Frickin' Fabulous Friday

I was on my 2nd rinse cycle of cloth diapers when I stuck my head in the laundry room just now. There's an inch of water on the floor. Heaven help us that it was just a fluke and I don't need to either repair/replace my washing machine. That appliance is used WAY TOO MUCH to be out of commission.

What a wonderful start to the day.

Teeth Times Two

I knew that it was only a matter of time before tooth number two poked through. This is what we woke up to find Sunday morning...

Kudos to C for such great picture taking!

Big Bad Dog

Our two dogs couldn't have more different personalities.

Dakota is lethargic; Logan annoys the hell out of you until you play.
Dakota spends the day laying on our bed; Logan is within 3 feet of me.
Dakota is tall and lanky; Logan is short and "solid".
Dakota ignores KT; Logan loves to give her kisses.
Dakota puts up with KT pulling fur; Logan moves when KT reaches.
Dakota is quiet; Logan is loud.
Dakota runs when not leashed; Logan stays within shouting distance.
Dakota ignores commands; Logan returns when called.
Dakota is a wuss; Logan has been nicknamed "B.A." for Bad Ass.

Dakota's wussiness was in full force this morning. C sprayed ant killer in the backyard last night in an attempt to overthrow the ant colonies that were threatening to take over. The grass was still wet this morning so the dogs needed to be walked out on the front lawn. Walking both of them, on leashes, at the same time is not an option. Logan went out first with C and did his "business". C then switched them out and took Dakota for a stroll. As they exited the garage door, C saw a bohemuth of a Doberman running loose in our cul-de-sac. C grabbed the push broom from the garage to use as a weapon. (You can start laughing here. Heaven knows when the story was retold to me, I already was.) The Dobie kept coming increasingly closer to C and Dakota on his laps around the cul-de-sac. Each time he did, C yelled at him and waved the broom. (Laughing even harder now.) Dakota ever so stoically stood BEHIND C's legs and peaked out around them to watch the Dobie. Logan would have been charging at this dog, barking his fool head off. Dakota just cowered behind C and let C fend off this monster dog. C turned around to make mention about how great of a guard dog Dakota was. When he did, he realized that Dakota had raised his leg and peed on the SIDE OF THE HOUSE!! (Laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes at this point.)

Big Bad Dog hides behind C for protection, but makes damn sure he marks his territory. I'm sure if any of the neighbors were watching out their front window(s) they just about put their morning coffee (or juice for our Mormon neighbors) through their nose. What a pair, those two.

Calgon, Take Me Away

These are the days that I wish I had family closer...the days where I wish that I had a daycare where I could drop KT off at for the afternoon...the days where I'd like to just shut the door behind me and take a break from being a mom, a wife, a pet-owner and an employee.

Work has not let up at all since my "AHHHHHHH!!" post the other day. I still can't get phone calls or emails responded to. I've been leaving voicemail after voicemail for people (The Boss Who Jumped Ship being one of the main targets) to no avail. But when he goes to Oregon next week and details are ambiguous, it will be me who gets the phone calls to deal with them under frantic circumstances.

KT's 2nd tooth is about to break through the surface as well. The first finally grew into a nice white bump that is visible from a few feet away. That 2nd is lurking beneath the surface, grinding through the gums as it pushes its way towards the chasm that is KT's mouth. The combination of the two teeth has made KT even more difficult. She throws tantrums, screams for no reason and doesn't want to sleep. The only place she's content is on my lap. Which equates to her slapping the keyboard, sending emails when they're half composed, pulling on the power cord to the laptop and throwing the mouse on the floor. Add that to the work frustrations in general and my patience is stretched VERY thin.

Post morning-meltdown found me setting KT in her highchair with a couple of wooden spoons so that I could move some laundry around. I could hear the distinct puttering and grunting that now accompanies the filling of diapers (thanks to the addition of solid foods to her diet). I rushed through the laundry and grabbed her out of the highchair, not paying any attention until I felt something warm and squishy on my hands.

Yup.

Her diaper blew out the leg. There was baby poo all over her leg, the ruffle skirt she had on, the highchair, my hand/arm, my t-shirt and my yoga pants. Gotta love that. So I stripped us both down; threw the dirty clothes in a heap on the bathroom floor; threw the dirty cloth diaper in the toilet to let it soak itself clean(er) for a few minutes; plopped KT in the bathtub and drew some bathwater. All along I'm trying to keep two nosey dogs out of everything poopy.

At this point, I'm frazzled, frustrated and verging on being pissed off. I get KT cleaned up and out of the tub. We're battling to get a clean diaper on her (she's learned she can roll over while on the changing table) when the phone rings, first my cell, then the landline. A glimmer of hope fills my mind that it could be The Boss Who Jumped Ship so I grab the phone next to our bed, struggling to keep KT's fingers from entangling in the phone cord.

It's C.

I should have said, "sorry, can't talk. Call me back in 15 minutes". But I didn't. Dumb, dumb, move on my part.

Last weekend (Thursday through Sunday), C took the boat and went fishing down on the Green River with one of our friends from Utah. It's was a quasi-Father's Day present. A weekend away from the stress of life; a time to relax and catch up with this friend. Because of his weekend away last weekend, I vetoed his Boss' request that C take the boat out tomorrow morning to fish. It's a handful for me to wrangle KT and the dogs by myself. I do it all day long during the week. The weekends, I feel, should be a break for me as well.

C proceeds to tell me that since he "can't" take Boss fishing tomorrow, that Boss has decided they'll go this afternoon. Skip out of work to go fishing. C, Boss and one other co-worker. Must be nice to just be able to up and walk away from work to go play for the afternoon.

When he said that, he casually said that he wouldn't be home any later than if he was at work this afternoon. Like that in itself would make it okay with me. I told him "whatever, I don't care anymore". There was no way he could miss the contempt in my voice. I'm sure that you could see the steam pouring out of my ears. My disposition had quickly been shoved from teetering on the edge to full on pissed off.

Is 11 o'clock on a Friday morning too early to start drinking??

They're Here!

Many of you know that I've been on baby watch over at Expecting a Baby Someday...Here's the scoop -- I don't have much, for some reason my cell didn't ring, so I just got a voicemail from Bryan.

The girls are here! Not sure what time, officially.

Gracie weighs 5lbs 14oz;
Abby weighs 4lbs 14oz.

Both girls are in the NICU right now because of their sugar levels.

Kristen is doing well, all things considered.

Will update when I get more info.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Just as I finished typing that, my cell phone rang and it was Kristen herself! So here's more info...

Abby: Born at 9:31am, weighing 4lb 14oz and about 17" long.
Gracie: Born at 9:32am, weighing 5lb 14oz and about 19" long.

Both girls are breathing well on their own and didn't need any oxygen at birth. Their sugar levels are a little high, hence the stay in the NICU. When they were doing the section, they think that Kristen had some cysts rupture so there was more bleeding than they wanted. They ended up calling in the perinatologist as a precaution, but everything is okay now. Kristen has been up once to see the girls but was unable to hold them because she couldn't sit up due to the incision. The nurses told her that she'll be allowed to go back up in the morning and should be able to hold them then. She's a little bummed about that but looks forward to seeing them tomorrow morning. Hopefully the girls will only be in the NICU for 24-48 hours. The nurses are optimistic that they'll be in Kristen's room with her by tomorrow night.

There isn't any internet access at the hospital but Bry is supposed to send me some pics from his camera phone. As soon as I get something, I'll make sure to post them!


WELCOME GRACE & ABBY!! WE'RE SO GLAD YOU'RE HERE SAFE AND SOUND!

AHHHHHHH!!

No real specifics to talk about...I just needed a place to vent some frustrations.

Work has been incredibly difficult the past couple of days. The project that I've mentioned in past posts has really thrown me for some loops yesterday and today. We've got fields that we're using for the study in Eastern Oregon, Eastern Washington and Western Idaho that will be harvesting much sooner than those in Southeastern Idaho. Because of this I'm facing surmounting logistical problems. These problems weren't considered when the original proposal was written. Since I'm the coordinator of the project, solving these logistical glitches falls primarily on my shoulders. Once again I feel as though the brunt of everyone's frustrations are being directed at me. I'm just scrambling as best I can to solve problems. And as always, getting in touch with people to conjure up solutions is difficult as most of the cooperators are busy with fieldwork and won't/don't answer cell phones.

Why couldn't I face these challenges last week when I had my Mom here to help with KT??

Whew...

Hi there! I'm back! *waves hello*

KT and I had a fantastic time last week with my mom here. Thankfully, KT was FANTASTIC for grandma. We'd been dealing with some separation anxiety "issues" and I was terrified she'd scream every time my mom tried to hold her. But she didn't. At times I think she was actually better behaved for my mom than she is for me.

Big news around here is that KT's first tooth is breaking through!!

Hal-le-frickin-lu-jah!

You can barely see it (and she clamps her mouth shut when you try to look) but when I can get my finger in her mouth I can feel the sharp edge of the corner poking through. I've been dosing her up with Ty!enol to help ease the discomfort. Hopefully it will be through entirely through the surface within the next couple of days.

I've got a bunch of posts that I want to write and stuff to update about. I'd love to get to it today but I have a ton of things on my "To Do" list that need to be crossed off as soon as possible. So...I'll make an effort to get to them within the week. If I don't hold true to that statement, bug me until I get on the ball!

Here

I feel like I'm constantly apologizing lately for my lack of new posts...and I'm sorry for that as well. The days continue to fly by and the posts have been short, few and far between. There's not much going on to update everyone about.

Grandma is here for the week and LOVING the time with Katie...
Dealing with KT's crankiness and impending (although who knows when) arrival of teeth...
On baby watch with Kristen...
Hoping that Jess finds the bastards that did this...
Waiting for Sami to get answers on NN's heart...

So, just living life and trying to be there for support in everyone else's lives...When my mom leaves I'll try to post a more in-depth update.

Explanation

First of all, thanks for all the comments on my last post. Many of them made me chuckle and it's nice to know that I'm not alone in how I feel!

We had company last weekend (Friday through Tuesday) -- one of C's college buddies was here for the weekend. It had been almost 3 years since they had seen each other so a visit was much needed. Buddy is a great guy and a ton of fun. However, when the two of them get together they tend to feed off of one another and act like pre-pubescent teenage boys. At 30 and 31 years old, this is not something that amuses me.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that the two of the got to spend some time together. It's just different now that C and I are parents. Usually I'm fairly easy-going and can roll with the punches. Before, if plans changed mid-trip and we ended up heading towards a new destination, no biggie. Before, if it was 9:30 when we finally got around to go grab dinner, no biggie. Now that KT is here though it's impossible to be as flexible.

Suffice it to say that more than once over the course of Buddy's visit both Mandy and KT were extremely cranky.

Random

Do boys ever grow up??