I Have the Flu

So, no, no labor. In fact, it's pretty tough to even get on the computer, I need to go back to bed and curl up in a fetal position. But Hubby didn't go to NYC. He's taking care of me.

Sorry, Folks.

Another Sad News Day...

Not because I put my pants on backwards and walked around in public for two hours, completely unawares again (I actually took great care to get everything on right side out/forwards today) but Prince William and Kate Middleton have split up.

He's a dork. Ok, maybe they're young, but he isn't going to find a more dignified, classy girlfriend. You really effed up this time, Wills!

In happier news, the snow is all melted, and it's supposed to be warmer than freezing this week.

Hey, I take the good news when I can!

What a Crappy Day.

Well, so far, anyway.

I feel awful for Hubby. His fever finally broke yesterday afternoon, and he was able to eat normal food, etc. etc. so we figured one more night of good sleep (still in the guest room) and he'd be right as rain to go to work today.

WELL--he had a really bad headache last night, so we tried Tylenol, and when that didn't work, we tried Advil. When THAT didn't work, I remembered that when I used to have my bad headaches, Excedrin Migraine took care of them very nicely. So, right before Hubby went to bed, I gave him two Excedrin, and told him good night.

Unfortunately, I forgot one eensy weensy detail: Excedrin Migraine contains a lot of CAFFEINE.

Cut to this morning at 6am, a VERY pissed-off Hubby came into our room, and announced that thank you very much, he had gotten not even ONE minute of sleep the entire night, and he was a complete zombie and still had to go to work because missing THREE days would kill him, since he's in New York all next week and out of the office, and he had about 50 people needing meetings with him.

Of course it's my fault, I forgot about the caffeine part (we're not coffee or coke drinkers, so we both have a really low tolerance for caffeine) and apparently my little goof kept him up the entire night, watching old Tennis reruns. Not to mention that his back was completely screwed up now, sleeping in the guest bed for three days straight.

I feel bad. THEN, to make matters worse, I decided to start the dishwasher (because the maid service is coming this morning) and when I bent down to put the dishwashing crystals in, I completely threw my lower back out. (I sort of forgot that I've got a seven-ish pound baby in the front). And now I am in agony, I can't move, and Hubby just left for work with one eye open and completely dead, and the kids have decided that they're deaf and I'm invisible. AND I officially can't put my shoes and socks on, because of the belly. I get to wear clogs in 30-degree weather.

This day better get better.

--------------UPDATE:----------------------

It HASN'T gotten better. The Maid service broke one of my display cups, I took the kids to Walmart and got one of those carts that veers to the right (I only discovered this AFTER I had loaded it up with heavy Propel Water packs) and I also dropped a milk, causing a need for an aisle cleanup.

And I just got home and realized I put on my maternity jeans backwards. I was walking around with BUTT POCKETS on my front for two hours. My kids think it is highly amusing.

Just shoot me now...

Almost Out of the Woods...

I am beginning to suspect this laptop emits a high-pitched sound only my baby can hear--because he kicks like mad when I put it on my knees and surf. The other day Thing One said the laptop was "squealing" and I really couldn't hear anything coming out of it. But I also know that younger children can hear different sounds that adults can't hear, because their ears aren't "jaded" like ours.

So maybe THAT'S why the baby is so active whenever I get out the laptop? Maybe I need to use the one down in the office for a while...

Hubby doesn't have the fever anymore, but he's still achy and has...well...some other fun things going on. I won't elaborate, but he's not quite out of the Woods yet. He's staying home one more day, and hopefully tomorrow he'll be feeling better. He's already made 3920 phone calls on his Crackberry (he slept with it in the bed yesterday, I kid you not!) this morning, so he's up to speed on things. Now I've given him more medicine and he's sleeping. Best thing for him, really. He was kind of burning the candle at both ends for a while. The kids and I are feeling fine, so hopefully the quarrantining thing has worked.

I just realized that I'm very jealous of all my friends who live "across the pond." I am a hopeless Anglophile, and fascinated with England's history, especially the Tudor period. And all these people LIVE where it all happened! They could get in a car and drive to all the places my stories are set in--as easily as I drive from Milwaukee to Chicago! Major jealousy there.
I was reading an article where they have Rochford Hall (former home to the Boleyns--and the place where Henry VIII first cast his roving eye on Anne Boleyn) for sale--and what an amazing piece of history! In the oldest part of the house, a date carved into one old joist is 1216--I mean Holy Cow! And there used to be secret tunnels underneath the house--It's a collector's dream! (Yeah, the asking price is about 2 Million in U.S. Dollars--but if I had money to burn I'd buy it!) Just think of the people who lived in it! Click here for the article--(courtesy of Tudorhistory.org) it's very fascinating!

I love living in the U.S.--it's a great place, but it's a "fairly" young country, if you compare it to Europe. We don't have Rochford Halls, here, if you know what I mean. Not to get anyone's feelings in a knot, because we DO have lots of rich history, but our country itself is only a few hundred years old...officially.

Okay, time to get off the laptop. The baby is going crazy! I am glad the snow had finally stopped this morning--now, I'm ready for it all to MELT!!

FABULOUS Timing...

...absolutely FABULOUS, can I just say? And yes, that's sarcasm, folks.

Hubby came home last night from work, did his usual hour-long workout, and promptly curled into a ball in front of the TV and said he didn't feel so well. An hour later he was "achy." By the time we went to bed, he was rooting around in the medicine cupboard for the Theraflu.

Neither of us slept well last night, him, because he was achy and feverish, and me, well, I had to pee about 398767 times and I couldn't get comfortable, now that this baby has dropped.

He woke up this morning burning up, and I've given him medicine and banished him to the Guest room, on the other end of the house. Thank heaven it's got it's own bathroom and TV and comfy bed--he can sleep and watch sports and get better, without any of us getting near him unless we absolutely want to.

I can't tell if he has the Flu, or if it's a nasty cold--but I'm not taking chances, especially since I am about to have this baby, and I DIDN'T get a flu shot this year. Only our kids did. So, cross your fingers for me!

I am going to be the Lysol Queen this morning. The bed is stripped, I've got the sheets on "sanitary" on the wash setting (it's a killer cycle--it goes for an hour and a half!) and I'm spraying down every surface he's touched.

He's got his cell phone and his Blackberry and the regular phone right next to the bed, so if work needs him (they usually call twelve times per hour) they can reach him. I told him to just turn the phones off and sleep and sleep. That's the best cure for illness.

I hope no one else gets it! Especially ME!!!

*gulp*

Oh, and it's snowing, too.

Killing Spree...

I could kick myself. Granted, I'm no green thumb, but I know enough to know about some things.
When Hubby's alarm went off at 6am, the sun wasn't up yet. He jumped in the shower, and I, frankly, didn't move. I didn't have to. The kids are on Spring Break, so they've been sleeping in until about 7 lately. So I went back to sleep. Little did I know...

I woke up again, just before seven, and Hubby was getting himself some cereal in the kitchen. The sun was streaming into my eyes. Then Hubby came in and told me that there was a thick layer of frost on the ground.

FROST??? I jumped out of bed. (Well, being nine months pregnant, I sorta "rolled" out) and shrieked. I looked out the window and he was right--EVERYTHING was covered in frost.

And the sun was already out. Here's where I wanted to kick myself. Isn't it true that when frost covers your new baby plants and the sun hits them, it kills them? I've heard that before. I've also heard something about running and pouring water on your plants to save them, before the sun hits. Am I crazy? All of our tulips that are up, all of our little bushes that are flowering now, they're all dead, aren't they? Like I said, I'm not a Green Thumb type (I suspect when I'm older I might become one) but I know enough to know that Frost Kills.

So, I feel bad. Granted, I wouldn't have wanted to subject my neighbors to the sight of me, in my jammies and a coat and clogs, running around with a pitcher of water and pouring it on my tulips, but I WOULD have done it. We've had this happen before. Some of our newer trees never recovered. And it was on the news last night. Farmers talking about potentially losing 20-30% of their crops to Frost.

Hubby says I need to calm down, if they die, they die. So, I'm hoping that all my little plants we planted in the Fall survived this morning's onslaught. We're supposed to have a Winter Storm hit us tonight too--anywhere from 1-8 inches. I vote for ONE! I guess we'll see what happens!

Am I being ridiculous???

WELL Then...

My doctor just took me off "modified" bed rest!
As of today, I don't have to be under house arrest. I only have three weeks to go, so if I start having the baby, they aren't going to stop me at this point.
So that means when Hubby is in NYC all next week, I can actually take the kids to Soccer practice! WOO! Of course I've already decided that as SOON as he sets a toe in New York I'm going into labor--this should be interesting...

The only hitch is this: I'm still having MAJOR contractions. Not the little ones--but the big-force-the-baby-down-into-places-I-don't-want-it-to-go kind. So it's not very comfortable to stand up for more than a few minutes. And they're strong enough to take my breath away. SO, I won't be going to the mall or anything. But I can run a few errands as long as I can stay in my car, or have somewhere to sit. HOORAY!

So we had a good weekend---quiet, but what can you do. Hubby's birthday was on Easter, so it wasn't like we could go out and celebrate. We tend to stay home on Sundays. So he kind of just crashed in front of the TV and watched Golf, which is great and all, but it has to be the MOST boring sport to watch on TV, imo.
We had a homemade cake and I didn't go crazy on presents this year--I got him all the Seasons of "24" on DVD--he watches them in the workout room while he does his cardio. He's only on Season Three, so these will last him a while.

I finally watched "Eragon" this weekend, I haven't read the books and I was in the throes of major morning sickness when Hubby took the kids when it was in the theaters, so I hadn't had a chance to see it before now. It was really good. Although I had a lot of questions and felt the editing in some places was choppy and a lot of things went unexplained. Then again, look at what happened to the Harry Potter books in the translation to the Big Screen! Thing One is currently reading "Goblet" and she was very surprised by all the stuff they left out in the movie.

"They didn't have Dobby, or Winky in the movie, Mom," she commented. "Why didn't they put those things in?"
It just reinforced my belief that movies are RARELY, if ever, as good as the books themselves. A book doesn't have a "running time" or have to worry about it's readers getting numb butts or needing to pee in the middle of a pivotal scene because they've consumed a Coke the size of Lake Michigan.
A book lets you put the pictures in your own head, which usually are better than any special effects team could produce anyway.
So, I guess I will be reading the Eragon books, just to see what I missed!

Okay, here's for depressing: We are supposed to get SIX INCHES of snow tomorrow night. WTF??? (That stands for "What The Freak" for me--I try not to say the really naughty words!) and HOLY CRAP!!!
That is just wrong. And we are in Spring Break, too! The kids wanted to play outside and not have to put enough layers on to resemble shapeless blobs. They wanted to wear shorts and blow bubbles and play baseball and have a fire in the fire pit every night--but it's too damn cold for any of that. It's not going to climb out of the 30's anytime soon. BRRRRR!!!

But I suppose I already complained ad nauseum about this in one of my former posts, so I'll just shut up now. I'm just glad to finally be MOBILE!

Thank Heaven.

Easter Eggs...and a Rant...

My kids got invited to an Easter egg hunt this morning. Unfortunately, I can't drive them anywhere, and the hunt is practically across town, so they won't be going. There isn't even anyone close to us who could take them to the hunt. That's the thing that stinks about here, our church ward boundaries are HUGE. I mean, I have to drive 30 minutes just to get my visiting teaching done every month, and it's a 35-mile drive to church. Oh well. Not a lot of members here, unfortunately.

So I decided to have an Easter egg hunt in our house, tomorrow morning. Hubby is helping me. We are going to hide our own eggs (I bought them a month ago, in preparation) and let the kids have at it. Why not? It's something fun to do. And I feel bad they didn't get to go. I just can't go anywhere. Which drives me absolutely nuts.

In fact, I just realized that the maid service comes in about two hours. It's only 12 degrees with windchill outside, so I can't exactly scoot the kids out there, so hmmm. They'll just have to go wherever they're not working.

AND Soccer officially starts up on the 16th, and Hubby will be out of town, and I don't know anyone on the team yet (we came late and could only register for Spring) so the kids have to miss their first practice, because I CAN'T FREAKING DRIVE THEM.

I'd better hurry up and have this baby, so I can be a normal MOM again. SHEESH! House arrest SUCKS!!! I know I'm going to look back on this time of opposition and realize that it made me stronger, but going through it is NO picnic! I've never felt so helpless and useless in my entire life, and it galls me to the core. Everything that I am, I can't be. It's like being in prison.

Okay...calming down. I hope everyone has a great Easter weekend, whether you celebrate or not. Hubby's birthday is Sunday, too, and luckily all the stuff I ordered for him online got here yesterday. So he'll have presents, at least.

And he gets his embarrassing balloons today at work...heyah ha ha ha hahah!!!!!

Spring Break, Schming Schrake

General Note to the Public: DO NOT buy the new Fruity Cheerios. They're absolutely gross.

Okay, this should get interesting. Hubby and I had wanted to actually take the kids somewhere for Spring Break next week, like a cruise or to Hawaii, someplace fun and warm. But NO, I knew I would be EXTREMELY pregnant, so we opted to do nothing. Which was good foresight because I truly can't go anywhere or do anything, because of the modified Bed Rest.
But this is what makes me nervous. Starting tomorrow, and for the next nine days, my kids won't be in school, and it will be too cold to play outside, and I can't take them anywhere.

So what the heck are we going to do? I'm a little nervous. I mean, board games and books can only go so far. Hubby took last week off, so he can't take next week. Sure, there's movies and gamecube, but other than that I can't really "organize" anything. My kids will just have to bundle up and run outside in the freezing weather. I am really not looking forward to this.

I went to the Dr. yesterday, and things are happening, so this baby could come soon. I have all the baby's clothes washed in Dreft and put in Ziploc bags, his bassinette is ready to go, I have his diaper bag packed AND my hospital bag, and his room is all set up, and we are SET.

Hubby admitted to being a little "freaked out" because getting the baby's room together made it all "very real." I had to remind him that it was a "tad late" to change our minds, and so it seems daily that we are going through the whole being excited/saying "what were we THINKING?" gamut. I mean, six and a half years is a BIG gap between kids. It's almost like starting over from scratch, to be honest. I've forgotten a lot. And we had JUST gotten rid of all the old baby stuff, so we had to buy all new stuff.

So, ready or not, here we go, once again!

Home Sweet Home

B-I-L texted us last night at 12:49 am: "Home Sweet Home." They were here for seven days, and stuck for two. Nine days total. Poor things. But they're home now. No matter how nice it is to see family, or go on vacation, there's nothing like returning to your own home. It's just...nice, you know?

We have our house to ourselves again, and I must admit it's quiet and I'm liking it. It's so funny, all the cousins did was tattle and bicker and fight over toys THE ENTIRE TIME, and when it finally came time for them to leave, they bawled and hugged and said they were going to "miss each other so much!" I had to laugh. That's family for you.

It's bitter cold here--30 but with wind chill its in the teens. I had put all the kids' scarves and hats and gloves in a big plastic tub and put them in the closet. We had to break them all out again this morning. And if it snows like they're saying, we'll have to bring the snow pants out of retirement too. Which is WEIRD, because just two days ago the kids were playing Whiffle ball outside and blowing bubbles with bubble wands and wearing SHORTS, for Cripe's sake.

I am in a baking mood. Too bad I can't stand up long enough to do it. I have a Dr. appt this morning so we'll see how things are. I personally don't think anything is happening soon. You can usually kind of "tell" if you know what I mean. I am still nervous about Hubby's trip to NYC the week of the 15th. I have another Dr. appt. right before then, and he said if things look like they're going to happen he just won't go. I haven't really thought about what it would be like to have the baby by myself, if for some reason he couldn't get home in time. Since it's our fourth, I honestly don't think I'd be that upset. Does that sound weird? I've done it three times before, and I'm not too worried, so I'd be OK if I had to go through it by myself. How's that for independence? ;-)

Hubby was pleasantly surprised yesterday. He got a call that his team wanted to "meet and go over projections again" or something, and when he went into the room they were all there with two cakes and a pie, and gifts for his birthday, and shower gifts too. It was super nice of them. And we got a huge gift certificate to our favorite Sushi place (can't WAIT to go after the baby!) and another big one to a baby boutique. It was very generous. Hubby couldn't believe it. I'm a little overwhelmed myself. His birthday isn't until Sunday, but the kids have a surprise for him at work too. He will be SO embarrassed! (I won't tell in case he reads this blog before then) but I think being embarrassed on your birthday (just a little) is healthy, you know?

*Lara rubs her hands together and cackles with fiendish glee*