What Happened Over Christmas

1. Found out my Wii Fit age is 44. Not good, even if I wasn't pregnant. Didn't I just run a half marathon? Wait, that was a year ago.
2. Ate lots of potatoes.
3. Drove 6 hours to Nebraska where dinner was waiting for me.
4. Sober the entire Holiday.
5. Was bombarded by a certain sister-in-law telling me she can't buy me ANYTHING for our baby unless she knows if it's a boy or girl. Sorry Angel, you'll just have to wait until June like everyone else. But you can still give us your crib and anything else gender neutral. Thanks!
6. I didn't blog.
7. My sister and I harassed two little boys into cleaning their VERY messy room by taking away their Nintendo DS. The screaming could be heard down the street.
8. The boy's room was partially cleaned. For 20 minutes.
9. Presents covered the entire floor Christmas Eve. Little ones had to step on them to get to their pile. Justin yelled, "LOOK AT ALL THOSE!!!!! WHO ARE THEY FOR????"
10. Justin got warm, fuzzy slippers. I think they were his favorite gift from me.

We did Christmas Eve/morning here in Minnesota. Since there are so many little grandchildren on one side, there really were a lot of gifts in the living room. We let them open first so they could be excited playing with them somewhere else, while the adults opened. The in-laws didn't even get to see us open gifts from them. They were stuck on open-kid-packages-NOW and I-need-4-AA-batteries-now! We got towards the end and found one kid missed 3 gifts. I think he got really excited and took off with whatever. He did eventually come back to claim them.

I got nice gifts as usual. Justin did too. Justin's Grandparents must think we're having a girl (actually, everyone wants this baby to be a girl for some reason) because they got us pink receiving blankets and a somewhat gender neutral outfit. But since it's a gift, I'm going to keep it, girl or boy. Why not use it no matter who pops out?

Christmas morning, we headed to Nebraskey where my brother lives. FYI: there is nothing open on Christmas day. NOTHING, so get your travel cooler stocked with snacks and drinks because you're not getting Hardee's or Dairy Queen along the way.

More presents, more wild children not talking to you because they are too enthralled with their favorite Christmas gift, more everyone else drinking but me. Including a comment from my mom asking why I can't have a Miller Lite. "Does it upset your stomach?"

Oh dear lord please tell me that she didn't drink while pregnant.

Fail

On so many levels.

I fail because I haven't posted since, when? Friday? FAIL. Busy weekend as usual but no excuse not to post especially since I was on the computer for 4 hours on Saturday trying to get work done.

Silly Car fails too. Justin and I must be jinxed with this move to Minnesota. Silly Car doesn't work now. Not sure if it has anything to do with it being 6 below yesterday (oh, with a minus 31 windchill. MINUS 31 and yes, it was cold that yesterday). I can't say I blame it, I didn't want to get out of my warm bed this morning either, but I managed.

And all my clothes fail. Enough said.

So, I loaded up my queue for work and will stay busy. And warm. And not disrupted like at work, so I might get more work done. But bothered by the fact that now we have NO running cars.

(It runs, just overheats (HAAAAAHAHAH!) which Justin thinks the heater hose busted somewhere. Not easy to get to apparently.)

The 21st Century Strikes Again...Again

Back when I wrote this post it was true. Apparently, it's true again.

Remember, we parked the Silly Car away for the winter. The plan was to get in sometime in April or May and rely on Justin's newer car, the subie. Apparently, his car is so modified that the computer (the brains of the car), froze up. Awesome huh? So, we had no choice but to go get the Silly Car out of hibernation.

It was a long day at work, plus it started snowing on the drive home. No driving for either of us, I ended up taking the bus into Minneapolis and catching another bus home. That took 2 1/2 hours! I was exhausted. But we still had to go up to Nowthen, Minnesota. Luckily, Justin's awesome Aunt and Uncle had pulled the car out of it's hibernating spot and parked it, ready to go, in their driveway. And Aunt Peggy made me homemade blue cheese dressing! So at least it wasn't as bad as we anticipated.

And now I'm exhausted again today. I think my lack of any symptoms during the first trimester is catching up with me. But, I set a goal at work and I have to finish it or I'm a dummy who can't meet deadlines. Plus, my plan is to make my goal and then tell them I'm pregnant. That way they aren't too upset. But, actually, I just found out another chick at work is due the same time as me and everyone knows. So why am I waiting? Who knows.

So my car, which is 16 years old, is our primary car and runs awesome. And Justin's car, which is only 6 years old doesn't run and has icicles hanging off of it. And who said the technology from the 21st century is better?

The 21st Century Strikes Again

Just got home, too tired to write, but it's silly, stupid, drama, dumb, the usual.

More later.

Struggle

Phew! Now that the cats outta the bag, I can officially talk about anything. But, not baby related today.

I like this 30-day challenge. There's tons of goodies to talk about in December. I just can't seem to get my act together on the weekends. This weekend was hard. Apparently you really shouldn't sleep on your stomach when your 3 months along. Ok, but it's still kinda flat so why not? Cause your back will hurt like you got kicked. So all day Saturday I was miserable. Nothing done or posted.

Sunday, full steam ahead the moment I got up because I knew I had tons of crap to do. Bake cookies for work, laundry and watch it rain in Minnesota in December (then watch it turn into ICE 1 hour later. Then try to drive on it to go see a children's play with the family. We made it ok because nobody else was dumb enough to try that.). With all of these really awesome things happening, I can't blog on the weekend. Yesterday's blog is actually one I wrote on Friday while my database was down at work. But I can NOT get on the computer on the weekend.

Can't do it. At all. No way.

But things did happen and I didn't blog. So here I am. Want the latest news? Apparently, (and I've only seen emails confirming, not the actual agreement) I bought a house. Long story short, this was a house we bid on back in July. The bank was stupid and we walked. But once they reduced it, oh, about 30k, we jumped again and they agreed. We rule because we're moving in the middle of the winter! Awesome, huh? No, not really because kids, today it was minus 10 this morning. And Justin's car doors froze shut and then once they were open, the car didn't start. I wasn't ticked at the temp. I was just ticked about his car not starting up. He's taking care of it today. All will be normal again.

Good thing for Mother-in-Law's no-work-on-Monday's, drive-husband-downtown. I hitched a ride into Minneapolis with her and barely caught the St. Paul bus. At least I didn't have to stand outside waiting for it like I will tonight heading home.

Can anyone recommend very warm socks? Cause every pair I own put together isn't cutting it. Think, Everest quality socks. Where can I get those? And boots? I need warm boots. Suggestions? Or should I just go to Fleet Farm?

Who Saw This Coming?

(Whoa! Is my spine gonna look like that??)

Just like when Justin helped with Scully's Halloween costume, he helped with this project.

I had my genetic screening done last week. It's an ultrasound and blood work. I got to see the baby for a good 45 minutes. We must have woken baby up because he/she was in the correct position for the tests for about 5 minutes, then got the hiccups and rolled over about a thousand times (probably looking for a good, comfy spot to chill). The tech kept jiggling my stomach and I had to make sure she wasn't giving him/her shaken baby syndrome. She assured me she wasn't.

Once baby found the best position, he/she stayed there. So I got some good photos of thumb sucking, general spazzing out, and probably giving us the bird (lots of hand gestures, it's really hard to tell). It was awesome to see what life is like inside someone like me. I'm crazy in the head but apparently, that hasn't scared baby away.

Justin wants to find out who the baby is. I say no way, we'll find out soon enough. All of our friends are very much against this (except Elsa) but at this point, I'm just happy knowing there's a little one inside of me and the surprise it'll be in 6 months. (Oh crap! 6 months!!!)

Oh, for those interested, here are the deets:

Due Mid-June (I could give you the date, but honestly, it's a guesstimate, so who really knows, right?)
13 weeks right this moment.
No morning sickness (please don't hate me)
No weight gain...yet
Still wearing most of my clothes.
No unusual cravings/aversions except: no salad/dressing, no chicken, loving grilled cheese, baked potatoes and did you really think I'd give up bean burritos? Baby LOVES him/her some beans!
No uber exhaustion. I still go to bed at 9pm. Nothing new.

Honestly, up until recently, I thought I somehow cheated on the pregnancy test. But I've got the pictures to prove otherwise.

We've told a few people early on. Some of them were a little surprised we said anything so soon. I realize there's the change of miscarriage, but honestly, it was our choice to share. There are no rules about when to announce. Now, telling my boss, that might take a little more time. Maybe I'll wait until I'm seven months. Then it'll be so obvious I won't have to say anything.

I hope not to make this a baby blog, but updates and general information relating to baby will appear. So I need your help. I need a baby blog name. Something I can call baby until he/she appears and is officially named. Something like JJ (Justin/Jessi junior), or spazzoid, you know, terms of endearment.

Too Much for One Day

I was so busy yesterday, I didn't blog. Seriously busy from the moment I woke up til my head hit the pillow. That busy.

I had a Doctors appointment up "north" and since we were down one car and Justin had client meetings all morning, I had to take the bus. But first, I had to get some work done. TPT is awesome! If you ever get an opportunity to work here, do it. They let me work at home in the morning, no problems. Finished some shows, got on the bus and made my way up north.

Justin picked me up after my appointment and we headed down "south" to pick up Paveena for a shopping date. She doesn't have her license yet, so she has to rely on others to take her places. She should learn the bus route!

We left Justin at her house and we headed to Mall of America. FYI: walk just one lap around the place and it's one mile. Do it with lots of bags in your hand and count it as two. Just kidding. But seriously, that place is huge and it reminds me of the fact that I don't like to go there.

We were on the look-out for a nice cashmere scarf for her husband's birthday. After so many freaking stores (on the first level only) we finally found one at Bloomingdale's. The best part of this find was Paveena asking me, "Does this LOOK expensive?" Knowing her husband likes to find expensive looking goods but pay half the price, I knew exactly why she was asking. "It looks very nice." And it did. And he'd be a rotten husband if he told her he didn't like it.

We had dinner at D'Amico and Sons. It was ok. I think it tries a little too hard to be unique.

On our way home we stopped off at our Realtor's house to sign a document for a house we are considering (at this point, waiting again for the bank to consider our offer-should be another post, really). I missed "The Office" and my usual bedtime routine, but once I was home, I was out within 10 minutes.

It was just one of those days with too much to do, and not enough time. Is it just me, or is everyday starting to feel like that?

Christmas Tree 2008

We took a family trip up north (Justin laughs at me when I say that. We weren't that far north.) to pick out our Christmas tree over the weekend. It was cold (seven degrees) and we really should have been bundled up like the little ones. We won't make that mistake again.

Trying to warm my hands.


Bundled Baby


We picked out a tree, time to chop.


Justin gives it a go and finishes what we all started.


A very pregnant Heather.


The family on a hay ride. The snow really started getting thick.


Mother and Father-in-Law.


Jake and his drunk bundled baby.


Aren't we cute all cold and frozen? That's Justin's "it's colder than a witches tit" face.


No silly car in the driveway. Just a subie, all covered in snow.

Extra

Dudes, someone came to my blog looking for "Min Pin Leg Warmers". Seriously, that is cracking me up today!

Maybe there's a market for it? I do know how to sew and I do have a min pin. I wonder...

What Buyers Aren't Looking For

We are still looking for a house. It's very frustrating for numerous reasons but, what really ticks me off are the descriptions and photos online.

(in all caps of course)
"Adorable paint!"
Seriously? Paint is adorable? It's just a color. Sometimes the choice of color is NICE, but never adorable. Adults shouldn't try to sell something to another adult using the word "adorable".

"Subject to bank approval!"
Ok, why is there an exclamation point on something that can take 2 months? Wow! Really? I need the banks approval??!? No way!! I understand that since the bank now owns the house, that they are quick to respond. Not in ANY of my cases; I've been waiting for banks since June. You don't see any exclamation points here.

A 660 sq. foot house, 1 bedroom, 1 bath
(again with the caps)
"Great for a small family..." Do you mean little people or a single person with a dog or cat? What small family wants a 1 bedroom house, when at this price range, can get way more square footage with additional bedrooms? They should fire their listing agent.

With all these great descriptions, let's take a look at their quality photos.



Ok, if the place was clean, this shot wouldn't be too bad. A view into the kitchen and then the other hall. This looks like it could be the living room. But if you look closlier, I think it's someone's bedroom. Notice legs on the bed to the right and all the bags of clothes on the left. I don't need a bedroom attached to the kitchen. Thanks, but no thanks.



What the heck is this? I'm going to assume it's a room maybe for Hansel and Gretel. I could have used another angle of the kitchen or a shot from the kitchen to the living room or something else! What a waste.



Remember the 1 bedroom house? This must be where the rest of the "small" family can sleep because doesn't that look comfy? Why am I looking at the couch? Why am I not looking at the whole room maybe from the doorway? I know the decorations are eye catching (like the rest of the house), but I want to experience the whole room and all it's hideous glory!

And the winner of worst quality AND most pointless photo:


So please, listing agents, work on your descriptions and take a photo class. I want to buy a house. I need to buy a house. But you're making it difficult.
lemon

Gah!

Only one week in and I miss a day. But with good reason! Sunday's are my "do not do anything" day and that includes getting on the computer. Actually, I'm glad December is the month to do this challenge because there is ALWAYS something going on. Including things on my "do not do anything" day. (So I'm going to label this post as Sunday to keep up with everyone else. I know it's cheating, but I'm only cheating myself, right?)

But I don't want to talk about Sunday until I can unload the photos to show all the fun we had picking out our Christmas tree when it was seven degrees at 10 am, kids. Seven! I really don't want my blog to become a weather report for all of my non-Minnesota readers, but for a newbie like me, these temps are killing us. Justin actually said he'd like to move back to (wait for it...) Salt Lake! Not Las Vegas, but Salt Lake City! This cold must have knocked the sense out of him because he was itching to leave SLC the moment he got there.

Maybe we just need to be winterized and then we'll survive and live happily ever after.

Nowthen Minnesota

Yes, I'm actually on the computer on the weekend. It's hard for me to believe too. Anyway...

Tonight, we had dinner in a town called Nowthen. I'm not kidding. Nowthen was the name of this super small Minnesota town. I had the Nowthen Melt (turkey, ham, cream cheese with dijon mustard, pannini style) and it was good. There's not much in Nowthen. But I do recommend the Nowthen Melt.

Oh, it was also five degrees in Nowthen. Five degrees kids. But I've found that once you get lower than 20 degrees, you can't really tell the difference between 20 and five.

Justin's Aunt and Uncle live there. That's where we parked the Silly Car for the winter. We got it washed, dried, covered and stored until April or May of next year.

Have fun Silly Car in Nowthen. Try the melt!

Leg Warmers Anyone?

If you're like me, you buy gifts for your pet during the Holiday's. She's part of the family and loves to get anything new. I could whip out a toy she hasn't seen in a year and she's totally happy and thrilled to have it back in her life.

But if you're not sure what to get your furry friends for Christmas, here are a few inexpensive suggestions:

For your cat, here's a simple tutorial (from craftershock) to make cat-nip toys. Looks easy and super cute! What a great way to use up felt scraps.

Don't forget your dogs legs when it's 10 degrees out. These leg warmers can go from your tot, to your dog. I suggest a wash between uses, though.

You can't go wrong with homemade dog treats! Here's an easy recipe from sugarlaws. (Tons of other human recipes too!)

Not necessarily for the dog, but it could make your life a little easier on walks: the dog leash bag.

Or just give them the gift of love and life (by making sure they are fed and not eating tree tinsel. Do they still make that stuff? No? Good, then Merry Christmas furry ones!).

Pooder

It was bound to happen. But once you have something in your life for so long, it's hard to think of the time that might come when they aren't. Belle (of the Marshlands) joined our family my Freshman year of High School (more like, the end of my Freshman year of High School). She was the cutest Min Pin ever! We got her around 9 weeks old and she was tiny (palm of your hand tiny) and was terrified of us. But she eventually warmed up to my mom (of course) and then the rest of us.

We taught her tricks like how to talk; something Scully can't do. She escaped our back yard too many times. One time, she took her kids with her. They must have needed a family adventure, to a house down the street because that's how far a dog will get with 3 puppies following their mom. I'm sure it was a cute site. But it was even cuter when we got them all home and safe again.

Like all Min Pins, she loved blankets and anyone who had one. She also loved her bed as long as there was a blanket in it.

She died wrapped up in her bed, all cuddled up, her favorite way. She was 15 years old. Scully remembers her when she came to visit Las Vegas and wrote this to her:

Hey Belle,

It was a good visit while you were here. I think the last time I saw you I was still kinda annoying huh? I've grown up, but I'm not as old as you are. You're like a Grandma! But you are my Grandma because you were so sweet to me. You only growled at me a few times. And you even played with me for a minute, after I bugged you all day. Even though you didn't share the blanket, I still like you. So until we meet again, take care old lady!

Your annoying little friend,
Scully

Names

Seriously, Saxby Chambliss? It sounds like some French powder you only wear on special occasions. Or, better yet, a bottle of perfume or wine. I'm not saying he's special or anything, just a U.S Senator, but the name sounds like top billing at a Broadway show.

We're totally naming our first born Saxby Chambliss Foell. It could totally work for a boy or girl. Or better yet, a new puppy. I hope Justin agrees with me. (Like my subtle hint for a new min pin? Scully needs a friend her size.)

On Black Friday, I headed out at 5:30 with my in-laws to get a few items. We went to the usual places, Target, Circuit Shitty, Ulta, and Fleet Farm. Actually, it's Mills Fleet Farm and in Wisconsin, it's Mills Farm Fleet. These Midwesterners are nuts for their Fleet Farm or Farm Fleet or the farming place where you can get a composting toilet and a bag of cashews. It's hard to describe. It's a cross between Wal-Mart (booooo, but with way better lighting and it doesn't smell), Lowes, and PetsMart. The only reason why I say Wal-Mart, they have all the weird clothing you would think was a good idea at the time, but later on, not so much. You need Vikings gear? Fleet Farm is your place for the ugliest Vikings gear out there.

My in-laws went there for Cartwright gear. WTH? I don't know either. Apparently, this is the last year the Minnesota Gophers are playing at an indoor stadium (the Metrodome). They are getting their own and it's outdoors. So mil is hooking fil up with cold weather gear so he can freeze while watching his Alma Mater. Sounds like fun to me. Apparently, you can only get this gear at Fleet Farm. I'm sure the farmer's have other sources for Cartwright gear but I have no idea.

Surprisingly, I did pick up a few things (not clothing), mostly because they were really good deals. Some I can't say because they are gifts but I got Scully the softest dog sweater for $3! And since she looks so pretty in it, it was worth it.

But I still like to "Save big money with My Nards".

Call It What You Will, It's a Post

It's a Christmas miracle! I got my Burda magazine yesterday, December 1st. I normally get it at the end of the month. And there are some awesome items that are calling my name to be made.

Justin admits he's Passive Aggressive. I'm here to tell you, he is. And in honor of his personality trait (I know who from), I found this site that you might enjoy. I think it's hilarious because I think we all have some passive aggressiveness towards people.

Cause I'm a Sucker That's Why

My first 30-day challenge starts today. I'm dumb. But, I needed a way to keep up with blogging/journaling/telling no one about crap in my life because it's good therapy. (I really need an anonymous blog for the real stuff.)

I got all of my purse supplies out of storage and had good intentions of working on some new things over the Holiday weekend. But food, shopping, and napping got in the way. But, I'm still hopeful.

Time to get crafty because people!!! We have like three weeks til Christmas. Three!!! Then life will be boring again, but with snow on the ground.