Doggy Kisses

Someone got into the Hershey's kisses left over from the baby shower. The first someone was Quinn, who then left the baggie of kisses on a bar stool when he left the room, then the second someone left tooth marks in the empty baggy and ate the pastel foil wrappers along with the chocolate.

The only dogs out were Bud and the corgis, so we were assuming it was Bud since the others are height challenged. I personally think he shared with Cosmo, because both boys were acting like grumpy, hyped up butt heads yesterday. I don't think Bunny got into them at all because with her belly the way it is she would have been very sick, and she was fine. Smart girl. Without knowing who it was, though, we pretty much had to watch all 3 of them yesterday and make sure nobody started to get sick.

This morning when I came out into the kitchen I found a big pile of pastel sparkle poop. No, I did not take pictures. It was nice solid poop, just very shiny!

We have got to stop having sweets around this house... or at least train all the humans to put the sweets in high places since our dogs will apparently go through acrobatics to reach a piece of chocolate. I'm just glad we're not dark chocolate lovers. Still, though, maybe we should put all our chocolate in those fruit baskets that hang from the ceiling!

Baby Shower

The most delicious cake EVER. Chocolate Velvet cake with cream cheese frosting from Whole Foods. Mmmmm!

Me making a goofy face in front of the fridge

Decorating onesies

We didn't have one of these yet so I decided to make one. Quinn got one, too.

Elizabeth's onesie creation

Diane (aka: Matilda's grandma) decorating a onesie at the counter

Nadya's onesie

Me and Nadya

Me grazing

Me cutting cake. Rachell in front of flowers, Crystal behind her, Nadya, Christi, and Elizabeth behind me in the background.

Opening Cheska's gift

Quilt from grandma for the jungle room.

Today was the baby shower, thrown by Cheska, Rachell and Jeff's mom. It was a lot of fun! We chatted a lot, opened gifts, and instead of playing dumb shower games we decorated onesies!

the only bad part of the day was that early in the morning Jeff's dad sliced his finger open with the hedge trimmer and Jeff had to take him to the emergency room for stitches. He ended up with 5 or 6 stitches and it cut 3/4 inches deep, right through the nail! The boy's day out they had planned was ruined and he was in a TON of pain :( I suppose if you want to look on the bright side, he got to come home and have cake with his vicodin.

You Make Me Feel Like a Natural... Gerbil

Starting today I am taking 4000mg of alfalfa per day. If you get within 5 feet of this bag you feel like you're passing the rodent section at Petsmart. Fortunately they are the least offensive of all my vitamins. They really taste like nothing. I just feel sorry for anyone I might breath on these next few weeks.

Trivia... does anyone know why I am taking alfalfa supplements the last 5 weeks until Matilda is born? I bet at least a couple people in my dog family know. Put your answers in the comment section, and I will log on later to tell you if you're right!

Quinn School Update

Holding breath, but Quinn is having a decent week at school. His detention for missing too many hours (see a couple entries down) was reduced from 33 hours to 18 hours. I am still disappointed that he has to do detention at all for excused illnesses, but was very happy that the school was willing to meet us in the middle. Quinn was mad that he didn't get out of detention entirely, but I tried to explain to him that meeting us in the middle was the best we would get considering we're up against a state requirement, not a school requirement. I am trying to get him to realize that you don't have to roll over and take whatever crap the world dishes out to you... but some things are worth fighting all the way and other things you just hope to reach some middle ground on so you don't feel like you got your butt handed to you, and you move on.

He met with his guidance counselor about his classes next year, and actually signed up for AP classes for once. Thank goodness! I got a call from his English teacher last week saying that Quinn had refused to do a research paper that was assigned. I knew he was planning not to do the paper, and I told him that he could take that up with his teacher (figuring he would just do the paper when faced with that option). Well, apparently he told his teacher that he was just not going to write the paper because her class was all review for him anyway. BRAT! I felt really bad for this poor English teacher who was on the phone with me. She is about my age, and it sounded like she had never had a kid say that to her before. She said (and this is a direct quote) "I... like... don't know what to do." She said that he drives her insane because he refuses to do work that is not worth his time, but when he does do an assignment it gets done in half the time it takes his classmates and he gets 100%. So frustrating. He told me yesterday that he actually feels sort of bad about giving her a hard time because she is really upset about the paper and offered to extend the deadline if he would just do it. The point is, everyone knows he needs to be in AP classes so that the work is more challenging, but he was refusing to sign up for the classes because he likes being able to skate by. So I guess his counselor nabbed him today and told him he needs to get his crap together and start doing college prep work. She also pointed out to him that his sophomore PSAT scores were only 20 points lower than a couple kids from the school who went on to become National Merit Scholars, so he has a great shot at something like that if he decides to work hard.

The fact that he signed up for AP classes indicates that he is making plans for next year and has abandoned the GED idea again (at least for this week) and I can breath a sigh of relief. I really didn't ever want him to get a GED when he obviously has a lot of opportunities ahead of him, but sometimes I get so overwhelmed dealing with his attitude and anger over school every single day that I just want to give up. Quinn's always been much stronger willed than I am, and I hate being in the position of trying to manage his life when he's so damn stubborn. I see so many similarities between him and my mom- the "my way or the highway" attitude, the stubborn streak. I feel 50 something dealing with him sometimes when I am really 32, and I am just TIRED of the constant fight over this. Jeff says if I let Quinn get his GED right now, he will just blame me later for allowing him to drop out of high school and messing up his opportunities. I know that he is right, so I just try to give Quinn a cooling off period after something like the detention thing happens, and if I can make a call or go down to the school to smooth things out I will. I just hope things become easier sometime soon, because if not for Jeff's constant reminders I might have given up the fight by now. I just tell myself 2 more years to get him through high school. That said, I really do love the school he goes to. For having as many kids as they do, they are really receptive to giving Quinn the attention he needs- the counselors both years have shown a ton of follow through in working with him to keep him interested in school and now hopefully get him thinking along the lines of college, and the assistant principle was great about being willing to reduce his detention hours to help give him a little attitude boost.

Pedicure!

Well, even though my day was a total failure on the productivity front, I went in for that pedicure Jeff got me for my birthday. I got this really cool spa treatment where they used a sea salt scrub, then wrapped my feet in a mask, put hot towels on them, covered them in wax, and gave me a hot rock massage. It felt pretty darned good! The finished product= really happy feet with blue toenails!

It was kind of embarrassing going in there with my uneven toenails (I am lucky to lean over far enough to cut them at all these days!) , grown over cuticles and little hangnails all over the place! I knew my feet were in bad shape, but it took the lady an hour and a half plus lots of sweat to get them looking so nice! She was really nice, though, and she even got me a hot pack to put behind my back to make more more comfortable while I sat in the chair.

I'm not usually a big pedicure person- even thought they are so nice, I tend to feel like it's a big splurge for something I could do on my own in the bath tub... BUT, with as gnarly as my feet were, and as swollen and uncomfortable as they are on a daily basis just from walking around, this was SUCH a nice luxury and the perfect gift! I hope I can go back once right before Matilda is born because it was so relaxing and I forgot how good it feels to have well groomed feet!

Oh, the only bad part of the pedicure was when I got home Lucky attacked my feet and started chasing me around the house with his tongue at my toes trying to lick off the lotions! FREAK!

Now I am going to go to bed, and sleep on the Egyptian cotton sheets that were the other part of my birthday gift!

FAIL!

This is what I get for blogging about my day. I turned my alarm clock off at 10am with the best intentions of getting up, and suddenly when I opened my eyes again it was 1:30! I have never slept that long during the day before. Again, it must be what I get for blogging about my day.

Off to shower now and pick up Quinn, then hopefully get some stuff done.

I emailed the midwife just to check, and she said the sharp pains happening all the time now are totally normal. She said it is my body preparing, and better to do it now than during labor, because having this out of the way will make labor shorter and easier. OK, I'll take that. She probably will, too. I'm sure she doesn't want to spend the night here waiting for Matilda to make her entrance to the world.

A Day in the Life of ME! Part 1

Not because I think I am so interesting, but because I am hoping it will be more productive than most, I have decided to document my day.

Above is breakfast, made at 7am before school. It's the Jeff specialty- eggs on toast. He usually includes sausage, but the sausage was frozen so I made it with bacon. It actually tasted REALLY good! Maybe Jeff's cooking lessons are finally rubbing off on me. Someone please tell Quinn that I am awesome for cooking him breakfast at 7am. Oh yeah, and I got his detention time for missing so much school cut in half. Think he appreciates me? Don't answer that.

Prior to breakfast I cleaned up a huge pile of poop by the back door (picture NOT included, and no pun intended). I was gone last night, and therefore unable to chase the rotten dogs out into the cold after their dinner. I am assured by Quinn that they went, but sometimes if it is really cold or rainy they will just sit by the door and pretend they did their business, and if you're not onto them you just might fall for it. Someone must have had to go really bad to have done it in the house, because I haven't cleaned up an accident in years (aside from Bunny when her old lady tummy acts up).

My usual routine is to come home from taking Quinn to school and take a nap. I was going to try to avoid this today, but I am about to pass out, so I will just set my alarm and stick to my 10am wake up time instead of hitting snooze. I should clarify, this is my usual pregnant routine. After 8 months I have to remind myself that I didn't used to need a nap after being awake for 2 hours!

Last night we stayed up way too late reading. I usually let Jeff set the tone for bedtime since he's the one with the early wake up time, and his book must have been REALLY good because we were up til after midnight! I hope he gets a nap today. I was up off and on all night peeing and having dreams that I was going into labor. I started having very sharp baby pains last night at around 8 and they just got progressively worse, and apparently they must have lasted me throughout the night if I was dreaming about being in labor. They're still going on this morning, though not as bad as last night. I've had these before and my midwife said no worries, but I've never had them with very little break in between like this so it's a little much. They're more painful than normal, too. I guess my body is getting itself ready.

Oh, and for anyone who has not been pregnant and believes all those women who say it makes you glow, here is the ugly truth. I just wet my pants a little. It normally happens when I laugh or sneeze, but I am just sitting here blogging, and there it is. Sorry to my gentle male readers who might not want to hear that, but maybe it will give you compassion for your wives.

That's it for my day so far. On the agenda today is getting some calls made for the day job and hopefully taking advantage of the pedicure gift card Jeff got me for my birthday a couple weeks ago! Oh, and cleaning the kitchen.

New Template

Looking for a little feedback on the new blog template. Is it easy on the eyes/colors and font OK to read? The polka dots were getting me down.

Funny- A Year Ago

I was looking at old pictures on Facebook this morning, found this one on Jeff's page from January 15th, 2009 (1 year, 1 month and 1 day ago) and thought it was worth sharing (comments included):


Caption: Tavia! Paging Tavia!

Tavia: "YES I CAN HAVE A PONY!!!!! MINE, MINE MINE!"

Tavia: "If you have a cute little daughter someday will you let HER have a pony?"

Jeff: "I don't believe your intentions are as altruistic as you want me to believe."

Tavia: "They're not. You know me so well. Expect to hear 'Would you deny your daughter a pony?' several times throughout your life :)"

Jeff: "That's it, we're not having any daughters!"

Tavia: "Oh come on! I really want a daughter! There's nothing in the world more hurtful and rewarding than a daughter, lol.

But if we can't have a daughter I suppose I could just get another dog."

We haven't gotten any other dogs this year, but it looks like we might need to invest in that pony. Sorry Jeff.

Life: Baby/School/and a really cool class!

Baby Countdown

I look at my blog almost every day to see the baby ticker and keep the countdown going, and today is another benchmark day: 1.5 months! I really hope she is going to come early, because I am pretty sure I have reached the uncomfortable stage. Here are some of the things I am noticing, especially as I can tell she is dropping lower for her big arrival:

• Very sore crotch bones! Sorry, there is no better way to put this. I think her little head is putting so much pressure on the bones that they hurt. I am getting used to it, but every once in a while when I stand up I nearly face plant because it's some new and stronger pain.
• It's really hard to pee. The books say you are supposed to pee all the time towards the end, but I am exactly the opposite. I usually make it through the entire night, and rarely have to go during the day, even though I drink a ton of water! She must be pressing up against my bladder in just the right (or wrong) way.
  
• She's a big stretcher. She must be feeling cramped, because lately she does big stretches with her arms and legs, or I can feel her trying to stretch her entire body out.
  
• Sleeping ALL the time again. I am back to passing out in the middle of whatever I am doing. She's supposed to be having her biggest growth spurt ever over the next 3 weeks, so that must have something to do with it.
• Feeling very feisty and cranky. Feisty isn't so bad, but the cranky could stand to go.
  

I am pretty nervous about having a baby around to take care of, but I will be pretty happy to have my body back to normal operating ability in a few weeks!

Baby Prep

The birth pool arrived a couple weeks ago, and we will be inflating that in the next couple weeks and filling it up for a trial run, just to make sure there are no leaks and that we know how to use the faucet connections and pumps.

I have been reading through my online childbirth class, and think I have a fairly good idea of what to expect. I am not one to sit and practice relaxation techniques, and I know I will wish I had once the time comes. I just keep thinking that bodies are made for this, and it is impossible to know exactly what to expect, but that I will get lots of smoothies and snacks that day, which I may or may not throw up towards the end of labor. As long as I can stay calm and keep my mind focused, I should be in good shape. The one thing the birth class teaches that has actually stuck with me and given me something to visualize is that human childbirth is a lot like animal childbirth. That immediately conjured up a mental image of our dog Sadie having puppies. I can vividly remember all the steps she went through, and how calm she was. I think that will help to think of when I am trying to remember what to do.

School

I got a notice from Quinn's school yesterday saying that he has 33 hours of detention due to a high number of absences this year. 33 hours! Of DETENTION!!! It isn't like he is some truant with a bunch of unexcused absences, either. He is always excused, either by me or with a doctor's note. Enter in CRANKY Tavia. I made an appointment to meet with the assistant principal tomorrow to have a conversation about this. I am fully expecting that they will not let him out of this ridiculous requirement, but I am hoping that they will count his extracurricular school activities towards his missed hours. That meets with my logic, so we will see how flexible Mr. Principal is, or if he is going to be a jerk and go by the book. The crappy thing about this is, the past month has been really great with Quinn enjoying school. Now that they've slammed him with 33 hours of detention I get to hear the door slam every day to and from school, and all the "this place sucks" and talk of getting his GED again.

I am not a huge fan of the GED idea. He is getting pretty good grades, had those awesome PSAT scores, and is starting to get letters from colleges wanting to entice him to apply. The other part of me realizes that he is a year behind because of that horrible freshman year and won't graduate until 19. So maybe it would be fine for him to get his GED this spring and take the SATs, go to community college starting in the summer to start his college work, then transfer to a 4 year college in either one or two years. That plan would put him back on track, but my only worry is that he would get lazy and not follow through with school. So it's just a matter of his maturity level, and whether community college would jump start that or allow him to be lazy. High school doesn't seem to be doing him a lot of good socially or academically. He relates best with the juniors and seniors, who are in a few of his classes. He isn't learning anything in his classes because it is all review from WA (but he refuses to take advanced classes because he doesn't want homework). The only thing he enjoys right now is band. I am very torn. The other part of this scenario is that he will be 18 in less than a year and can just walk into the office and withdraw himself from school if he wants! Quinn is definitely the type to walk into the office and tell them all to piss off while signing his withdrawal forms if he gets frustrated enough with their system. So do I do it now and get him involved in college so he has a better chance at being successful, or do I keep him in high school and cross my fingers that he loves it and doesn't get frustrated again in the next 9 months? Hopefully this principal will work with me and I won't have to make any decisions right now, but it's still an ongoing debate.

AWESOME OPPORTUNITY

There's not a ton I get excited about lately, but yesterday I got some news that made me thrilled. Because I volunteer with the animal shelter in Houston, I get the opportunity to go to a class on March 25th given by Charles Jantzen from the Houston SPCA. A lot of you have probably seen him on the TV show Animal Cops Houston. He's the chief investigator down at the SPCA, and he is giving a class about the logistics of animal cruelty investigations. I'm going to be pissed if I have the baby that day. This should be a really awesome class. I don't know if I could ever investigate animal cruelty cases because it would be too upsetting, but I've always been really interested in how they investigate and bust the losers who abuse their animals. I'll definitely do a blog update after the class!

VOLUNTEERING
I've really been loving the volunteer work lately. I mentioned to the volunteer coordinator some of the ways I thought the mall adoptions could be improved. I kind of figured she would either like my ideas, or I might find some other volunteer work to do. There were just too many new volunteers and they weren't equipped to deal with the adoptions, and I had seen a couple very poor adoptions made. Well, it turns out that she was interested in my feedback. We've spent some time over the phone and email fine tuning some ideas, and last weekend she had me just go out there in a training capacity with the new people and I feel like we made a lot of progress with learning how to screen applicants, and figuring out what the newer volunteers needed to feel more comfortable placing animals. I don't do many useful things during the week, so I really love this. I've been kind of watching the different shelters and their job postings to see if something pops up that I would be qualified for- they're just like other companies with multiple departments that make them run, so you don't necessarily need to have to be an animal expert. Plus I am starting to feel like I have some connections now, so if I saw a position I really wanted I could probably at least get in the door for an interview.

That's about all for now!

The "others"

Because sometimes I neglect my "other" dogs on the blog. Lily getting right up in my face to say "Hi." Bud in the background being mouthy. How does Lily look to everyone? She's a bit skinny to me... very hard to keep weight on her because she is so darned active.

Can anyone find Cosmo in this picture?

A Bunny Blog

Mandy commented on Facebook about how Bunny is getting old. I told her Bunny has GOTTEN old. Here are some funnies from this week:

- We have a mouse in our house, and its favorite thing to do is wait until midnight and run right in front of Bunny to cross the kitchen while she soundly sleeps.

- She "loves" on the garbage can

- She "loves" on the floor

- I stretched my foot out next to her, not realizing I was in her blind spot, and she jumped and tackled my foot! Then when she realized it was me, she turned around and grumbled at Cosmo... because we all know crap rolls down hill.

- She stole Lily's kennel and refuses to leave it. This drives Lily into a panic, because she kennels every night for bed. The first night I had to leave Lily out all night because when I called Bunny to get her out of the crate, she turned her head and ignored me (and I am too huge to crawl to the back of the giant dog crate and drag her out).

We love our sweet old Bunny, but she's definitely one fry short of a happy meal these days.

New Pic

I've been belly pic shy up to this point, but you guys get to see another one for 3 reasons:

A) I fixed my hair this morning
B) I got a couple new t-shirts that I actually feel OK about myself in (I have actually outgrown the earlier maternity t-shirts!)
C) It's BIGGER!!!!!

I know she's supposed to be growing up to 1/2lb per week at this point, but man-oh-man I feel like I wake up some mornings to a more giant belly. This morning I can actually feel the skin above my belly button stretching. It's not the most comfortable feeling!

I guess I messed up the weeks on the picture before this one, because *this* week is actually 34 weeks (or 32 weeks, according to the blog ticker, which counts it differently). At this point I've somewhat abandoned the "weeks" countdown because it is really just amounting to days now. 54 days, less than 2 months, she could always come a couple weeks early... really, in about 5 or 6 more weeks it could be an any time sort of thing.

Lucky

Hoping those sincere eyes will score him a bacon burger...