Hmmm

Nothing in particular to post about today, but Lisa yelled at me for not posting enough so I figured as I eat my breakfast I could update the universe on the Richardson Family.

Ian - Doing well, actually in Indiana as his grandfather is very ill with cancer. Staying busy with work and listening to me tell him everything we need to get done around the house in the next 2 months (I want everything done by May not June, you just never know). He will be back in Texas on Sunday.

Me - Getting bigger, this belly just keeps expanding on me :) Evidently officially in my 3rd trimester now, that kinda caught me off guard. Very busy with work and made the mistake of creating a baby to-do list and now freaking out about how much is on it. Starting to make all sorts of noises everytime I get up or move in bed, etc (which Ian just laughs at). Been enjoying the olympics, but wish I could DVR them or watch them in bed because they are on far too late into the night.

Baby - All good from what I can tell :) Heartbeat still at 150, moving around a lot, but not enough yet where it hurts when he kicks or anything, just feels like big bubbles. Has decided he likes sweetened iced tea (which i do not typically) and he still HATES chinese food (which i typically do not) but otherwise nothing funny on the craving/aversion front. He is a steak & potatoes kinda boy which is fine with me :) Ian and I are close to decided on a name, but not sure how much longer it will take for us to 100% confirm it. We also toured daycare facilites yesterday and are going to signup for 2 today and get on their waitlists. So baby has a few things set in life, and has a few cute outfits I got him, but otherwise still has no room or furniture or anything else :)

Annie - Still her grumpy old self (just kidding, kinda). She has been enjoying the cold but sunny weather and the little beagle behind us who is trying to dig through the fence to play. Right now she is sitting all royal like staring at the TV (which is not on by the way). She is also making more noises everytime she moves, but for very different reasons than me.

Jaska - Still a pain in the bottom. Still woo-wooing and running everywhere. Still rubbing against me like a cat and getting her hair all over my pants, still making me want to kill her at one point of each day. She is now sleeping with her butt on the dog bed, her front end on the carpet and her head on the kitchen tile (pretty normal for her). She just slept 9 hours with me, but I guess that is just not enough

Hamsters - Still have 2 babies in there, they are big now with hair and eyes open (not full size yet, but big). That means something happened to one of them but we dont know what. They created a whole tunnel infastrucure in their cage that we dont want to disturb so all we do is drop some food in for now and once the babies get a little bigger Ill let Ian deal with the mess. Its so smelly over there I can really stick around for long without getting sick.

Well, thats a brief update, time to go shower and head to work.

Day 4 of 9

Today I am stuck at work (for only 4 hours, but still). It is day 4 of 9 in a row, then Ian and I are heading to San Antonio for the 13th and 14th for a little weekend trip. Its like super quiet and I should be very productive, but yesterday was the same way so I just dont want to be productive today. I have a feeling Im gonna be a giant crabby pants by the end of this week. I already spent all morning yelling at Ian for being lazy before I left for work as it was. 9 work days in a row is never good, but mix that with pregnancy and I think they are asking for a disaster :)

Belly Pic #1

Here is the belly at 21.5 weeks. It keeps expanding everyday (as Ian loves to point out everyday). I look like I'm 1/2 asleep and my hair is a disaster area in this picture, but I hate pictures, especially if they are of my belly, so we just took 1 picture and it had to work.

Lisa also told me I had to make my blog more baby friendly, but I dont really like blue so I didnt want to do that, so hopefully the new font colors and the polka dots did the trick. If not, live with it because I am done for the day...

The Big News

Im starting early with the embarrassing photos of baby, I'm sure he wont like knowing this was on the internet, but what a cute way of telling the world that he is a boy!

Everything looks good, he is 12 oz, so evidently right on track for the june 2nd bday. Two hands, two feet, nose, lips, vital organs, so looking good! Got a few cute pictures of him (my favorite is the foot) so I'll post them all below.



The next big decision is the name, so I have a feeling Ian and I will take awhile with that one. We did go out and get him a few onesis today, ian found a batman one at GAP so he got the 0-3 months and the 3-6 month size, and is trying to talk me into buying him a starfleet uniform! I'm gonna need help keeping ian from geeking this baby out, im afraid....

20 Week Update

So this is a big week for baby, 2 appointments, 1 down, 1 to go...

Today was the monthly visit and all is going well. Baby's heartbeat is at 150 (so going down as it should every visit) and I am on track with weight gain. Still havent felt baby move yet but they assured me not to worry, so I wont, but am looking forward to finally feeling the first little flutters in my belly :) Been feeling great (aside from feeling fat) and actually have some energy back and not falling asleep everyday at 7pm. Still trying to get about 8 to 10 hours of sleep otherwise I am sleepy, and if I go too long without eating something the lovely feeling of needing to hurl comes rushing back, but otherwise am not complaining. I'll take this over the 1st 3 months for sure!!

Tomorrow is appointment #2, we go for the ultrasound and to find out the gender. I will be nice to see the baby again, last time it was at 8 weeks and it was just a tiny little dot, so it will be awesome to see baby looking like an actual baby. We will be sure to post some pictures along with the big news tomorrow, so stay tuned.

Our Trip Part 1

Ian & I have been enjoying our trip to the cold gloomy midwest for christmas. We are not of course enjoying the cold gloomy part of it (neither is our poor car) but the puppies like that element, we just like being with family and playing all of our new board games and beating lisa :)

The dogs have taken mom's house over and are loving it. At home they are not allowed to sleep on the couches but sara's futon (or the click clack bed as we call it) is in the living room and it smells like dog from her past apartment, so we covered it with a sheet and let the dogs lay there, well, they spread out so only they can sleep on it, nobody else is allowed. Plus Annie decided one day when her & Jaska were home along with mom that the click clack bed isnt cutting it, and so basically demanding of mom (yes, she knows how to do that) to put a small sheet on the couch so she could lay next to mom. From that point on the click clack bed wasnt good enough for annie girl (or chabu chabu as mom has been calling her) so the couch has now become hers. She was sleeping soundly when ian came over and starting annoying her, you can see the annoyance in her eyes, but i still think its a super cute picture

We went to chicago to spend christmas eve with dad's family and christmas day and lisa & shawns. We had a good time, lisa posted about it so if you want to read about it and see pictures go to www.pisa9923.blogspot.com and check it out.

My poor car is having a rough time with the cold, probably all due to texas. Before we left I tried to find an ice scraper plus wiper fluid that was meant to be used under 32 degrees. Needless to say we never found an ice scraper or wiper fluid for cold climates in Austin, we had been doing ok with this until we tried to leave chicago. We were leaving the city and out window was just so cloudy from the icky type of snow that was falling, we were trying to clean the window and the wiper fluid just wasnt coming out. ian thought we were out, i knew we werent, i knew it was frozen. after about 20 minutes of panic on my part i finally got ian to stop at a gas station and sure enough there was a giant frozen block of ice in my engine. we purchased some wiper fluid meant to cold temperatures and luckily it starting breaking through the ice and we could finally see though our window. But since the original wiper fluid was starting to come through it was freezing on our wipers and feezing over the holes the fluid come through, it was a disaster until we finally got passed indy and it wamred up to 34 degrees!!

We are off today to the mannings for our final christmas celebration and then off to pick up the dogs so they can see their auntie lisa (they got kenneled when we went to chicago) so i am done typing for now, but look for more to come, plus we are gonna get some pictures of all of us later today or tomorrow!

June 2nd....

will be the date when baby richardson is supposed to join the world :) which means, to anyone on facebook that didnt see our beautifully written updates, that "yes, the rumors are true, i am 4 months preggo"

17 weeks along and finally happy to be feeling better and not so tired all the time, but that has just been replaced with being hungry all the time, not sure which is worse. but baby and i are doing fine, and we will find out the gender in less than a month (jan 13th) so im looking forward to hearing that news and seeing baby again, since last time i saw he/she it was at 8 weeks and we all know it was like the size of a grain of barley at that time :)

anyway, i promise to keep this thing updated more often now, i know many people will be relying on it for info, so as long as baby doesnt zap all of my energy like the first couple months i will try my hardest to stay on top of this

oh - and merry christmas eve everyone!!

Excited but not..

i am getting very excited that in less than a week ian and i (along with the puppies) will be in indiana visiting family and celebrating the holidays. however, i am not excited that in less than 1 week i will be trapped in a car with ian and 2 dogs for 16 to 18 hours straight, to only have to return in just a little over a week. yup, not excited about that at all.....

Is it seriously December already???

I can not believe its already December, very happy it is, but still shocked. Work has again been crazy, especially since I took off 6 days for Thanksgiving to spend with Mom & Eric for their visit. It was fun and we took some pictures of our Thanksgiving feast, but now I cant find the plug for the camera to upload the pictures, so hopefully when I get a day off on Monday or Wednesday I will really search and look for it.

Ian & I will be driving home to IN for Christmas, thats right, driving!! We decided to drive and bring the dogs along for a couple reasons. One, it will be nice to have our own car when we are there; Two, we wont have to kennel the dogs for the 11 or so days we will be in IN; Three, plane tickets were just crazy expensive, and as much as Im not looking forward to a 16 to 18 hour drive in one day, I know its the best decision. We will be leaving in 2 weeks tomorrow so it will be here in a heartbeat, I am getting quite excited. The trip is packed with trips to Chicago to see family, Muncie to see family, Indy to see family and Parker to see family, so it wont be at all relaxing, but will still be nice to be home for Christmas which hasn't happened in awhile, especially with both Ian & I home together.

Anyway, I have to get ready for work but I know its been awhile so I thought I would say hello to world. Have a Happy Holiday Season!!!

Sorry

Its been super busy for both Ian & I, but we are alive and doing well. When things calm down in a week or two I'll write a proper post, but right now all I could talk about would be work which just isnt much fun :)

Babies!

For anyone that hasnt heard yet, our two female hamsters (my bday gift from ian back in april), had babies. Clearly that means they were not both females as the pet store guy assured ian. so anyway, we have somewhere between 4 and 8 hamster babies. They seem to be doing well from what we can tell, phebs (the mom) keeps them hidden in the fluff, but does move them around a lot so we can see them a little bit. Daisy is evidently the dad, so really he needs a new name, but we dont know what else to call him, he has been daisy for 6 months after all.

I took a cute picture of phebs because she had decided to make her temporary home (for her and the babies of course) the wheel, which i thought was so funny. but then i realized you can actually see a little bit of the babies in the picture.


they are tiny little pink things, but i did notice today they are a little bigger and are even getting a little hair. i bet they will be so cute when they are super little cotton balls!!

in 1 to 2 weeks they will be old enough that we need to separate they boys the girls so we dont have tons of babies, and also need to start finding people who will take pairs of hamster babies for us. plus i guess that means we are going to have to learn how to tell apart the boys & girls, something the people at the pet store clearly dont know how to do :)

woo hoo!!

we are off to indy for a weekend of wedding festivities!!! congrats lisa & shawn!!!!

San Antonio Zoo

Ian surprised me today by suggesting we go to the San Antonio Zoo, and who am I to turn down a chance to see animals, so off we went. It was insanely hot, and we were only there for about 2 to 2.5 hours (and it took us 2 hours round trip to get there) but it was still worth it. We took a lot of pictures but I wanted to post some of my favorites, so I hope you all enjoy without having to sweat like we did :)


These are not actually crocodiles, but like a cousin to the croc. They are the smallest ones around. We just thought it was funny how these turtles were just using them as resting places, but they didnt seem to mind one bit!




Of course there would be some pictures of big cats! This top picture is a jaguar and the bottom is a black leopard, dont you just think those green eyes are freaky! Thats not the flash or anything, thats what color their eyes really are!




You didnt actually think I wouldnt post pictures of my favorite animal of all right now, its the river otter (although let it be known that i love all the otters, sea, river, i dont care)!! I still really dont see why i cant have one of these, they are little and i have a big yard, i think i can build a water area big enough. anyway, i got tons of pictures, there actually were two otters but my favorite 2 pictures only had 1 of the otters in it. I also got some video but dont want to mess with that tonight, so ill do that later. I LOVE THESE THINGS!!!


So these next few pictures are not of animals, but just cool things at the zoo. This 1st picture is an actual banana tree!! But not only did it have the bananas growing from it, it also had that crazy pink thing hanging down. I just thought it was super neat looking but especially loved the bananas since Ian loves those so much!


This was the sign for their toad exhibit, i just thought it was really clever and everytime i would see the sign i would smile. I did check to see if they had cane toads in the exhibit for lisa, but there were none :(


San Antonio has lots of stone and old looking things all around the city (that alamo feel follows you everywhere) so there was a lot of this kinda stuff all over, but what was neat about this is these steps connected 1 water exhibit to another, and they were the "bridge" to get from one exhibit back to the main path, I just thought it was unique, but the steps were actually a decent distance from each other, so they might be tough for really young kids (of course there was an alternate path for strollers, etc, you werent forced to walk on it).

Since i was taking pictures i dont have anything to prove this, and i am sure lisa is thinking i am making this up, but we were near the bird exhibit (which of course i didnt want to go in) and we were just standing outside and a bird swooped down and sat on my head, I about died!!! Stupid birds!!!

Doggie Videos

So I just learned how to do this and I promise I wont just post a bunch of stupid videos of my dogs, but I know Mom said she wanted some more pics of the puppies and few people want to see Jaska do her "woo woos" so here you go. Enjoy!!



Annie & Jaska always get into a little fight when i get home. This time Jaska was a little out of it since she decided it was the perfect time to also start hacking up a furr ball (ok, so not really a furr ball, but thats what i like to call it)



This is Jaska being her normal Siberian Husky self and woo wooing at me for no reason at all. I also love that in the middle she stops to wimper and cry for a moment. Also notice both dogs are in the kitchen since it is Annie's favorite place to be.

Jaska

So, this is the noise I get to hear ever waking second of my day. Im gonna try and get her woo woos too, they are just so much fun :)

Four Years

Ian & I have been married 4 years today. As is pretty typical for us, we spent the day alone (ha ha). He should be home soon, hes been out of town all week on business. I did make him a yummy treat, dont you all wish you could eat those yummy berries!!!

Falling apart at 28

I know its been awihle since ive blogged, just been busy at work and doctor appointments, so lets just get to those for now.

About 2 months ago i went to the dr cause i thought i had an ear infection in both ears and i had a headache that had lasted 3 days straight. Turned out it was just fluid but i dont really have sinus problems so they couldnt really figure out the cause, so they said to just sit tight and it should fix itself. While i was there i figured i would ask about my stomach pains (been getting them for about 8 months or so), they werent really sure of an obvious cause, so they took some blood work, plus, i hadnt had blood work in over 4 years. It all came back fine, so I just didnt think about it again. On the headache subject, it turns out that i not only get lovely headaches from my jaw, but i now officially a migraine sufferer. they gave me a sample medicine, which worked great, except it knocked me out cold, so not too practical.

About a month later (yes, clearly i put my health below other things in life), my ears were still hurting so i thought i would go back again. i went and there was still fluid so this time they told me i must have some sinus issues and if we started to treat those it should trickle up to my ears, so they gave me all sorts of stuff to use (saline wash, nose spray & zyrtec). they also decided to send me for an ultrasound to see if perhaps my stomach pain was from my gall bladder (evidently pretty common in women my age). they also gave me another migraine sample since the 1st one worked but made me sleepy. this new one you put under your lounge and it just dissolves, which is great because it gets into your bloodstream faster, but not too pleasant to taste.

A few days later i went for the ultrasound (which is kinda exhausting how you have to keep holding your breath, i thought i was gonna pass out one of the times). well, 2 days later they called and said my gall bladder was fine but they found a spot on my kidney, so they had to further investigate that. The bad thing is that even if it is a stone, its not causing any of the pain, since its on the other side of my body.

A few days later i went back to the doctors office to get additional blood work to really look at my stomach organs, especially my pancreas, and to get a urine sample to see if the spot on my kidney was a stone (therefore there would be blood in my urine). this time i met with the RN, not the PA, so she looked at my ears again and there was still some fluid, so she finally gave me ear drops. Before i even left that morning they could tell it wasnt a kidney stone plus still had no clue what was up with my stomach. they decided to wait for the bloodwork to return, but suggested that it might not be a bad idea to go for a CT scan to see if maybe that could turn anything up. I went to fill the prescription for the drops plus the migraine medicine, only to discover for 8 tablets it would have cost me $85, plus with that type to fully get the migraine away you need to take 2. so im just gonna try an over the counter pill for now. ive lived with headaches for so long, i think i can take it!!!

So again, a few days later, i went back to the clinic where i got the ultrasound for a CT scan. this time i got to drink some disgusting barium beforehand (let me tell you, it is soooo nasty) and then i got to have an IV iodine drip which makes you feel like you are peeing in your pants (even though they warn you it doesnt matter, i really thought i had peed right there). this went much faster than the ultrasound and you didnt have to hold your breath for nearly as long, so that was cool.

Later that day i got a call from my doctor saying that they still cant find a reason for the stomach pain, but they did find out its not a kidney stone. i was happy about that because i wasnt thrilled about having to try and pass that sucker eventually. it is a 1.5 cm cyst, but unless it starts to bother me it is just fine to leave alone. but again, not related to my pain. they are thinking it could be the start of IBS so they want me to now go to a specialist.

but i think i have had my share of drs offices for a month, plus my new insurance kicks in in about 3 weeks, so im gonna wait until then to start the 2nd round of diagnostic tests.

so thats my update for now. i have not been wanting to type this whole thing out, but i thought i finally would, especially to explain why i have not updated this thing in quite some time. but i have to leave to pickup ian from the airport, so i hope you enjoyed my very very long story!!!

A Moment of Silence

I am sorry to announce that this morning around 7:30am on a beautiful day in Texas a poor innocent squirrel lost its life by a vicious Siberian Husky on Chippenhook Court.

Since I am very sadden by this occasion, and can not bring myself to go back into the yard and pick up the poor little guy, the dogs will not be able to use the bathroom until Ian gets home from work. Maybe the stupid dog will learn for the future.

PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK:
I decided to add a picture, but just remember what it is of, so dont look if you dont want to see it.

Stuff

I just thought I would just post a few of the things going on in the Richardson household. Nothing really exciting, but since no one is forcing you to read this, I dont mind so much then :)

1) Everyone at work is talking about their upcoming vacations, and it just makes me sad because we were supposed to have our fun 9 day vacation to California, but no, I had to go switch jobs. Stupid me..

2) Speaking of vacations, Ian will be taking one in June. He is gonna head back to Btown and see some of his college friends (who are also all coming in for the trip). He will be gone from June 11th to the 15th (I think those are the dates, I'm supposed to take him to the airport but he wont get me his trip info). I will be at home chillin with the doggies.

3) On the subject of Ian, he will also be going to Missouri on business for 1 week. We still arent sure the exact dates, but most likely right before he leaves for IN. So there is a chance he will be gone for almost 2 weeks in a row.

4) Back to work, but this time mine. We just got a new GM, he has some goals and doesnt mess around, but I think he will be good for the property. I was supposed to have my 1 on 1 with him today, but he got behind and its been pushed to tomorrow. I am looking forward to sitting with him and getting to know him a little better and of course for him to know me a little better too. Coming in, he didnt seem to get the best view of the catering team (he thought we were a little too serious, which is so funny), so we are looking forward to changing his view of us.

5) On the work subject again, I won the sales contest last week and won a giftcard to Starbucks! I am very excited that I won, but not soo much about where the giftcard is too because as you might know, not a big coffee fan. But it was great to win because I'm still new, my GM is trying to figure out who he needs to fire to make a point, and because it was based on how many new leads we got, how many contracts we got out and how many we got back over a 2 day period, and I was only there on one of the days (since I'm always off on Wednesday). Go me!!

6) I changed the background and stuff on the blog, like it??

7) So my days off are Sunday and Wednesday, so its rare for me to work more than 3 days in a row. Well, I am now going on day 6 before Im off again on Wednesday, and I'm not liking it. I keep trying to tell myself its ok because I'll also have Friday off this week, but I think I would have rather not worked both Saturday & Sunday to be honest.

Well, I could write more, but Im gonna start making dinner since its almost 8pm. I'll try to post some more updates on one of my days off this week.

I am not a gardner!!

As the title suggests, I am not good at gardening. Not sure if its not having the time, not having the patience, or perhaps just not being able to plant things in the first place, but either way, I am horrible at it.

So these 1st 4 pictures show my 2 weeks of hard work trying to make the garden pretty. I pulled up some ugly plants the builders planted, took up all the old mulch, planted all the flowers (different sizes & color of zinnias) around the edges and then put down all new mulch. We also had a drainage problem when it rained (it would come pouring down from the corner of the garage & dining room roof) and it would displace all the dirt & mulch, so I got rocks to cover the area, it has been working very nicely. Doesnt it look pretty, I worked HARD on this.









Well, these next 3 pictures is what happened about a month after all my hard work. Isnt it sad :( Now to explain, the mulch is still black, its just that the huge tree in our yard is dropping those little yellow things like candy, I tried to pick them up but do not have the time or the patience for that.







As you can tell, the flowers are DEAD!!! Everytime I got home and would pass them on my way inside I would get really pissed off, so I wanted to just pull them up and replace them with rocks (which Im guessing I cant kill), but Ian told me that I had to shock them back to life. So I tried, I went and got flower food and was really trying, but amazingly enough, they actually started dying faster!! So this weekend I gave up and cut off all the dead stems and pulled out any big chunks that had no hope of making it. I would say I threw away about 2/3rds of the flowers, but the 1/3 that is left is actually blooming now, but Im having to really pay attention to them. Im gonna wait about another week and if they still look good I'll take some new pics and post them so you can all see my progress!!