The waiting game.... not exactly the greatest game of them all!

So for the past... ohhhh... 9 months or so, I have been raving about this wonderful day! Yes, June 14th was that day I had been raving about and anxiously awaiting for 9 months. I had envisioned myself, waking up that morning, gently placing my hand on my stomach, while looking at Michael and calmly saying, "It's time". Then we get dressed, get in the car and arrive at the hospital, where I have a nice and easy and quick labor, get to hold my healthy son for the first time, and everything would be right with the world..... well... that little fantasy didn't exactly come true.

2 days before I was due... I vacuumed the house and Michael and I went to the Victoria Gardens where we *thought* we'd be having our last restaurant meal at the Yardhouse and going to a movie. I indulged in popcorn and some Junior Mints, all the while thinking... "this will be the last time I can do this for a while". Saturday, the day before my due date, Michael and I spent the entire day doing NOTHING. And let me tell you, for us, that is an AMAZING feat. We are always on the go and always doing something, so to spend the day watching movies and eating grilled cheese sandwiches was a real treat. We figured that resting was the best thing for us, considering we knew labor was so close..... Yet... Sunday rolls around... and low and behold..... no contractions. No feelings of labor, NOTHING! Just the Lakers winning the Finals and Michael and I BBQing steaks for dinner! This was CRAZY!!! I had waited and waited for Noah's due date to come, and here it was... and he had yet to grace us with his presence. SO I figured he had to come in the next few days right???? WRONG!!!

It is now 4 days past my due date and still I sit, babyless, and feeling like I am going to be the only woman on the face of this planet that will eternally be pregnant. I fear that once I do finally give birth, my son is going to come out sporting a full-faced beard, smoking a cigar, and inquiring about stock investments, while sipping on some Jack Daniels and smacking the nurses asses.... Is this kid EVER going to get here?!? At our doctors appointment yesterday, the doctor told me that I am not even dilated a cm yet, but my cervix is at least thinning out. So she scheduled me for an induction on Sunday morning, Fathers Day, at 8AM. So basically, I have 3 days left to wait for him to come on his own, and if he doesn't then off to the hospital we go to be induced.... which I am really not looking forward to considering all the horror stories I've heard from EVERYBODY I've talked to that has ever been induced.

So I sit here and wait... and wait.... and wait... and wait and it's driving me insane! I mean it's reassuring knowing that in 3 days or so that all this will be over with and that I'll have my beautiful baby boy to hold, but it has been an everlasting eternity getting to that point. I am really hoping that Noah decides to come on his own, before we're induced on Sunday. In fact, I am headed out for a walk down to the country club and the lake in hopes I might walk him into labor.... I am going to make this baby come out if it's the last thing I do! LOL

Beginning to lose my mind already!

Well today marks just 3 days before my expected delivery date, and sadly, I don't feel like I am even close to having him at all! For a month my doctor has been telling me that his head is in position, right where he needs to be, and that he is ready to go, he just has to decide when that's going to be. So for a month I have been expecting, that any day, my little guy would be making his arrival, and alas, no little guy yet! Yesterday we had our doctors appointment and the doctor told me that I am not dilated yet, but my cervix is getting thinner, and that his head is in a perfect position, so that once labor starts, I won't have very much pushing to do before he comes out(which is a relief to me!)She even tried to get labor start for me, but she couldn't quite reach my membranes, so I was sent home to wait....... UGH!

For the past month I have been feeling lots of braxton hicks contractions and lots of pressure in my pelvic area, which are all good signs I am getting ready for labor, and now.... I am not feeling ANYTHING! I can't even believe it! After all this time, it doesn't feel like I am going to go into labor anytime soon and it's driving me nuts! My entire family has been on pins and needles and busting ass to get ahead in their work, so that once the baby is here, there are no distractions, and they call me everyday wanting to know how I am feeling and I give the the same answer.... "Great... DAMNIT!!!" LOL

The doctor told me that if I don't deliver by our next scheduled appointment next Wednesday(which is 3 days after my due date) that they are going to schedule me for an induction on Sunday, June 21st. There in lies where I am starting to stress. See, I have been doing alot of reading and research and 90% of the time when labor is not started naturally, is where the hardest labor and delivery begins, and where the baby is subjected to the most stress. The medicine they give you to induce (pitician, which I totally spelled wrong by the way) starts your contractions and starts them out very strong. Basically the minor and less intense contractions you feel when labor begins naturally at 1 cm or 2 cm, feel more strong and intense, like you are already at 8cm with the pitician. With the stronger contractions right off the bat, your more inclined to have an epidural for the pain, with an epidural you have a chance of your babies heart rate dropping, and when the babies heart rate drops, they then wheel you in for a C-Section. Personally, I am scared to death to be induced because everything that I have learned has shown me that once you start interfering with natural that that is when the most difficult experiences in labor and delivery begin. I have had such an amazing pregnancy to be honest with you, and I don't want to have a bad experience delivering or have to worry if my baby is ok or not... I am now officially starting to panic!

I don't want to be induced! I just want my kid to make up his mind on his own and come out when he's good and ready, not be forced to come out with medication. I may not be making too much sense right now, but all I want is for this little man of mine to come out soon and on his own. The past week has seemed like an eternity and I am sure the next 3 days will also drag on as well..... just keep me in your thoughts and pray like hell that my kid gets here soon, before I start to lose it a little bit more... LOL

The mice fight back! The war continues!

So yesterday I shared with you that Michael and I are engaging in a war on the mice that have apparently taken up residence in our house. I figured that since we loaded up on weapons of mass destruction, Sunday afternoon, that we wouldn't be seeing any signs of those beady eyed furry little rodents anywhere near our house again. Well... unfortunately they have taken matters into there own hands and they are determined to fight back... the little bastards.

Ever since Sunday's first mouse sighting, P-Kitty has been on alert. Although yesterday she spent the day catching up on her sleep, but as soon as she joined the land of the living somewhere around 5pm, she went straight back into Michael and I's bedroom and master bathroom to resume her watch kitty status, she knew something wasn't right and she was prepared to be the first one on the job. Michael had gotten home from work and excitedly checked all our mouse traps to see if we were able to nab any during the day, but came up empty handed... no caught mice, but he found, what looked like fresh droppings, in our pantry. I was kind of getting concerned considering we had a trap set up in the pantry and the mice were obviously too uninterested in our strategic peanut butter trap. It became aware to me that these guys are good, real professionals, they know when to spot a trap. The fresh droppings were just their way of saying, "we know about your little traps and we're ready to fight back so f*ck you and your peanut butter traps." We're not dealing with the average mice here, let me tell you, these are the super smart one's and I was just waiting for the next time one would venture it's way into my pathway again.

Michael and I had just gotten done watching the news in bed, and we shut off the TV and were getting comfortable to fall asleep. Mind you our killer attack kitty was still on duty sniffing around our bedroom and bathroom. The TV had been off for no more than a minute, before we heard our cat spring into action and start running about in the bedroom. We turned on the light and sure enough, she had chased another mouse underneath our entertainment center again. I resumed my usual position standing on the bed and ready to spring if the little shit decided to leap to his get away up on our bed, while Michael went to go find his plastic cups again to catch him. He closed off our bedroom again and moved the entertainment center and P-Kitty dove into action, chasing this fast little rodent all over our bedroom. Under the bed, back under the entertainment center again..... this guy was faster than the last one, but P-Kitty was on her guard. Granted, she has no front claws, so her batting at him was relativity useless, but she was able to pin him to certain areas, in an attempt for Michael to try to catch him. Unfortunately the little shit was a little to fast for my husband and his plastic red cups, as it dove itself under our bathroom door for a getaway into the bathroom.

Now, there was no way on Earth, I was going to be able to sleep with that sucker still on the loose, so Michael and his trusty hunting cat, barricaded themselves and our furry intruder into the bathroom. They were determined to catch this little bastard if it was the last thing they did. Now at this point, I am telling them to put a towel underneath the door, so that damn mouse doesn't run back under the door into the bedroom again. Now, what took place at this point on is completely beyond me, as both Michael and P-Kitty and the mouse took a stand-off in my bathroom, while I still took up residence standing on our bed. All I can tell you is I heard nothing but silence from the bathroom for a good 15 minutes.... then I heard a loud crash, which was the sound of Michael's flashlight crashing to the ground and the sound of shit flying everywhere..... then more silence.... Hmmmmm.... Either the mouse finally lost his battle or my husband and my cat lost their battle.... but... it wasn't over yet. After chasing the mouse into my bathroom cabinet, Michael was able to beat to mouse to death with our plunger. Yes, another dead mouse, this one losing it's life to our plunger.

At this point I am really concerned as to how these mice are making their way from our attic into our house. Michael and I have searched this house high and low, in every corner possible, and could not find an entrance. However, our question was answered for us, as Michael was doing his homicide clean up, and drawing the chalk marks on our tile, where the corpse of mouse terrorist number two had previously laid. When Michael and P-Kitty found him hiding in the bathroom, he was in a cabinet, which, was closed. There is apparently a hole under the cabinet, that leads up into the cabinet, as well as there is a hole from the cabinet, that leads underneath our bathtub. Our new theory is that they are climbing down the walls, from the attic, and crawling under the bathtub, and up into our bathroom through this tiny separation between the wood cabinets and the tile. Or.... at least... we're HOPING that's what is really going on. So Michael went and grabbed the electric chair.... the black box that shocks the mice when they enter it, and placed it next to the hole under the sink, as well as he placed a tray of poison under there, hoping we could get them at their point of entrance. This really meant war then!!

So Michael and I both spent the entire night, pretty much tossing and turning at the fact that we were being attacked in our own home by little field mice and P-Kitty spent the night on patrol between our bathroom and bedroom. At one point she decided to go into stealth mode, and laid with her entire body underneath the bed, with just her little head sticking out from under the bed-skirt, so she could be ready for attack again. Our little attack kitty wasn't going to sleep a wink until she knew all was clear. This morning, when we got up, we were disappointed to find that we still hadn't caught any of the bastards yet. Very very crafty little shits.... they are taunting us. They are sitting up there in our attic, blueprints spread out on their little mouse table, with the head mouse wearing his little reading classes, while the rest of their terrorist army of mice sit waiting for the details of their next suicide mission. This isn't your average society of mice I tell you, they have accepted our challenge and they are ready for war.

P-Kitty has finally crashed out from her night of mouse watch, as she as passed out on our bed with her head buried underneath one of my decorative pillows. The mice know my strongest allies are missing, as Michael is at the office and P-Kitty couldn't be woken up if the entire house came crashing down around her. They know I am the weak link, as now I hear their scratching coming from the attic again as well as I am hearing movements from my cabinets, and scary enough, it seems to follow me into every room I am in. Somewhere, in a dark corner of the room, there is a little watch mouse, with his binoculars on me, relating back my every move to the rest of the demon army via a walkie talkie. They are just waiting for the right time to strike again and probably when I am at my most vulnerable state. The war isn't over yet guys! We've only just begun. You furry little f*ckers are going down!

This means war! The joys of country living

I am not a "city girl" by any means. I was raised in Reche Canyon, of all places, so I became quite accustomed to the coyotes, snakes, lizards, and the other wild life that ran around up there. Not that I like any of them praticulary, but you just get used to knowing that you have to cross paths with them from time to time. I had been living in the city environment for the past 3 years, so I didn't really have to deal with them too much. When Michael and I bought our home up here in Llano, although it's in a neighborhood with paved streets and such, our backyard buts up to the base of the mountain. Michael had asked me if I had a problem with that, and of course I didn't. Where we live reminds me so much of where I grew up in Reche Canyon so I guess that is why I instantly felt so comfortable here once we moved in. Since we moved in, just over a month ago, we really haven't had any wild life problems, per-say, and in fact, we've only heard coyotes 2 nights, and just saw one run across the street one time, so I didn't think we'd have too much of a problem. Of course, there is BEAUTIFUL wild life up here that have taken up residence in my front yard, that Michael and I just love to watch from our front windows every morning. We have a family of quail, which just hatched their babies, and it's so cute to see them running around our front yard. We also have a family of squirrels that live in the side yard, that also just had babies, that love to run around. We also have our fair share of frogs too that hop up to the screen doors and around the yard. It's really neat and peaceful and it makes me sigh peacefully at the beauty of it all. I really do live in a beautiful house and to be able to witness such beauties of nature on a daily basis, really is a blessing. However, this past weekend, we had some wild life.... "issues" I should say, that made for a little comic relief as well as two burial ceremonies taking place in our backyard.

Saturday morning, Michael went out to mow our law for the first time. When we first bought the house, since it had been vacant, all our grass was dead, however we were lucky that the previous owners had an AMAZING watering system on the house, since we have so many trees and plants adorning the house as well, it only took a months time frame for our grass to grow in green and lush and for all of my trees to start blossoming. So since our grass was nice and healthy and starting to over grow our front yard now, it was time to cut it. So my hubby heads out to do his husbandly duties of lawn maintenance and does a very fine job of it as well, until he starts racking the yard. Unfortunately, one of the frogs that likes to hop around our front yard, apparently didn't hear the roar of our lawn mower, and didn't escape in time, and my husband, who I know call the "frog murder" ran right over him and decapitated poor Kermit! Poor little guy! So I made Michael give him a proper burial in our backyard and say a little prayer for the poor unsuspecting frog who lost his life to our lawn mower! RIP dear ol' kermie!

Sunday morning, we managed to have another wild life adventure. See last week, while cleaning the floors, I had noticed in the corners, what looked to be like little mouse droppings. Michael and I went on a quest to every room in the house to see where there might be a place for mice to get in, or if there was any chewings on any of the food in our pantry. We cleaned up the droppings and just figured maybe they were old droppings, since we couldn't find anything that would lead us to where a mouse would get in, and since none of our food had been tampered with, and typically that's the first thing you notice with a mouse. So we decided that we would just keep an eye out... besides, we have an indoor cat, granted she may be spoiled and has never actually hunted a day in her life... but it's still in a cat's nature to go after rodents right?!? Well later in the week I was sitting in the office on the computer, when I heard scratching coming from the attic. Yep, sure shit, we had mice up there. But that's ok, as long as they are in the attic and not running around my house that's ok. So Michael and I decided that we'd head to the store, during the weekend to pick up some Decon to put in the attic... again, there was no more signs of mice droppings in the corners and no signs of breakages in our food, we were sure they were just confined to the attic... again... we've got ourselves a tough cat, she'd be SURE to smell out a mouse.... right?!?! Now I know that mice are little and they wouldn't hurt you, but good God almighty, those little suckers creep me the hell out! The thought of having any loose in my house sends shivers down my spine! So all I could hope for was that they were just in our attic.

So Sunday morning, Michael and I get up, and he told me that while he was using our master bathroom the night before, he had heard the scratching coming from the attic above our bathroom and that later that day, we;d head out to pick up some Decon to poison them. So we had a nice breakfast and enjoyed the morning and then I headed in to make the bed so I could start getting ready for the day. I walked into our bedroom and P-Kitty was sitting in our bathroom, kinda just staring out into space, which was really unlike her. She has her usual sitting and laying spots and the bathroom certainly was not one of them. She even ran into our closet in the bathroom and was sniffing around. That had her attention for about a few minutes, then she turned around and left the room like everything was kosher. I had just figured she probably heard the scratching in the attic, which had prompted her to come in and investigate. So I went about my business making the bed. Now... every woman probably does just the same as me. You have your 1,000 decorative pillows that you don't *actually* sleep on, that decorate your bed during the day, but you take off the bed at night. I have just that. So I keep those pillows stacked in the corner of the bedroom. I was grabbing one of my million pillows off the ground to put on the bed, when underneath it, there was a little surprise waiting for me. Now, it took me a good second and a half to realize that it was in fact a REAL mouse, because P-Kitty has a ton of those little cat nip one's, and I had thought maybe Michael had placed one there in an effort to scare me, since I was a little on edge about the "mice issue", noooooo... this mouse wasn't red or green or blue with cloth eyes, this was, in fact, a real little furry brown mouse with beady little eyes looking up at me. He blinked at me!!!!! I jumped up so fast and took off running through the house, screaming like a banshee. I don't think my feet even touched the ground the entire way, as I made my way to the front door, where I stood there, stomping my feet up and down, STILL screaming, as my husband looks at me in horror like I had just witnessed a murder or something. My poor cat even stood there staring at me in horror, with her ears pinned back.

I yell at Michael that I found a mouse in our bedroom and he needed to go get it. Apparently my blood curdling scream had rendered the poor mouse deaf and motionless, because he was still in the same spot he was when I beat feet out of that bedroom at Mach 30. Of course, like the insane person I am, I tell Michael, "Don't kill him, just catch him and put him outside"..... right... I know..... So Michael grabs two plastic cups, and shuts the bedroom door and attempts to catch my furry little friend. The mouse runs under our entertainment center, so Michael calls me in for reinforcements. Now, there is no way my feet are going to be anywhere on the ground in that bedroom till that mouse is out of there, but Michael needs to move the entertainment center to catch him, so I need to watch to let Michael know where the mouse runs to. So I hop up on the bed and prepare myself for the little demon to make his way out from under our entertainment center. Michael moves the entertainment center and the crafty little shit moves with it! So Michael has an idea, we have a friggin cat, she'll definitely chase that mouse out from there right? So Michael brings P-Kitty into our room and we anticipate that her keen cat sense will send her running to the entertainment center, chase out the mouse, and our work will be done. That damn cat, nonchalantly walks up to the entertainment center, right near where the mouse is sitting, sniffs around, and then walks aways and lays down on the floor, giving us this look like, "was there something you needed, because you really interrupted me from something very important". Great! We have a cat that could care less about chasing mice! What are the odds??? So Michael moves the entertainment center again, and this time the mouse goes to run. Well... now P-Kitty sees him run, so she darts off after him, apparently she was thinking that mouse was one of her cat nip toys until the sucker actually moved. She really didn't know what to do, as she has never chased a mouse in her entire life. She kind of batted at him, as she ran after him, but clearly she was confused as to what her role was in this war. She managed to chase him into one of our floor fans, where he just sat there, taunting her and Michael. So I told Michael that was perfect, we could just carry the fan outside ( or HE rather could just carry the fan outside, because I wasn't getting close to that sucker if my life depended on it) and then he could run away to the field and live happily ever after. So Michael takes the fan outside and the little shit STILL doesn't come out. Since the mouse was sitting at the bottom of the fan, the fan blades weren't anywhere near him, so Michael gets the bright idea that he'll turn the fan on, on low, so that the wind scares the mouse into running away.... well... it was starting to work... that was of course until the fan tipped over and Michael heard a **thunk** noise and announced that "we had a little bit of an accident"..... yes... the furry little mouse had fallen victim to the blades of our fan. So Michael had to open the fan, and remove the dead mouse, and bury him in the backyard, next to the frog he buried the day before. Needless to say, we didn't have a very good weekend when it came to animals. Thank God P-Kitty made it through the weekend alive! So after our little mouse adventure, Michael and I headed off to Lowes and $100.00 later we were loaded down with the strongest in mouse artillery. It looked like we were headed to battle! We got some box that shocks them and stores there little corpses in there, as well as the little white traps that they walk into to eat the peanut butter, and then it closes and keeps there corpses in there as well, and we got loads and loads of poison to put in our attic. We were ready to fight these little suckers with everything they got. We want them little bastards to tell all their little mice friends that we Medlin's mean business and to take up residence in somebody else's house! So we'll see what happens, hopefully those traps and all that poison will do some good. I am not really sure I can handle another mouse sighting.

So this weekend was a nice reminder about what it's like to live in the country. P-Kitty is now, in attack mode, in fact, she sat in our bathroom the entire night, guarding to make sure no other mice were going to make it in. This morning though, she kind of lost her luster on the mouse hunt, as she now lays on her pillow in the spare bedroom taking a nap. All I can say is I hope one of those mice just come running across the floor today while Michael is at work, I may end up going into labor, or worse, I'll have to run across the street and talk my neighbor into coming and catching it. If anybody sees me driving around the Inland Empire today, it's because I have discovered another mouse and that there was no way in HELL I was going to stay in this house with that sucker loose, until my husband got home to catch it!!! Little bastards! This means war!!! On a side note, I do have my gun, maybe I can just shoot at them??? What do you think??? LOL