My God is mightier than Metro

My weekend was fantastic. I got some much needed rest, ate amazing food,
got to see college friends that I love, and spend quality time with family.

Sunday was just awful. The kind of day that can tear down the strongest of
the strong and reduce anyone to an angry, teary, frustrated heap. I spent
most of Sunday wishing it would just end.

Today, I've spent most of the day trying to brush any remainder of Sunday
away. I've prayed almost constantly about almost everything, and mostly
for Sunday to just be lifted away. My iPod was in on the mission and
played "Dancing in the Rain" by Stephen Sharpe - I set it to repeat and
listened to it at least 12 times.

I'm currently working only half days at work, per doctor's orders, so I
left the office at about 1:40pm. As I walked to the Metro, still listening
to Dancing on repeat, I was trying to not walk too fast and to also
continue to shed Sunday. One of the things I'm not supposed to do is walk
too quickly, this is very hard for me as anyone will tell you I inherited
my father's nature when it comes to walking with a purpose.

Enter Metro's attempt to mess me up...

As I entered the station I looked at the arrival board:
My train was arriving in 2 minutes
My train arrives on the lower platform
It takes about 3 minutes to walk to the lower platform when I'm walking
with a purpose
I wasn't going to make my train
The next train wasn't coming for 15 minutes

I was faced with a choice: continue walking at a reasonable pace and wait,
or run - possibly causing myself pain and discomfort by triggering a
contraction- and make the train in 2 minutes.

I chose the first one. And I made the first train. The arrival board
didn't change from 2 minutes until I was on the lower platform.

Sometimes God makes dancing in the rain a little easier, and God is always
mightier than Metro.

Snow Day

It snowed last night, big time. Not as big time as the snowpocalypses of last winter, but enough that it took me more than 3 hours to get home and it took Frank nearly 4 hours to get home.

The good thing about this storm is that I have gotten to stay home today, and the hounds enjoy playing in the snow!




I'm not looking forward to the part where our back yard become a giant mud pit....but for now I'll just enjoy sending the hounds out to play in the snow.

Wordless Wednesday

New Blogs

Last week, two new blogs came into being. Well, I'm sure that more than two blogs came into being last week, but there were two that came into being that I am personally very aware of.

My mom, Betsy, started a blog, and my friend, Adair, started a blog! You can find links to both of their blogs in my blogroll.

Good luck, ladies! These things end up being more work than I expected, but they sure are fun, too!

Status Update

31 weeks, 1 day; 7-10 weeks to go.


We set up the swing in the living room so the hounds would begin to get used to it. I turn it on now and then, sometimes with sound so that they (hopefully) won't be super intrigued by it later. We also managed to sell the second diaper bag that I bought, and even made an $8 profit after shipping!

Next up for us is baby showers and maternity pictures! I'm super excited about both, and they are both making this whole thing seem more and more real.

I'm completely out of room in my abdomen, even sitting up straight doesn't seem to give the two of us enough room! I've started yawning more often, but I don't think it is because I'm tired (I am) I think it is because my lungs are so rarely expanding beyond a shallow breath!

I'm Excited About: Carmen!

My little Carmacita is coming to visit today! She arrives this afternoon around 4:30 via Mega Bus, which conveniently drops off passengers about a block from my office.

I have no idea what we'll do this weekend, especially since I'm not supposed to over-exert myself physically (makes being touristy tough when you're not supposed to walk at speed for more than a few feet at a time...) but I'm sure we'll have fun no matter what we decide!

I think the most interesting little factoid about my Carmacita is that I love her so much that when I moved to DC I kind of acquired a DC version of her. I swear it wasn't on purpose, and I didn't even realize it until the two of them met, but Tina and Carmen...kind of the same person...


Carmen is also one of my 'little sisters' from Salem. I think she officially has another Big, but I claim her as mine anyway! She was a bridesmaid in my wedding and is a constant source of entertainment in my life.

I'm so excited that she is coming to visit, I'm sure I'll be completely exhausted by the time the weekend is over but it will all be worth it!

And also, Happy (30th) Birthday to my big brother, Rob!

Status Update

30 weeks, 4 days - anywhere from 8-11 weeks to go!


Can you tell that I didn't really want to take this picture? Cause I didn't!

I am no longer sleeping for more than 5-6 hours a night. The good news is that Rutledge is doing a better job of sleeping through the night! And even when he does wake up at 5:15, I am usually already awake.

I have an appointment this afternoon, so I'll update any relevant info this evening.

Happy Thursday!

**WELL! THAT WAS QUITE AN APPOINTMENT**
So, after listing my various symptoms my doctor wanted us to hang out and have a sonogram to make sure I wasn't experiencing pre-term labor. I'M NOT. But it still made the afternoon a bit more 'exciting' than we had anticipated!

It seems that the soreness and menstrual-like cramps I've been experiencing are just over-exertion and braxton-hicks contractions, not PTL. I'm glad that we confirmed that, and now I'll try harder to walk slower so that the soreness will go away.

As for weight gain, I'm up another handful of pounds but I'm still within the 'average' range for a healthy pre-pregnancy weight person. AND the baby's tummy is measuring at 32 weeks, which is 2 weeks ahead so I'm going to go ahead and blame at least one full pound on the baby. So there.

Hamilton's Progress

Hamilton had his yearly vet check up this past weekend and came away with a clean bill of health! He has regained the weight he lost during his Addison's episode, and the vet said that if she didn't know he had it she wouldn't suspect it from the exam.

We're happy that our elder hound is back to being healthy, and that the steroids are working! Now we'll order his hormones and start that daily pill at the end of the month. Lucky for us, Hamilton is a champ when it comes to taking pills - he gets his steroid every morning, and has been taking 2 benedryl at every meal for over a year now, with no complaints! Just drop it in his food bowl and he'll eat it!

So, we'll still be watching him as we switch him to oral hormone therapy but at least we know that his condition can be managed.

The vet said that she didn't see any reason that Hamilton wouldn't live a full long basset life as long as we keep his condition under control. Hooray!

Charlie!

As if it weren't great enough that PW has turned Black Heels into a book, now she has gone and written a childrens' book about Charlie!

It is due out at the end of April, right about the time I should be coming out of my "I just had a baby haze" long enough to blink, and maybe even read through the book once!

I could not be more excited about this book - and I hope it becomes a series.

Thanks, Ree! You made my day!

Goodbye Football

Football is over for me. The Colts lost in the first round of playoffs. It wasn't a very good game, but it kind of went the way that the season went - close, but not good enough. I'm hoping that the team can take the off season to fully recuperate and be ready to go next year. A restful post-season may be just what they need.

Bummer.

The good thing is I don't have to spend money on a maternity Colts shirt. My jerseys weren't going to make it another week, they were looking pretty silly already!

So now I'm on to pulling for teams that I don't hate; Go NFC!

Nesting?

On top of all of my cleaning, purging, and priming this past weekend I also had the urge (and reason) to cook. I blame hormones. I usually hate cooking.

On Friday afternoon I realized that we had some apples that were ripening too quickly and were getting past the point of edible. I decided to bake something with them, but I didn't want to make an entire pie as I only needed to use 2-3 apples.

I had recently flipped through PW's cookbook and remembered seeing a recipe for French Breakfast Puffs that looked tasty. I found the recipe, decided that adding diced apples would be DEVINE, and set off to make them.

Of course, I first had to call Tina and see if she had eggs because I had none. She did, and there was much rejoicing! (Actually, I had to promise not to send any muffins home with her in order for her to bring me the eggs. Apparently cinnamon-sugar coated muffins are not part of her breakfast diet plan)

I didn't take pictures of the entire process, but here is what the table looked like, and then the finished product. They are as, if not more tasty than they look - and the addition of apples? Fantastic.




Then, as though that wasn't enough, I've made dinner twice in the last two days! Two for two!

Friday night's dinner was a less than stellar chicken, rice, and veggie adventure. I was SO hungry that I couldn't wait for Frank to get home and I started making dinner for us by myself. The veggies and rice were leftovers, so that was easy. I sauteed the chicken in olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and rosemary - and per my usual MO, the chicken was overcooked and dryyyyyyy. Oh well, I tried! Frank dutifully downed his dinner and only spoke of the chicken's dryness after I did.

Saturday night was much more successful! I made another PW recipe, this time it was her chicken spaghetti. We both liked it, but decided that I played it too safe with the peppers. I used the low end suggestions for the quantity of green peppers, onions, and cayenne. Next time I'll be upping all three, and maybe finding a way to work in some Frank's Red Hot. The biggest deal of the evening was that I managed (with a little help from Frank) to break down a chicken! Like a whole chicken! It was kind of fun, though a little disconcerting to hear the bones and ligaments crack....whatever, chicken is tasty.

For now, I'm going to blame this kitchen flurry on hormones and hope that it keeps up for a little while longer. If I can get a few more successful dinners on the table (without crying), I might actually start to have a little confidence in the kitchen.

Here's hoping!

Status Update

Not the most flattering shot, but it was worth a laugh. Earlier this week I was told that when standing facing forward, one could forget that I am pregnant (granted, I was wearing a hoodie at the time)


But then I would turn to walk away and POW, there it is!


I'm 29 weeks pregnant, 11 weeks until our due date.

We've decided that we're staying put in our house until the end of our original lease, so we'll be here for about a month with the new kid. We've started to clean the house, part in preparation for the realtor's showings and part in preparation for our own packing ordeal and eventual move. The second bedroom will be our guest room/nursery for a month so I have started the process of getting that ready. So far, the walls have been primed, the bookshelves emptied and moved, and I've come to the (slightly painful) realization that I will not be the one doing the painting. My husband has been called in from the bullpen to put the (boring) paint on the walls so that I can then get the room ready for guests, and ultimately, baby Webb.

It has been nice to come to a decision about our living situation, though we will have to start looking for a new place in March. It is nice to know what our timeline is, and it is even nicer to have something to direct all of this cleaning energy toward! While all of the other moms-to-be are setting up their nurseries, I'm cleaning out the basement and purging our unused and underused belongings - lucky for me, I love that kind of stuff!

Growth Accelerators

That is what our pastor calls difficult people. Growth Accelerators. I have them -lots of them - would you like to borrow one? or four? I'd be happy to loan them out to someone else for a little while.

At the moment I feel surrounded. They are in my personal life, my work life, my church life, and any other life I might have a smidgen of time for these days. My husband (who is not the annoying kind of Growth Accelerator, he is a good one) has been a champion of this view lately. He has been trying, quite patiently I might add, to point out these opportunities to me - opportunities to pray for those that are merciless, difficult, inconsiderate, immature, and just plain mean. And he also points out that these are opportunities to pray for myself and my growth as I try to deal with these people in a manner that would, if not make Him smile, at least not make Jesus cringe.

So, to all of my Growth Accelerators out there, you may be able to frustrate, exhaust, or anger me and even make me cry but you will never break me because I am not my own, I belong to someone much more powerful and important than you. I'll try to respond with love, I will apologize when I fail, I will pray for you, I will pray for me, and I will grow.

Though, I may find a nice cave to sit in tomorrow just to avoid it all - I really could use a break!

Happy Catch Up!

Happy Birthday, Chuck!

Happy Anniversary, Webbs!


Happy New Year!



Happy Birthday, Dad!



Happy Anniversary, Kath & Elton!


Happy Birthday, Mom!

Geeze - you skip a few days of blogging in this family and you can fall WAAAAAY behind!