How our pets make life not-so-boring

Well, I am well into my second trimester now with the pregnancy. We don't yet know what we are having, but I just had blood work/tests done last week to make sure everything is normal. For anyone who prays that may read this, please say a prayer for us that all is normal.

Being in the second trimester, you would think the nausea should pretty much be gone. However, it has gotten worse for me. I have thrown up so many prenatal vitamins that I could have bought an extra bottle. I try to take them as I am going to bed, but many times I am back up in the bathroom 5 minutes after I lie down. Sometimes it's a smell, sometimes the thought/fear of throwing up seems to help trigger it. I know, a lot of it is in my head.

The animals aren't helping me, either. Last week, our 12-year-old Golden Retriever decided that he must protect our house (where our yard backs up to a large hay field) from a curious skunk who wandered into the yard. Well, not only did the dog get sprayed, but he managed to chase the skunk under my van just before the spraying occurred. If you've never smelled anything freshly sprayed by a skunk, you may not recognize the smell upon the initial moments. In fact, I was not sure the skunk was the culprit of his stink at first.

So, I angrily (I have to be angry because he won't go into the bathroom unless I threaten him) get him to the tub and shut the door. Why not bathe outside, you may ask? Well, it was after 8 p.m., and I didn't want to hold him by his collar the entire time. So, as I shut the bathroom door, I am overwhelmed by the smell and begin my now-seemingly-nightly routine of throwing up. We were out of the tea tree oil shampoo I usually use on him (great for ticks and fleas in the summer months, and good for sensitive skin). So, I proceed to use whatever I can get my hands on. First, it was the kids' Vanilla Scream shampoo. It didn't touch it. Then, I got my Suave White Lily and Aloe shampoo. Again, nothing, but the skunk smell was more prevalent now. At least it was not how he smelled before (so strong you couldn't even tell that it was a skunk). After the Suave shampoo, I tried some orange and ginger body wash I had on hand.

Now, many of you are saying, "tomato juice," but, I didn't have any on hand, and where I live, you don't make a trip to town for a can of tomato juice. So, I managed to give him the bath, and then set him out on the back porch. This all occurred last week on Wednesday night. It has been 4 days now, and the smell is still there. Thank goodness it has diminished quite a bit. I haven't bought tomato juice. All the guides I have read online give a peroxide + baking soda + liquid dish soap recipe that is supposed to be more effective. I did this yesterday, and it has helped quite a bit. I had gone to the pet store on Thursday for some skunk odor removal solution. I discovered later it is mostly citronella oil. It helped a little, but the peroxide recipe has been the most effective. I have also periodically treated him with the Gold Bond powder (I'd rather smell the menthol than skunk). It is much more tolerable. Luckily, the smell in my car only lasted about 3 days.

The cat has managed to throw up on the linoleum a couple of times, which has helped my daily appointment with the porcelain throne (at least it was on the linoleum). I can smell his litter box as soon as he uses it, so my oldest has been on litter box detail for a while. I have to admit, I have been a dog person all my life, but even with the litter box, the cat is so much cleaner than any dog I've ever had. He sleeps with me every night, which will probably have to change when the baby arrives. Here's his favorite place to sleep (besides across my big belly). . . under the Christmas tree.

We also have a dwarf hamster that luckily is not responsible for any of my nausea. He only uses one place to go to the bathroom, and his cage does not get too messy. He's also very tame. The girls enjoy holding him, and the cat likes to stare into his cage. He's close to three-years-old now, so I don't know how much longer to expect him to live. It will be a chore keeping the baby away from his cage if he's with us for another year. I don't see another hamster in our near future after this one because of the baby.

So, there you have it, our official food chain. It is as complete as it will ever be. After the skunk fiasco, I have sworn off having another large dog in the house. Especially one that sheds like our Golden. Our next dog will be a non-shedding breed. And that may not be for another 4-5 years. I'll just be glad when I can normally clean up after them all again. I despise the nausea, but at least my 8-year-old does not complain when I ask her for help. She's seen me gag enough lately (tonight I threw up because I had a hair in my mouth... my own hair).

The next post will be much more pleasant. We find out the baby's gender on the 27th (hopefully, unless legs are crossed or something like that).

I want to live at DisneyWorld

And who wouldn't? We recently returned after a 4-day stay on the Disney grounds in Orlando, FL. It had been 25 years since I had been. We decided this fall would be better to go than next fall, when I'll be dragging a 5-month-old baby around diapering and feeding every 2 hours. I guess feeding the baby in lines would not be so bad, but having to change diapers and carry a diaper bag around do not appeal to me. So, this year we went, and we'll go again when the baby is older.

Watching my girls and their amazement was worth the trip, but it's hard not to get sucked into the magic of Disney.

We felt so pampered the entire time we were there, and did not want to leave. The food was amazing. I highly recommend that anyone get the Dining Plan they offer. We were never hungry. And staying on the grounds is a must in my book. Not having to worry about parking every day was really nice.
If our family was not in Tennessee, I'd move our family down to Orlando and work at Disney. I'd even clean the toilets (well, once the nausea subsides from pregnancy). All the toilets have automatic flush features there, so how bad could it be?

I could go on about our trip, but all I can say is that if you have kids, at least one trip to Disney in their early childhood is highly recommended.

I didn't fall off the face of the planet.

I am still here. It's been SO long since I last posted, but I have to say that I have an excuse. Those of you who are my close friends already know this, so the next few sentences will be a bit boring for you. For those who may be here that aren't necessarily close contacts, I discovered in late August that my family is expecting an addition. Yes, baby #3 for me. I was hit like a ton of bricks with shock. I had resolved that I was done with my family (though I had not done anything permanent about it). So, I walked around like a zombie for at least a week. I didn't eat or sleep for the first three days (those two activities still haven't returned to any form of normalcy). But my mind is trying to regain some ground. Ha-ha. I am 12-weeks along now. That puts the due date in early May. I'm pushing for May 5 (5/5 would be easy to remember), or 4/28 (multiples are easy to remember as well). Anyway, here's a picture of the little bean at 9 weeks (the head is on the right, and you can see nubs for the arms/legs).

After this one is born, I will be having my tubes tied. As I told my husband, I don't feel that my body was meant to be a baby-makin' factory, nor am I willing to subject it to childbirth when I'm pushing 40. My husband is totally against himself getting the "snip-snip" (he claims that he doesn't feel that the Lord is telling him that is what he needs to do right now). I think it's a cop-out, but since insurance will pay for mine and I'll already be there, I will make the "sacrifice" and let my doctor do the procedure. I really wanted him to do the Essure procedure, but he does not do it yet. It would be much easier on me, because there are no incisions, and there is no chance of the tubes growing back together (because they aren't cut). Essure is basically tubal inserts, putting micro surgical inserts into your tubes and letting scar tissue build around them over time (it usually takes around 3 months, so you have to use another form of birth control until then).

Last weekend, my oldest daughter and I went camping with our Girl Scout troop. I'd post pictures, but I'll have to protect the privacy of the other kids in the troop. We had a great time, and I got some much-needed adult conversation with my closest friends. It was exhausting and relaxing all at the same time. We had a really nice cabin, much better than last October, when we had screens for windows, the temperature dropped below freezing at night, and our space heaters wouldn't work because the circuit breaker kept tripping off.

This weekend (tomorrow to be exact), we leave for DisneyWorld! It's been nearly 25 years since I've been (Epcot had just been built when I was there last). It's been even longer for my husband. We wanted to go next year, (it's always been our plan to go in the off-season), but we realize that it won't be as pleasurable with a 5-month old who will need to be changed and fed every 2 hours (which, history has shown, defaults to my job, since I have all the feeding "equipment," and my husband has never done diapers). If we wait until baby #3 will remember it, our oldest will almost be too old to enjoy it (pushing 13, so we don't know if she'll be too "cool" or not).

I'll be sure to post pictures from the trip when we return. I have a lot of packing to do today, so until then, au revoir!

Can I get a clone of me?

You know, it's been a few days since I've posted. It's been crazy at my house. Hubby has announce that the room upstairs has a deadline of 6 weeks now. I suppose that is reasonable enough. I also have some project deadlines for proofreading that I have to work on. Wish I had more of me around. If I did, I may try some video conferencing to get my work done more efficiently. Or even better, I'd use my clone to work on the cleaning around the house, while I did some video conferencing with my family and friends in other states.

The thought leads me to a mom's blog (and eBay auction) which stirred quite a lot of traffic on the internet last week. A mother of 6 kids posted some Pokemon cards that her kids sneaked into her cart. She provided a "day in the life" in her description, and as a result of her gift for words and humor, she now has countless emails coming to her every day (now there is someone who could use some video conferencing). I can't imagine getting back to the numbers of emails that she has had flooding her inbox.

That leads me back to my work... time to find my red pen and start a-markin'! Before I leave, here's a picture of our turbo kitty who has now discovered that the sand and dirt in our houseplants should be something to play in. He really doesn't look like he'd be that fast in this picture, but if I waited until he was in "play mode" I'd never get a picture of him! My daughter loves to hold him while watching TV, and occasionally, he takes a peek at the tube too. This happened to be one of those moments.

My life flashed before my eyes today.

Ok, I'm being melodramatic, but it surprisingly took the wind out of me today when my oldest daughter actually went through with getting her ears pierced (which I had supported for a long time). I watched the entire thing, and I did not think that I would be the one who would break out in a cold sweat after it was all done. I really thought I was going to pass out in the middle of the mall! I did not expect it to affect me that way. I felt almost sick, and I was the one who approved the whole procedure to start with (her daddy was not gung-ho about it, but he went along with it). She already has a whole list of what she wants to put in them after her starter studs are out. Never a wimper or a cry today, either, which was a huge step for her. She hardly even felt it, she said. I am proud of her for facing her fears, and she's extra proud of the result.


Before the escapade at Claire's, I took the girls to gymnastics. They had a blast. The oldest has nailed several cartwheels in the last 24 hours (she finally figured out how to do a really good one about 10 minutes before we left for class). She also did a good first-time one-handed cartwheel today, as well as good practice on the balance beam, back rolls, bridges, and some "quick" handstands (ok, if you blinked you would have missed it). The younger one did some great back rolls today, and worked on all sorts of jumping and coordination skills as well.

Yesterday, we had registration for our brownie troop. We'll have 5 or 6 girls this year, which is a great number to work with. We were able to catch up today with school. The oldest is loving Rosetta Stone (we are using library access to go through the Latin program). Math seems to be getting easier for her as well. She is starting to understand what it takes to nail the timed facts practice sheets with her Saxon workbook.

I am going through training with an online company right now. I have 7 more tests to take in 8 more days, so my schedule to get those done is pretty tight. I also have 2 more guides to finish proofing by next Friday. I certainly don't wish my life away, but the rigorous testing schedule to which I have to adhere is hopefully going to be worth it when I am certified with the company. More about it when I am able to go into more depth.