Gi-Gi Roxx - The Ravings of a Lunatic

If the Universe sticks to predicted plans, in 45 days I'll be laboring to bring my little one into the world.  But we all know how predictions work... which is essentially all an Estimated Due Date (EDD) is.  Based on calculations made on a little handheld round twisty chart, the nurse that confirmed my pregnancy back during the summer said that my child was due on St. Patrick's Day.  Of course, that is just a guess really.  Because some babies come early and other come late. It'd be neato to have my baby on St. Patrick's day, as that would make for some fun birthday party themes in later years.  But I'll be happy to have her whenever she feels like coming into the world.  But as it stands, using the EDD based on the mysterious little cardboard device the nurse used to make her prediction, the ticker at the top of my blog here says I have just 45 days left.  That kinda freaks me out a little.  That's just 15 days more than a month.  ...

I decided it was time to dust off the old 8mm video camera I've had since somewhere around 2000. I knew it would need cleaned up, aired out and charged before I could do anything with it.  So I plugged it in and let it charge up.  Then I decided I might as well see what was on the tapes that were in the case with it. One of them is from 2006, which might have been the last time the camera was even used.  It was a video taken at our annual trip to the North Carolina mountains to attend the World Honda Chopper Meet.  Primarily it was just a bunch of shaky out of focus drunk nonsense filmed over the duration of the Midnight Auction.  I only watched a few minutes at the very beginning and decided that it would be best enjoyed with the hubby at another time as it probably contains some good laughs. Then I stuck in tape number two.  It was labeled "Spring Trips 2003".  I popped in the tape, rewound it and then pressed play.  It began with myself an...

I thought it would be fun to share a list of the nicknames I've called my unborn baby girl so far: Succubus - This one was especially prominent during my first trimester when she was sucking all of the energy and life force from my body. Starting to make a come back in the third trimester now that my energy is being zapped again. Chickie Nugget - I chose this as a gender neutral nickname after my sister kept bugging me for a nickname after I found out I was pregnant but before we knew gender.  Apparently embryo's require nicknames.  Nugget - A shortened version of the previous nickname, which after a while tended to make me crave McDonald's chicken nuggets.  And which in turn made me think of eating my baby. Octopus - Because I swear sometimes it feels like instead of four limbs there are eight (or more) flailing about in my belly. BeeGee - I say this one a lot, especially when talking to my baby as I do things around the house and such.  It's just short f...

I just decided to click on the archives to the right at random and letting the screen fill with whatever posts I'd made that month. I pulled up the month of August 2011 .  It was the month that I finally ended up having my gallbladder removed.  Funny to read back over my own posts, but it felt as if I were reading someone else's words.  I know I typed the posts myself, using my own creative story telling devices and all.  But it is always so weird for me to read my own musings after so much time has passed.  I can read my posts from yesterday, last week and maybe even last month and feel their familiarity, fresh and new.  But after more than a few months instead of feeling like I'm reading my own words I feel like I'm reading those of a stranger.  Just thought that was interesting and wanted to share.

I'm feeling even better today than yesterday.  Today is a 7 whereas yesterday was maybe a 5 and compared to Saturday, which registered in the negatives on the "feel good" scale, it's a drastic improvement.  I just gotta get rid of this congestion.  I purchased a new saline nasal rinse system to replace the one I murdered in a microwave sterilization incident yesterday.  I tried to use it once in the afternoon but it was a no go.  In order for those to work properly you have to have clear enough passages in both nostrils for the water to pass from one side to the other.  I don't have that yet.  I have brief moments of dual clarity which never last long enough for me to prepare a rinse and use it.  So I'll just have to keep waiting for the right timing to get started on flushing my system.  In the meantime I'm considering taking stock in Kleenex. But the good news is that so far the cold doesn't appear to have morphed into a sinus infecti...

Right now that's exactly what I'd like to have... a shop-vac to suck out my sinuses.  I'm on the dwindling end of a pretty major head cold, so I know I'm getting better.  But I've still got so much congestion it's making me feel as though there is not a single pin dot of light at the end of this snot filled tunnel.  Graphic, yes. Get over it. I am feeling a bit better today than I did yesterday and definitely better than every day since I started getting sick.  But I've got a ways to go.  I just gotta get this sinus crud to break up and get out of me. Nose goblins be gone! But seriously... I just want to be able to feel tip top for this weekend, which is when my sister and bestie are throwing my baby shower.  Speaking of baby, today I had a check-up with the midwife.  Everything is going swell with her, the midwife said she probably doesn't even realize I've been sick as a dog out here.  Although I'm sure she is getting annoyed with all...

I've mentioned before how interesting it is to be able to come to my blogger account and see how many new page views I've had and where they come from and all sorts of  other neat-o stuff.  But I've noticed lately when I go to check out my most recent stats that there is a trend of one particular page getting a lot of attention.  It's THIS POST from 2009 that is always at the top of the number of page views stats.  I'm not really sure why it gets the most hits.  It's not even that special of a blog post.  It's mostly a lot of rambling about my time off from the road and subsequent return to the road.  Nothing really stands out about it in my mind. So why does it get the most attention? I have no idea.  Actually I just did a little more digging and to date, that particular post has the most page hits at 2,319.  Weirdness. So anyway.  I've got this cold thing that came on suddenly and quite strongly Wednesday.  I had woken up...

So I was tired and ready for bed when I crawled under the covers at around 6:30 yesterday evening.  I go to bed between 5:30-6:30 pm on work nights, so I can have time to get at least a solid 7 hours of sleep before I have to get up and be at work around 3:30 am.  I drifted off to the sound of my custom lullaby courtesy of an app I have on my iPhone.  The music and background noise relax me and lull me into a steady breathing pattern that help me fall asleep quickly.  When I downloaded the app some years ago I played with various combinations of the sounds and songs it contained.  Finally finding that a light hypnotic piano and violin melody added to the sounds of a summer thunderstorm made the perfect combination for me.  I have it set to shut off the app after an hour, but rarely ever have I found myself being aware of the sounds no longer playing.  I'd venture to guess I am out within 15 minutes, so long as I allow my mind to clear and focus on my...

I worked myself out of the funk I was in yesterday during the late evening hours.  Nothing a little Dexter on DVD and an entire jar of salsa with chips couldn't handle I suppose.  Being in a bit of a better mood makes the fact that I have to go out and run some errands today feel bearable.   One thing I have to do is mail out my Jury Duty questionnaire for the summons I got last week.  I hope I was clear enough regarding the fact that the date set for this trial to begin is less than 3 weeks after I am due to give birth to my baby girl to get me released from the obligation of attending. I wouldn't have minded being on Jury Duty say, anytime over the past 3 months.  But just after having given birth to my first child? No, I'm sorry. Civic duty or not, I just can't bear the idea of possibly getting chosen for the jury and ending up having to spend 8 hours a day sitting in trial while my brand new baby girl is being cared for by someone else. So hopefully I ...

I feel like Grumpy Cat today.   I am tired, irritable, annoyed, and sore as all hell.   I kinda just wanna crawl in bed and not get out until... never.   Thanks hormones. 

Today I got this sudden sharpish pain in the right side of my belly.  I looked down as I reached down to rub it, and was shocked to find that I had the smallest little lump pushing out of me.  I touched the palm of my hand to it, and it disappeared rapidly. Something tells me baby girl and I just had our first high-five.  She was really calm and quiet all morning, I had started to worry when I didn't feel her squirm as usual after engaging my seat belt for the ride home from work.  Generally she gets pissed at where it lays on my lower abdomen and fusses about it some.  But not today.  Even when I stopped by a local breakfast food drive-thru for a nibble of a certain biscuit I'd been craving for a couple days I still didn't feel her fidgeting any.  I got home, washed up, unwrapped the biscuit and ate... still nada.  Then about twenty minutes after I ate her hiccups started.  That was, as always, a great relief.  She gets the hiccup...

So after viewing a statement of what my direct deposit paycheck will be for tomorrow, my decision of when to put in my two weeks' notice has been cemented.  It will be done tomorrow.  I can't really justify working while putting myself through the pains that I have been dealing with being pregnant and on my feet, plus putting up with the remodeling dust and chemical laden air all while making peanuts.  If it were like truck loads of peanuts, maybe.  But a hatchback full of empty peanut shells... hardly worth it. So now that the end is in sight, and THAT decision has been made, my mind is now going to be able to focus on other more pressing issues that require decisions. Like naming my unborn child. It's funny ( but not ) how we were set pretty solid on a boys name only to learn that we're having a girl.  It was going to be so easy.  But now, well... we can't even come up with a list of possible girl names.  I will rattle off a few names to the hu...

So I think I'm in the beginning stages of "nesting".  I have spent time here and there cleaning, rearranging, planning and preparing.  Sadly most days I don't have the energy or pain tolerance to get too much accomplished, but I'm doing my best.  I've been quite sore lately, my hips, lower back and pelvic region in general aches after being on my feet for more than a hour at a time, which is making life both at work and at home quite annoying.  It's not that I can't deal with it or get through it, but it sure makes me want to just sit on my butt and do nothing at all.  I push through the pain at work instead of calling in or putting in my two weeks notice just yet. Primarily so I can make some sort of wage to make the going to bed at 6 pm and getting up at 2 in the morning worthwhile for a little longer.  But I have a feeling that I won't tolerate it much longer.  I was actually afraid my midwife would put me on rest or ask me to stop working...

Not really sure why I found myself on Blogger just now.  Not really in the mood to blog about anything in particular.  But then, I recall several other occasions where I felt the same and ended up posting a pretty interesting blog.  I was surprised to check in here today to read other blogs I follow and see that I had 80 visitors yesterday and already 42 today.  I like that feature here at Blogger.com, being able to see what sorts of numbers my blog generates.  I still find myself mystified that people actually read my ramblings.  But as you shall read, I shall write.  Or something like that. Today was a painful yet productive day at work.  I had only been scheduled from three-thirty am to seven-thirty am, but found myself taking a lunch at eight-thirty am and finally clocking out around quarter to ten.  And I barely spent anytime in my usual area of soft lines, instead working most of my shift in heath and beauty, more specifically...

So it's really finally starting to sink in.  I'm gonna be a mother.  There is a life growing inside me that will make it's world premier in the next two months.  And once that happens my life will be forever changed. I'm looking forward to it, of course, I'm excited as can be.  But it also scares the hell out of me.  I'm being told that that's a perfectly normal reaction. I sat and watched a series of videos posted on YouTube  b  by a woman in England last night.  Three videos where in it detailed her journey from the time her water broke to the time she delivered her son.  I believe her labor lasted somewhere in the ballpark of 38 hours from start to finish.  She had a natural birth, only receiving Pitocin to urge her cervix to dilate when it wasn't doing so naturally.  She got no epidural and while you could tell she was in agonizing pain for the final stage of labor, you could also tell that she was gonna survive it, wh...

Hubby and I have been working hard over the past few months to get a second floor bathroom done.  What was once just a shell of a room with sub-floor and studs is now a nearly finished amazingly awesome bathroom.  Complete with a deep soaker tub/shower, lovely pedestal sink, a high end high dollar toilet we paid nearly nothing for, and a brand new washer/dryer set.  There are finishing touches still to be completed, little things.  But overall it's a done deal.  You can see a couple different views HERE , HERE , and HERE . Between bouts of working on the bathroom, we've also been dabbling about the house getting other things in order.  We finished painting the nursery, rearranged our TV room, tossed out a bunch of junk, installed two new kitchen windows (at the same time eliminating a door and two other windows in preparation for future kitchen remodeling endeavors),  and other random odds and ends which slip my mind at the moment.  So you cou...

I trust that this first post of the New Year will find everyone well.  My hubby and I rang in the New Year as we have for the past few years with a group of good friends who love to laugh and have fun together.  We had a great time as always and thank our friends Chris and Kathy for hosting us once more.  I've already posted about looking back over the last year and about how I'm looking ahead as well.  I just know that this year is gonna be an exciting, exhausting, and crazy one.  Before I know it I'll be waiting for those first signs of labor to start.  In the meantime I'm sure I'll be freaking out about not being ready to become a mother and simultaneously nesting like a crazed maniac.  I just cannot imagine what it will be like to have this little baby in my life.  Maybe I should try harder TO imagine it, but I think I'll let the surprise of it be the reality instead of setting myself up with unrealistic expectations. I do really look ...