Miscellaneous ramblings

Life has been bumpy the past few weeks so I'll just do a quick summary the happening's and going's on.

First and sadly Joe lost his grandmother (nonna) last week. It's sad but we're glad she's not suffering anymore. The memorial service is on Saturday.

Second is that I'm still pregnant, still sick off and on, but I can happily report that I felt the baby move yesterday! YAY! I know that it wasn't gas because after I felt it I didn't fart.

Thirdly: Alison is now officially on her way to being a "big girl". She still craps in her own pants, but she does it from the comfort of her own room and her own bed, where she sleeps all night long!

I'd also like to point people to the funniest blog Hannihaus! I went to high school with her and she just cracks me up!

um....yep. I think that's it. I'm pretty dull these days. doing homework, cooking, cleaning, and watching gilmore girls when I can. sigh...life is tough!

I'm sure I've told you...

My daughter is perfect. The most perfect creature on the planet. Yep...Whenever you ask yourself, "I wonder what could be the most beautifully sweet charming entertaining and overall perfect creature?" you can now be assured that you know it is my alison.

Most of you know that I have coslept with my daughter since about three months old. We had her in a cosleeper then a crib, but then one day she would NOT let me put her down. It was awful. So in order for us to be sane we started sleeping with her. It was nice most of the time, and we enjoyed the bonding experience with her, but lately she's been so difficult to get to go to sleep. And what's more frustrating is knowing that when she stays the night at her grandparent's house she sleeps in her own room all night long without waking.

So we decided it was time for her to have her own room. On Friday we got her room finished, moved her bed in and put her in it. I was super nervous, thinking I would have to sleep in there every night all night. The first night I resigned myself to it, and it went okay. Then the next night she woke up around 2 and I went to get her settled down I thought I would just try to leave while she was still awake. And she let me! It was a miracle for me and a mistake for her. Since I now know that she can handle it, I've made her go to sleep on her own ever since.

Last night was the first night EVER that she's slept the entire night without waking, and I was able to put her down without much fuss (that means less than 10 minutes of crying). Tonight she only cried for a minute and then I never heard another peep out of her.

Life is good. I'm going to bed. My own bed. By myself. I'm going to sstttrrreeetttcchhh out and sleep sleep sleep! I only have about six more months of heaven anyway before the next little perfect monster keeps me up all night.

My new trashy smile! 

The Zen of Saab Maintenance

My amazing wonderful fantastic parents (yes, they read my blog) have been gracious enough to give us a car (even though at some point I will pay them for it...they just don't know it yet). My dad bought an 84 Saab 900 awhile back for cheap from a guy who just didn't want to put any more time into it. Makes it sound bad right? Well, after replacing everything in the car I suppose you would be tired of it, but I'm thrilled he spent so much money replacing parts.

It still needs some work though, so Daddy has set aside his sparse free time to help me get it fixed, but in order to do that we have to get it out of the ice. Not normally an issue, especially when it wasn't really all that cold today, but because I was involved it just complicated matters.

We started out by trying to charge the battery (which is toast), then we jumped it with the plow truck. As dad was handing me the jumper cables (that he built himself in 1981 - just FYI) one of the clamps swung around in my hands and smacked me right in the mouth, chipping my front tooth. Now after living in the woods of Big Lake for so long you would think that I would have been inducted sooner, but no I have only after 20 years been christened a "Big Laker", or "Valley Trash". Toothless and working on a busted car in a yard with other busted cars with my Daddy. So with bloody lip and a piece of tooth in my hand I went into the house to cry to my Mommy.

Now, just pulling a car out of the ice wouldn't normally be so hard, except that this car is parallel parked between a trailer and another car (that doesn't run) and ALL of the vehicles are frozen into about 5 inches of ice. When I came back out Dad was trying to get it to move out of it's little ice pits. He was getting it to move, but he needed just a little bit of a push. So I stood in the only place where I wouldn't get killed at the front of the car, knelt down and he put it in reverse and gunned it. I was immediately covered from head to foot in wet, mucky, dirty cold-ass water. I waved at him but it was only after he gunned it one more time that he realized I needed him to stop.

After changing and drying off, we switched spots. I got behind the wheel and he hooked up the plow truck and tried to pull the front of the car out. I promptly killed the engine. and no, it wouldn't start again. So we started all over; pulling the truck back over to the car, hooking it up, jumping it (not allowing me to touch the cables) and then putting everything back in place to try and pull it out again.

Dad added a little more gravel this time underneath the front tires and gave me a warning that when the car jumped out of it's tire pits to brake so that I didn't run into the car in front of me too hard (the bumpers are about a foot apart. Yeah, I'll try!). I eased onto the gas pedal and he pulled with the truck and the car LEAPT out of it's icy graves and landed smack on top of the other car's bumper, busting out one of the really nice Bosch fog lamps underneath the Saab bumper. sigh....

(I think I have heard goddamit more today than I have since I was a kid and in big big trouble!)

After that things seemed to calm down, but I think that's due to the fact that we didn't do anything else with the car. Somehow Dad said we couldn't start taking the engine apart because it was too hot. Yeah, right dad. You just knew that I was going to break something or hurt myself again. I know how you work.

For all of those who know how into waterbirth I am; Here's what one looks like who has never seen one. 

ok...so I don't hate her

I don't hate my dog. I promise. I just was having a pregnancy overload. I don't remember having many, if any, pregnancy related anger freak-outs when I was pregnant with Alison, but then again I don't have a real brain right now, so I could just be forgetting them.

Anyway, to further the doggie saga, the next day Tundra was still not feeling so hot. We tried to take her out enough to make sure she wouldn't crap in the house, but I failed miserably and left for an entire two hours. Just enough time for her to drip liquid dark brown all over my carpet.

I smelled it when I opened the door and said sadly, "Oooohhhh Tundra! Yuck!". That's when she took the opportunity to bolt out of the front door with no collar on (she is microchipped, but I can't grab onto a microchip as she runs by). I left Ali in the entry way and took off after her. She wouldn't come within five feet of me. I was SO MAD! Then it occurred to me that Ali was alone in the house with dog poo on the floor. OH MY GOD! I had visions of her covered in it like it was play doh.

I ran into the house and she was exactly where I had left her, only she was sitting with her happy meal demolished on her lap smiling when I came in. I was so grateful.

I tried a few more times to coax tundra to come to me, but she wouldn't, so Joe came home to get her. All he had to do was get out of his car and say, "Let's go inside!" and she bounded up the stairs.

That's when I demanded in my freaked-out, pissed-off state that I was going to go to Home Depot RIGHT NOW and get a bissel. A BIG ONE! I received no opposition (actually I was told that getting one had been his idea for awhile now) so I left.

I have now spend the last three days in carpet cleaning heaven. She's made three messes since then, but you wouldn't know it! YAY! So I can like my dog again. She should be grateful that she has such a great "dad" that works hard to make the money to buy the vacuum and that he defends her when I'm ready to give her to the next circus that comes to town!

Alison and her first baby.  

I hate my dog right now

I know that's an awful thing to say, but I'm not a good dog person. I know she needs more walks, more attention and more everything else, but we're not good at being consistent with her. And I just walked home to find that she'd gotten UP ON THE KITCHEN COUNTER and eaten at least four steaks. She already has the most sensitive stomach and we try to watch the scraps she picks up from ali, but sometimes we miss it.

Her crap runs the gamut from hardly coming out to total liquid on a regular basis. And more frequently it's been indoors. Now I'm freaking out because she either is going to be sick for the next few days every time we take her out, or she's not going to do anything when she take her out, but she'll crap all over my house! AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Joe is busy right now so I can't call and freak out to him. sigh....so frustrated.

Very first pigtails!