Yup, Still Tuesday......

Our appointment went as well as we could have asked with an almost three year old at her nap time in tow. Whew. I am really glad I had help!

I love my husband. He is totally awesome. He took us out to lunch and for a walk, and even turned off his phone, just to alleviate my anxiety before the appointment. He really wanted to stay in the exam room, but Lil'Bug was pushing buttons, bouncing off walls, and biting! She really needed to run around and he made that happen for her.

There are a lot more tests available for pre-screening. I was a little in awe with how much they added since Lil'Bug was born and how much earlier things can be screened. The rules for fish consumption have changed again. I can eat cod, which was on the banned list. I can eat little tuna too. If I wanted to eat Tilapia, I could. Salmon is highly recommended. I was reassured that VBAC is very supported in the medical group I've chosen. Whew. My BP and weight are perfect, though I am to watch weight gain since I am so small.

We couldn't hear the baby's heartbeat in the exam room. The Midwife arranged for an in-house ultrasound when she was made aware of my anxiety over this. Thank you Dear Husband for articulating my fears. Did I mention that I love him!

The ultrasound tech is a lady I know from serving on the Historic Preservation City Commission. She's also the tech that ran the Doppler for my breast biopsy 4 years ago. It was a little comforting, and weird too, to have someone familiar running the probe cam. Ah! The baby has a good heart beat and measures 8 weeks 3 days. Calendar dated baby at 8 weeks 6 days. So, early June is what we know. Heartbeat was upper 180's. Lil'Bug said it sounded like Boo-Gah Boo-Gah Boo-Gah. She was so good and calm through this part. I am glad she was. The tech gave her the pictures to take home.

Also, no fibroids were found. ??? None. It is not like they just disappear! I had huge masses of them. Where did they go? Maybe it is best not to think to much about this and simply say I am grateful. Incredibly thankful.

So that's what we know. I'm more at ease now, but still tired. I'll write more later.

Tuesday Morning in October

Last night there was a big chemical fire in Des Moines. Actually a chemical plant exploded and fire, smoke, and toxic water runoff ensued. My sister's live in boyfriend's father works(ed) at the plant and was one of the first evacuated. My sister was home sick from her job at the ARL which is next door to the industrial park where the plant was located. The smoke was drifting and toxic. The runoff was heading towards the Des Moines River and our main water source for the region. The ash is toxic.

We harvested the last yesterday afternoon, but anyone who hasn't in this area should call it a loss. We already buy drinking water bottled, but especially now it is important. The news is trying to make people panic less but I studied chemical toxicity in my grad program at Iowa State for preservation technologies, the things that are burning are nothing to be shrugged off. It's serious stuff.

We're fine here, so far the ash cloud is blowing east, but we have many friends (and most of my students and colleagues) in that direction.

On a lighter note, we are heading for our first pre-natal visit this afternoon. I'm not worried much. I feel nauseous, have chicken pox acne, and mood swings aplenty so all is normal there. But there are so many things that could go wrong, so I am still worried a little.

Everyone is sick but me......

For the past 5 days Dearest Husband and Lil'Bug have been sick. It started with her,"Bad poopies!" and went downward to fever and coughing and snot and more snot and the very worst part of it all: crankiness.

Everyone is cranky, or was cranky, over the weekend. This was very much not fun. It made me cranky too. It made nothing get done. Not the second fireplace stone, not the window repair, not the cleaning, nothing. My sister took me shopping on Sunday and I was a bowl full of joy, let me say. 1st a lady ran a stop sign, we both stopped in time, AND THEN SHE FLIPPED ME OFF! and went. Why? I clearly had the right of way. Then, once my heart slowed down, we parked and went in to shopping complex. When finished and returned to car, a HUGE SUV parked so close to my driver's side that the SUV door was touching my side mirror. I had to climb in the passenger side. This would not be a big deal but for the fact that because I am 4'10" the seat has to be adjusted very close to teh steering wheel for me to see out. Imagine pregnant lady trying to circus bend just to get into driver's seat. I was pissed. I couldn't do it. I got out and re-examined the situation. It made me even madder. I looked for a handicap tag (none) or something that would explain why the SUV had done this. On SUV's driver's side, there is 6 ft of space between them and the next car. SUV is parked at an angle and 3 ft over the line (that's supposed to be) between my car and theirs. Sigh. I try again. I have to readjust my seat all the way back just to get in.

I hate driving. When I started my car to leave the parking lot of rudeness, my transmission when CLUNK. Waaaaah.

So, I spent a lovely afternoon watching my sister shop for things she may or may not have actually needed, but I was with her and that was nice. I didn't grade papers because it is unfair to my students to grade while cranky. Oh, and my cell phone is not working properly, so I ended up more cranky with Dear Husband when he was late home because I missed his call that he would be late.

I've been thinking this morning how to combat the itch of crankiness that is again creeping over my day. Lil'Bug is feeling better, my kitchen is clean, laundry caught up, floors mostly vacuumed.......today we are cleaning out the car before taking it to the shop, stopping at the library, and having lunch with grandpa. All very nice things. Today it is supposed to be 66 degrees out: we will come home and spend the afternoon working in the garden. It's time to pull down the last harvest and compost the plants this week. It's time for the change of seasons.

I'm a Halloweenie....

When I was a kid I, and my siblings, had some pretty cool Halloween costumes. One thing my family went all out for was Halloween, every year. We took turns having an elaborate costume. Now, elaborate doesn't mean expensive but it did mean time consuming and labor intensive.

1984: I was Bugs Bunny. Sounds pretty simple and I had the standard poly plastic mask but......I also had a cardboard box made up like ground with grass, a hole cut in the top and I would pop out and say, "What's Up? Is it trick or treat?" and take a bite of a real carrot. Cute.

1985: My brother was a mummy. Pretty classic BUT they made him a cardboard sarcophagus, painted gold and lavishly decorated, and wheeled him around on a dolly. Too cool.

1989ish: My sister went as a mermaid. Pretty standard. Little Mermaid was her favorite Disney thing of all time. However, the tail had its own wheels and her feet were decorated like sand and sea life. Very cool.

1991: The eyeball. Favorite all time costume. I went as an eyeball. My head was the eye and my body was the ocular nerve, complete with blood vessels. The eyeball part was paper mache and painted with glow in the dark paint and was bloodshot. So very cool. Trick or treating, I looked like a floating eye.

1993-1999 ish: my sister went as dead people. She would choose a person and then go as them dead. People she knew and by dead, I mean, zombie slaughtered. One year it was a dead cheerleader, once a dead paramedic, a dead doctor, a dead prom queen. In light of school tragedies and rescue workers heroics, these motifs are no longer as funny as they were. She still goes all out. Last year she as a martini and this year she's talked bunches of people into going as bees and they are collectively a swarm of bees. Cute.

As for me? When I was pregnant with Lil'Bug, she was due on Halloween. I was huge. The only thing I could fit in was a butter yellow cotton jumper. That was the year of the butter cow. Yes, I just told people I was one of Duffy's Iowa State Fair sculptures. :)

This year? I really wanted to have a Halloween party in celebration of living in the perfect haunted house (looks like Adams' Family house but with a gabled roof), but alas we are too busy finishing up house projects to get ready to list with an agent to even have time to plan a party let alone hide the laundry pile. So tragic. I had big plans too: Sprinklers on the roof for a rain storm, strobe lights for lightning, Creepy organ music playing over thunderstorm sound effects, cobwebs, dry ice at the double doors spilling out fog every time we opened the doors, and our family dressed as the Adams family. Bah. Someone should so steal my ideas and take pictures. Please. :)