Tuggles verses the bug ... and a sweet potato

If anyone ever tells me cats are useless creatures, I will most likely laugh at them since they are obviously clueless. Don't get me wrong, my cats don't play fetch, rarely come when I call them (unless I use treats or catnip as a bribe), greet me at the door because they want food, and think they own the world. However, the males in my home (this is my husband and my cat Tuggles) are the official bug patrol - and sometimes I think my cat is more affective than my husband is (but lets not tell HIM that!). So on to the story...

A few days ago, before my alarm goes off, I hear my cat sporadically racing around my bedroom, randomly whining while this is going on. Mind you, this cat is about 18 pounds and NOT light on his feet, so yes, it wakes me up. I lay in bed for a few minutes listening to the chaos ensue, knowing that either 1) he is playing with his imaginary friend (which is ALWAYS entertaining to watch) 2) playing with one of the random cat toys he has, or 3) he has found a bug - and my guess was the bug. [SIDE NOTE: We live on a lake and thus have learned that we deal with a lot more of nature, both inside our home and out. As long as it continues to be a single bug every few months and not an ongoing battle, I can manage.] I slowly roll over and turn on the light by my bed then move to the end of my bed so I can see my whining kitty and his prize. There he is, laying on his belly with a single paw holding the bug in place. He lets it go and it starts to scurry away, Tuggles then lets out another whine and whacks it with the other paw. He proceeds like this for a short time until the bug gets to far away, at which point he runs over to it, picks it up in his mouth (((gag))) and moves it back to the center of the floor again. Now while he is "playing", the bug is slowly losing its legs - and yes, they can be found later on the floor (gross, I know). Soon the bug can no longer move on its own and Tuggles loses interest, at which point I have a bug body left on the floor. That is stage 1 of the bug control in my house and sometimes get skipped.

Stage 2 is where my husband's bug duties come into play. If the bug is small and not crunchy, I can address it myself. However, if it is a larger spider or other type of nasty insect (especially those that crunch rather than squish), it becomes my husbands job to deal with it. This most recent bug is the later, and while it is now legless and has one antenna left, it is still of the larger, crunchy variety and makes me shudder. I contain the insect for my husband (READ: place a glass over said bug - or bug body in this occurrence) and inform the exterminator (READ: call husband and tell him he has a chore to take care of immediately). So, I call my dear husband, tell him Tuggles found a toy and I'm pretty sure he ripped all the legs off so it can't move, and I left it under the glass on the floor, please dispose of it when you get home. (And now why I say I think my cat is the better "bug guy" in my home) I get home that evening and the bug is no longer under the glass (but the glass is still on the floor). Okay, no big deal. I walk into the bathroom and BAM! the bug body is sitting in the bottom of our toilet and I, of course, cannot use it now. Sigh. At least he tries.

Now for the sweet potato - that is the size The Nest tells me our baby is this week. I'm 18 weeks. 2 more weeks and I'll be half way there!!! Now, if we just knew what we having the shopping would start.

and I just *thought* it would be easier...

After looking through all the fun boy bedding yesterday, I figured since I knew I wanted pink, frilly bedding if we have a daughter, I could quickly find a few I liked. Okay, that part is not a problem. What I did quickly learn was the girl bedding I like is SIGNIFICANTLY more expensive than the boy bedding - think $200 vs. like $800. :-( The "Miss Princess" is my absolute favorite, but there is NO WAY I can justify spending that much on crib bedding and while the "Chloe" is not that expensive, I don't like it nearly as much. Boo hoo hoo! I guess I keep looking...

Miss Princess - Little Bunny Blue ($850)

Maribelle - Glenna Jean ($540)
Isabella - Glenna Jean ($390)

Coco - Glenna Jean ($390)

Chloe - Glenna Jean ($230)

Baby Ella - Glenna Jean ($430)

Alexandra's Room - Bebe Chic ($510)

Too many choices!

In an attempt to be a little proactive, I started looking at crib bedding. I was thinking maybe I could have a few picked out before we find out the sex to make it easier to shop and determine paint colors. A quick google search later and I had thousands of choices. How do I even possibly begin to choose? I started by looking at boys bedding, since if its a girl, I really want a pink room so I am thinking girl bedding will be easier to pick. So below I've included a few pictures of some of the boy patterns I like - please feel free to leave me comments and let me know what you think - God knows we'll need all the help we can get trying to make a decision! (Just remember, I'm looking at the bedding and not necessarily all the extra decor shown)

Two by Two - KidsLine

Spelling Bee - Lambs & Ivy
Pirates Cove - Cotton Tale
Peek-a-boo Friends - Cocalo
Papagayo - Lambs & Ivy

My First ABC- KidsLine

Moo Cow - Sumersault

Elephant Parade - Cocalo

Big Equipment - Cotton Tale

Baby Aviator - Lambs & Ivy

Oh how I miss thee!!!

This is so totally and completely UNFAIR. I can say for the first time since finding out I'm growing a human I actually have a craving. This is HUGE for me, since food and I have not been the best of pals lately and to actually CRAVE something instead of it just sounding tolerable is landmark in my book. "Great! Grand! Wonderful!" you say? Not so much, and I'll tell you why. I am craving cottage cheese, and not just any cottage cheese but the most delicious cottage cheese ever - Michigan brand cottage cheese. I have tried a few others from time to time and was always depressed, like to the point of throwing it out. And why is craving this particular brand a problem? BECAUSE I'M IN FREAKING TEXAS WHERE THEY DON'T SELL MICHIGAN COTTAGE CHEESE! This is a huge dilemma now, since all I can think about is that wonderful cottage cheese. I found out the Michigan brand is considered "Old Fashion" or "Farmer's cheese" and is a dry cottage cheese. I wonder now if this type of cottage cheese is available anywhere near me. My first try will be stopping by the grocery store on the way home and trying a variety of the brands they offer to see if anything works. If not, then it looks like I'll be hitting up a Whole Foods or Central Market to see what they have to offer. Hopefully I can find something that taste close enough to my prized cottage cheese to help get me paste this hump. If not, it looks like I'll be finding someway to get some of it shipped to me since I can't wait until August to get some (I'll be in the mitten state for my BFF's wedding).

Damn you cravings!!!

Duck, duck, DUCK!

Quack!!! One of our favorite past times it to feed the ducks, and while this is something we normally do off the dock in our back yard, this past weekend I wanted to get up close with ducks and geese. We headed to a local park with a full loaf of bread and looked for one of the more "duck popular" spots. We headed down to the river front and found a perfect spot to sit. Within a few seconds we had all sorts of ducks making lots of noise and apparently calling over all their friends. The white ducks seemed to be the most friendly and were the first ones to climb up on the bank with us. Next we had the Muscovy ducks which were more than happy to eat out of our hand - hence the up close and personal part I like. The mallards were surrounding us in the water and all seemed to be waiting patiently. When you have over 20 ducks around, several of which are making quite the commotion, it gets hard to try and feed them all evenly, but I tried, I really did! As I'm sitting there, my husband starts getting really excited and is pointing to one of the ducks that I at first though was a small mallard. My husband starts repeating "It's a woody! What the heck is he doing here - its a woody!!!" and for anyone that knows ducks, you'll understand how strange it is to see a wood duck at such a pristine park. They are normally only found in the marshes and more wooded areas, which in turn is why they are called wood ducks. This guy however, was up in the area with all the other ducks eating bread and holding his own - and what a beautiful duck he is too. You can see in the image below just how pretty these ducks are. I think we'll be sure to visit that park again!

Baseball, snakes, and an avocado

It has been a relatively busy week and I'm so glad it is finally Friday! Monday I had a doctor appointment for something non-baby related and I finally got an answer to something I've been dealing with since November - along with a Rx to fix it. Now I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that the issue will finally go away. Yay! Tuesday I was off of work so my husband and I (along with 2 of his friends) could go to opening day for the Rangers. We even arrived early enough to catch batting practice, during which my wonderful husband caught me a baseball which I am hoping to get signed by several of the players at future games. We LOVE baseball and are both so excited the season has started (and in fact might be going again tonight). The funny part is my husband ordered a beer and while I would have loved to indulge in one myself, I learned that just smelling it was enough to tide me over - random, but it worked. That night after the game was the major excitement for the week though.


My husband needed to sleep since he works nights, but since we had not had dinner we needed something quick. We decided to run up to the corner to pick something up and jumped in his Jeep. When we got back, we walked up to the door where we fiddled around for a few - talking to the dove nesting above the door and then my husband randomly grabbing for the door handle, but on the wrong side of the door for some reason (see, he really does need his sleep!). As we were standing there I just happen to look down and freaked out - I scurried away from the door screaming my husbands name. My poor husband. Being the spider hater he is, he assumed there was a spider near him and quickly leaped back while swatting at his head, face and shoulders - trying to get the crazy eight-legged Satan off of him. Meanwhile, I'm point at the door with random sounds coming out of my mouth since I could not make words. He looked at me, trying to figure out what the problem was and then looked at the door. It took him about 30 seconds to finally see it - there, on the same doormat we had just been standing on in shorts and flipflops was a snake! Once he saw it, I was finally able to make words again and we looked at each other and both commenting on how we didn't see it in the first place - I mean, how did we both walk up to the door, stand on the mat WITH the snake, and not even realize it. Then, how in the world did neither of us get bit, considering we were standing there for at least 2 minutes or more. Yuck. The next half hour was spent going in the BACK door, getting a shovel, and trying to get the snake out of our yard without either of us getting bit. As my brave husband tried, the snake continued to snap viciously at the shovel and anything else that got near it. (((shudders))) He finally was able to move it out of the yard and were able to eat. Needless to say, we are both very cautious approaching our house now - or any other building for that matter. Living on a lake isn't 100% wonderful considering all the random bugs and wildlife we have to deal with, but so far its been worth it.

Wednesday was much less exciting as I had class all day at work and we spent time with my husbands family that night, with the guys all playing Rockband. Uneventful in comparison, but we enjoyed it. Thursday we met with out financial advisor, who gave us the good news that looking at our retirement, its possible for me to go part time after the baby is born for a whole 5 years, stopping my retirement contributions during that time, and still come out on goal in the end. While we have no idea at this point whether I'll be going back full or part time, its nice to know we have the option to do part time and not push our future goals out any. I guess its about time we starting looking at this a little more since the time will come before we know it! Eeek! Back to Thursday though - after our meeting we grabbed some dinner and headed out for opening day at Lonestar Park and bet on some ponies. After admission, parking, a few beverages, and betting (and winning), the evening cost us less than $10 and allowed us to enjoy the nice spring evening. So perfect. I love this time of the year! And while right now we don't have any plans set in stone for next week (other than my OB appt), I'm sure we'll manage to watch some baseball, bet on a few more ponies, and continue to enjoy both the weather and each other. After a year and a half of marriage, I have to admit I continue to enjoy every single second!


One final note - today I am 16 weeks along. 16 weeks. 4 months. Wow. And I hear my baby is the size of an avocado. That means I have roughly 5 months left. Time really flies. I have to share a commercial I saw that really made me realize how close we are. I believe the commercial was for Cooks Childrens medical center, but I might wrong - however the story really made me think. It started with a lady talking about the NICU and how thankful she was for them, she talked about how she gave birth to her child at 24 weeks (that's 2 months from now for me, not very long), and how the NICU was so wonderful and everything. She then ends with a comment about how her child is a normal 7 year old now - after being born so early, the child is in perfect health. My husband and I looked at one another and both said "2 months", meaning if that were us, we'd be full on parents in 2 months. We have 2 bibs and a pair of booties. We are not even CLOSE to being prepared. I think that commercial helped me realized the reality of it all. I know we are waiting until after the 20 week BIG ultrasound to purchase anything, but I know I'm also starting to feel slightly anxious. While I should have 5 months left to acquire the things I need, you never know the hand life will deal you. So as I end this, I ask you to please to keep my unborn child in your thoughts and say a little prayer that everything works out as planned.

Waiting...

I'm still waiting ... and I'm tired. Will this ever end?