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

Just another week.... and that much closer to "D" Day!

Well another week has passed and of course it has been interesting as usual. I am now officially 35 weeks pregnant, 22lbs heavier than I was before I was with child, with boobs that make me wonder why I ever needed a boob job in the first place and a ton more emotional and irritable than I ever thought I'd imagine I would ever be. Last week Michael and I finished our very last childbirth education class. To be honest with you, I got a lot more out of it than I thought I ever would. Of course, like the overachieving scholar I have always been my entire life, I managed to charm the heart of my childbirth instructor and prompt hatred looks from the rest of my classmates. Of course, it could have been that I was the only one in the class that actually had a baby daddy as my coach, but I am thinking they were just jealous at my ability to "hee hee hoo" better then *they* could and that I could recite the birthing acronyms without even looking... yes... I am that damn good! LOL! Actually, in all seriousness, I really enjoy learning something new, whether it's child-birthing or anything else for that matter, I have always excelled in a classroom environment. I'm not shy by any means, and I am certainly not afraid to speak up in class when the instructor is trying to engage in a group discussion and I definitely am not afraid to speak up if I have the right answer to a question. That of course makes me the perfect student in the teacher's eyes and the kiss ass in the other students eyes. There was one girl in particular who didn't like me at all. She didn't speak to me, (of course I am sure she spoke *about* me in spanish to her mother who she had to translate the majority of the class to... but whatever) but I could see her horns come out whenever I walked in the room. She even made it a point, when I answered a question correctly, to make a snide remark like, "Oh looks like *somebody* has been memorizing the material". Whatever bitch.... don't be a hater! LOL... Ahhhh reminds me of high school! Anyways, after the end of class the teacher asked me to come on board as a patient advisory member for the hospital, which I thought was pretty cool, and I am actually really considering it.

Last week as we were leaving class though, I really had an overwhelming feeling that "D" Day (AKA Delivery Day) is a lot closer than I thought. Hell, I haven't even packed my bag yet! Granted I have made a beautiful list of what I'm going to pack, once I start packing, however, if I go into labor tomorrow, I may just be heading to the hospital without my Bob Marley CD's and Cucumber Melon Body Lotion and favorite body pillow to ease my labor stresses. I guess instead of writing about it on Blogger, I could be packing it, but of course that would be to easy right? Everything has been going well with my pregnancy, and I've even started to get a few contractions here and there. In fact, Michael and I decided yesterday evening to take a walk to the little fishing lake down the street from our house and on the way back realized that lots of walking can trigger going into labor. I had a few strong contractions, but nothing serious and they started to subside. I followed the rule (the one I learned in class thank you very much!) that if your under 38 weeks if you get more than 4 or 5 contractions in a one hour time period to go to the hospital, well I only had about 3 in a one hour time period and then a couple more a few hours later and then they stopped altogether, so I was good. I have this sinking suspicion, and I've said it from day one, that I think he may come earlier than his due date, so we'll see if that happens or not. All I care about is making to my baby shower this weekend without going into labor, after that, I'll be ok if he comes anytime after that. We have another Doctor's appointment tomorrow, so we'll see what the doc has to say. Michael says she looks like the witch from the Wizard of Oz, so every time we go he graces me with the musical theme from the Wizard of Oz and says, "I'll get you my pretty and your little dog too...." Although hilarious, it makes it really hard to look her in the eyes without laughing when she comes in the room.

Well, I better get back to masking my baseboards in Noah's nursery. We decided to tackle the painting project this weekend and.... well... it didn't come out as we had planned. All we managed to do was primer the walls, and somehow, in the process all the masking tape I had on my baseboards had peeled it's way off, so now I have to re mask all the baseboards, so Michael can come home tonight and paint at least one of the walls. I am not really sure how it's going to look, but Michael assured me if it came out really shitty, he would bribe his cousin Eddie, who is a painter in Huntington Beach, with a few cases of beer to come up and redo the room. So I'm hoping for the best! I swear, men just can't seem to understand the importance of a good nursery. Michael keeps saying that Noah isn't going to have a clue what his nursery looks like when he comes home and that he'll be spending most of his time in our room, which of course he is correct, but still..... I just won't feel complete and ready for Noah's arrival until I know my Lake Marsh Green and Bay Bronze Beige painted walls look perfect equipped with little safari animals adorning the room. It's just a female thing I tell you! Men just don't get it!

Welcome to the neighborhood!

Well I can let out a huge sigh of relief as Michael and I are FINALLY *mostly* settled in our new home. Now, when I say "mostly" it means that there are a few loose ends that need to be settled before we can "officially" be settled in... one of those being, Noah's nursery! But, we can't really get the nursery together until we get our baby furniture, and I won't be getting that until my baby shower in a week and a half, so for now, Noah's room sits untouched until then. To be honest with you it's driving me crazy though! I keep walking in there every day and get one more genius idea about what I want to do, but lack the ability. Last night I told Michael that I was going to go to Lowes this week and buy some primer for the walls and pick out the paint and buy all the painting stuff so I can have that done before the shower... however, my overprotective husband informed me that I was to not take that project on by myself... damn! For the record, how pissed do you think he'd be with me if he came home from work one night this week to find I had painted the nursery by myself??? Hmmmm.... I am really debating on doing it, just for shits and giggles to test him to see if he really would be pissed off at me, and earlier this morning I actually had my car keys in hand and was ready to head off to Lowes.... however, I decided to not test the wrath of my husband who is obviously looking out for the best interest of his wife who is a few days short of being 35 weeks pregnant. So for now, Noah's nursery painting project is on hold(at least until I can scam somebody into coming up and helping me then he would have no excuse to be mad at me.... LOL)

Moving was so hectic! When I moved from my parents house to San Clemente, it was hectic, but really not that bad, I was moved in and enjoying a cocktail on my patio looking at the ocean in two days. When I moved from San Clemente to Loma Linda, that was a breeze! Again, I was moved in and was enjoying a cocktail on my patio in 2 days. Moving from Loma Linda to Llano..... not so much of a breeze, especially when your 8 months pregnant! Our house closed escrow on the 24th of April, however, we did not know our house was going to close escrow on the 24th until the 23rd at 5pm! Aside from the fact that Michael was in Sacramento and not scheduled to be home until the 25th around 1pm, but I was not even close to being packed! A few weeks previous I had boxed up our DVDs and a few misc. things in our office, but that was it, my entire house needed to be boxed up and ready to move that weekend! So of course, like the mad woman I am, I went into crazy mode and hauled ass home that night to start my packing process. I spent the evening packing and the entire next day and night packing and the entire morning, before Michael came home packing. Of course all the while cursing my husband for not being home and wondering why he hadn't hired a UHaul truck for when he got back so we could move all in one shot. I was on the verge of going nuts! I thought for sure that when Michael got home that Saturday afternoon, he'd find me rocking myself back and forth in the fetal position, foaming at the mouth and cradling the new Glock 45 handgun he bought me while singing "It's a Small World Afterall" in the middle of a boxed covered living room floor. I am not kidding you! In fact, I am greatly surprised that everybody came out of this moving situation alive because the insane pregnant lady was *this* close to snapping!

So Michael gets home Saturday afternoon and totally redeems himself by picking up a moving truck... THANK GOD!! Then my parents and brother and Alex came over and we loaded everything from our townhouse into the truck and headed to our new house. We got everything unloaded into the house by 7pm. However, we find that our main water service to the house was broken and we didn't have any water. Lucky enough my dad's a plumber! So he gave it a quick fix, just for the night so Michael and I could shower, and then he was going to come up the next day to make a permanent fix for us. So I take a nice hot shower, throw up my dinner because I am so overwhelmed with the stress of the past few days, and then pass out. The next morning Michael headed out to go get everything from his storage unit. I figured what a perfect time to sleep in and rest before my mom and dad got back up here so we could start unboxing.... well... that was a nice idea until the loud chimes of my doorbell wake me up.......

Standing at my front door is the President of the water board, the post-man(who was off-duty of course and looking like he was ready to go play a round of golf) and a man from the water department. Apparently our "quick fix" on our water meter so we could shower the night before, didn't exactly hold and we had a lake running down our street. So I had to explain to these men, that Yes, I was the owner of this home, no, I was NOT a squatter and that I didn't fragrantly turn the water on, and Yes a plumber would be up in a few hours to make the permanent repair. Now the community we live in, called Crystalaire, is comprised mostly of people in their early to mid 40's up to their 80's, as this is a golf course community, so the people that live here are mostly well-established or retired. Everybody knows everybody here. So here these men are, looking at me standing at my front door with my PJ's on, pregnant and in my mid-20's wondering what in the hell I was doing living here. So of course the bared of questioning came as to why I decided to move here, if I had family here and where I came from before. I could see the look of concern on their faces when I said I came from the good ol' 909 and I could see the envisionments in their eyes that the white trash has moved to the neighborhood and Iam sure they are waiting for the first car to go up on jackstands in our front yard and for all the fat bald beer drinking, wife beater wearing friends of my husbands to come up and reek havoc on their beautiful golf course...... There goes the neighborhood the I.E. has moved in!!!

After my nosey neighbors left, I figured I'd just as well get started unpacking. Shortly after my mom showed up and started putting my kitchen away while my dad fixed our broken water main. I was hoping that I could get everything unboxed, but once Michael got back from his storage unit, it became very clear to me that that was not going to happen. This man has EVERYTHING and when I saw everything, I mean it. He has at least 5 different dressers, and coffee tables and end-tables, not to mention the million and one boxes of unknown treasures! We were able to get the kitchen and the bathrooms put together and arrange some furniture in the family room and formal living room, and that was it. The house was still covered in boxes and the end of packing was nowhere near in site. I seriously thought it'd take us a month to get some sort of normalcy going. Although Michael was going to take the next couple days off, we had so much to do, that we couldn't spend that time unpacking. We had to finish cleaning his drumset out of the garage at the old house, clean the old house, do the final walk thru, attend a doctor's appointment and childbirth classes as well as find the time to buy a new fridge and tv for our living room and pick up our washer and dryer. But thankfully my wonderful miricle worker grandma came up here and spent two days with me and we got the entire house put together! Pictures on the walls, nick-nacks on tables... everything to make a house a home. We left Michael's boxes in the garage and we'll go through those one at a time to decide what we're going to keep and what we're going to give away. We also left Michael's office alone so that he could put that together the way he wanted to. But for the most part our house is now a home, with the exception of a few minor details. So I can now rest a little easier at the thought of that.

Meanwhile, the real estate agent had still not taken down our "For Sale" sign which prompted us to get a visit from the "local law enforcement"..... Officer "Nosey- Triple A with a Gun and a Badge" (AKA California Highway Patrol) pulls up in front of our house one morning and saunters his way up to the front of the house. Now, I am not really sure what the hell he was doing off his ticket patrol on Highway 138, but apparently according to Mr. Chip On His Shoulder, he patrols our area "alot". It was very apparent that this guy really thought he was the Sheriff of Mayberry and was ready to right the wrongs on this little Country Club Community. I am sure if I ever had a stolen golf cart or my senior citizen neighbors got a little too wild at there weekly bridge game that this would be the man I would call to serve and protect me. So he starts giving us the line of questioning, asking if we were the owners and if we owned the house, how come the For Sale sign was still up in the front yard. He also scanned to see Michael's big truck and our 5th wheel trailer, all which are registered to one of Michael's businesses in Nevada for obviously cheaper reasons, and asks if we were moving in from Nevada...... freakin nosy jackass. He claimed that he drove up to our house last week and saw a sliding glass door from our patio to the side of the house open, with some wires hanging down and now he drives up here again and sees our truck in the driveway. So we explained to Officer Bad-ass that in the process of buying a home, that all sorts of inspectors are up here to make sure everything is good with the house and sometimes they don't take enough care to close doors and windows, and that the wires that were hanging down belonged to the Direct TV Satellite Dish that had been disconnected on the roof. We also assured him that we were the legal owners of this home and that since we only closed escrow a few days ago, the real estate agency hadn't gotten around to taking our sign down yet. After he left Michael and I started thinking that this guy was probably not on patrol up here, but probably more interested in buying the house or he may have been the other person interested in making an offer, so he probably drove by frequently to see what was going on. Funny thing is, it's been a week since the "concerned officer" paid us a visit, and I haven't seen him drive by here once. For somebody who patrols the area "alot" I sure haven't seen the likes of him around here! So needless to say I got on the phone with the real estate agent and told them to get that sign down ASAP before the SWAT team invaded us. I swear... something about moving to a small community..... I think everybody has walked their dog and driven their golf cart up past our house at least 50 times in an effort to see who the new neighbors are.... I was thinking of doing something really hillbilly and crass like hang a big confederate flag out in the front yard and blow up one of those inflatable pools and sit in it and wave at everybody when they go by.... but I haven't quite executed that plan yet. Maybe once I get everything moved in then I'll move on to tormenting my neighbors..... Hell yeah... the 909 has moved to the Country Club! Shhhhhiiiiitttttt howdy!

Getting ready for life to change.

So I am officially 8 months pregnant! Wow.... I can't even believe have fast the time has gone by. I guess maybe because Michael and I always have so much going on or because I've had a very easy pregnancy, but it seems like the past 32 weeks have just flown by. Which I suppose is a good thing because I've heard from so many other women that their pregnancy just drug on, but in the same token, it feels like it's going too fast and I am starting to panic that I am not prepared!

Our childbirth education class started last Monday and let me tell you, I definitely started to feel that overwhelmed feeling shortly after. Believe it or not, Michael and I were the oldest couple in there, (yes... I was the oldest mom there) and out of all 6 couples, Michael and I were only 1 of 3 couples where the father was present, the others had mom's, sisters or friends as the coaches. It was a three hour class and it actually was very informative and very eye-opening. All I could think about was, "should I be taking notes like in college?" I seriously felt like that, because I am so deathly afraid of forgetting something important and choking on delivery day. It's kind of sobering to think that in 8 weeks or even less, I'm going to be going through childbirth.... holy shit..... I don't know if I am ready for this yet.... ::gulp::

Michael and I's house is *supposed* to close escrow this Friday, but we're still waiting from some final minor things from the escrow company, but we're stilling keeping our fingers crossed for this Friday. You'd think I'd be packing already, but since we don't have an answer on if it'll be this Friday or not, rather then sit amongst boxes I am waiting to get the final say so. Of course our house closing escrow comes at the most stressful time, it never fails right? With Michael scheduled to have business trips these next two weeks and it being is birthday next Thursday, everything is up in the air until we get a final answer on when our house closes escrow. Personally, I think it won't close till next week, but I am really hoping it closes this Friday instead, at least giving us a week to vacate our current home, as opposed to rushing to vacate it in one day... so we'll see!

Ahhhh! All I want to do is get moved in and get the babies nursery complete, maybe then I'll feel a little more at ease and this whole unprepared feeling will finally go away..... I keep saying though.... watch him come early. See I have this feeling, and hopefully I'm wrong, but I keep thinking Noah is going to grace us with his presence earlier than expected. David's girlfriend Alex is betting that he's going to come around the last week of May.... so we'll see. When we had our 4D ultrasound they told me that my belly is pretty small and he looks awfully cramped in there, so that within itself got me a little freaked out that he'll force his way out of there sooner, or that my Doctor will tell me I need a C-Section, so we'll see as the next few weeks progress. But for now, I am just trying to focus on the day to day in an effort to NOT stress myself out! So tonight... back to childbirth education where we will be going over the ENTIRE birthing process..... YIKES!