
  3. grocery shopped (major shopping – out of everything!)
  4. kept the kitchen reasonably clean
  5. helped the cable guy install the TiVo
  6. cooked dinner and had it on the table on time
  7. put together the ingredients for dinner for tomorrow
  8. washed 3 loads of laundry, folded 1 load
  9. pushed all the toys in a pile and mopped 2/3 of the downstairs
  10. returned overdue library books, hid in the library and read magazines for an hour

Here We Go Again

Christmas Carnage.

That is the title that a good friend gave it – the post holiday condition of our houses. And boy, does my house fit that description. It was all really starting to get to me. I was yelling, grouchy, tense, yelling, tense… get the idea? I was starting to sound like… let’s just say it was someone I don’t want to sound like. When I get this way it effects me so deeply. Even the most minor comment anyone says to me hurts my feelings and I take it as a judgment. It really gets ridiculous! So after pouting alone for a few minutes, I gathered myself together and hopped on the treadmill to pound out a little frustration. And even doing that I slam myself: “Loser, you can only do 25 minutes and it’s not even fast!”

But I have to start somewhere. I am not a loser. (Don’t really believe that yet but I may get there.)

So I am starting again. Decluttering begins tomorrow, Zone One.

Sink is shined, now I need to go pick out my clothes. Maybe I will check in tomorrow and maybe I will fall immediately of the FLY-wagon again. We’ll see.

Away in a Groft House (Our Christmas Card to You)

Away in a Groft house the littles are in bed.
The family’s all home and the kitten’s been fed.
The older kids fight over internet time
But all must be turned off by the ten o’clock chime.

Jay loves to sing and can be seen on TV,
Cantoring masses for homebound to see.
Testing underground tanks, he works hard outside,
We think he’s the best dad to be found worldwide!

Jenni makes rosaries and sells them online
Check out her website when you have the time!
She drives back and forth, lots of time in the van,
But she’ll snuggle down with a book when she can.

Paisley’s a junior and now she can drive
We pray every day that she gets home alive.
She’s super involved both at church and at school
She directs a kids’ choir, they all think she’s a jewel!

James is a freshman and doing so well,
Always wants to arrive long before the first bell.
He works on his music most every day,
Piano bass and guitar he is learning to play.

Posy’s in sixth grade; she’s getting so tall,
Childcare and housework – she helps with it all!
She loves shopping and movies and fashion and crafts,
Her quick wit and smile always bring us all laughs.

Ben is in third and he’s always outside
He walks and he skates or goes for a bike ride.
He likes to play game boy but still loves to read,
His mind and his body are growing like weeds!

Tessa is four and she sings in the choir,
She loves to dress up in her princess attire.
She talks all the time or at least so it seems,
She fills up our days with her bright, warm sunbeams.

Max will turn two on this Christmas Eve
‘tween tempers and climbing he may not see three.
His blue eyes, they twinkle, his pink cheeks, they shine,
Climbs in bed with a passy with nary a whine.

Our hope is that Christmas brings with it much cheer,
Our prayer is for good health and happiness next year.
Remember the season’s about Jesus’ birth,
And we are the reason he came down to earth.