Random List

I'm suffering from a case of severe last-month-of-pregnancy ADD. (I can't say ADHD, because there's absolutely no hyperactivity going on. Believe me.) As of today, I have 27 days until this baby is guaranteed to be born - that is, my doctor scheduled an induction for December 29th. I'm not certain the baby will wait that long, but I know I won't be pregnant when the new year comes, and I'm thrilled! My mind is a jumble, and the migraine I've had since I woke up this morning isn't helping, but I'm dying to post, so here goes...

1. I've been sick for months now. Seriously. It was John's birthday, so October 17th, when we took the entire family to the doctor to be tested for swine flu. I had already been sick for a week at that point. I lost my voice the day before that, and it's still not really back. (If I haven't mentioned it, Aidan is the only one who officially tested positive for H1N1, but they treated us all, assuming that we had it. Really a relief to me, as I'm hoping that it gets us out of having it later on.) I'm finally feeling like the cough will be gone for good within the next week. Still, this has gotten me pretty discouraged and I'm having trouble snapping out of it.

2. I felt better when I read Amy's post and all of the comments and realized that I'm not the only one "in a funk." I'm taking her advice and focusing on the things that make me happy about Christmas. For weeks, I looked forward to decorating for Christmas and made myself wait until the day after Thanksgiving. Then that day came, and things just didn't happen. Since then, I have NOT been in the mood, and my house getting messier and messier has not helped. Today I forced myself to finish the Christmas lights outside, which make me smile every time I leave or come home (or walk outside to look at them, like I have 5 times since I finished). I can't get a good picture of the whole house because of a tree that blocks half of it, and giant, bright motion sensor lights that kind of ruin the effect, but take too long to turn off. (Last year I stood across the street in the freezing cold for far too long waiting for them to go off so I could take this picture.)

This year, I added a wreath with lights and a red ribbon to each window. I can't really explain why this makes me so happy.

And of course, there are the 3 little trees that Becky found for me a few years ago on clearance for a steal. They stand right outside of my front door and I love them!

3. My husband surprised me with a weekend getaway last month. I should devote a whole post to the trip, but we all know I'll never get around to it. I just have to tell you how awesome it was. He got us a super nice room in Wendover. (Thanks to his mom and her best friend, we got the room free!) If you don't know where Wendover is, it's a little town about 2 hours from here on the border of Nevada and Utah with absolutely nothing in it except casinos. There's a constant stream of cars from Salt Lake to Wendover and back, because for people who like to gamble, it beats the heck out of the 5-hour drive to Mesquite or the 6-hour drive to Vegas. John and I aren't really gamblers, though, so you might be wondering, as I was when he told me we were headed there, what would we be going to Wendover for? Well, the coolest part is that he scored us (again thanks to his mom and her friend) free tickets to see Bill Engvall. He's one of the Blue Collar Comedy guys. His comedy centers a lot on his marriage and having kids, so it really works for us. And now that I've had satellite radio in my van for a year (the free year is almost up - aaaahhhh!), I've gotten to hear enough of him to fall in love. (Blue Collar Comedy channel, Sirius 103, in case you're wondering.) Anyway, we left the kids with my parents, enjoyed the drive with just the two of us, ate enough crab legs at the seafood buffet to be truly embarrassed, except that we weren't (free, thanks again to ....... you guessed it!), went to an awesome comedy show, stayed up late watching movies, slept in, ate at the breakfast buffet (once again, free - I know!) and enjoyed the drive home with his mom. It was a wonderful surprise, and did so much to lift my spirits and make me excited to be a mom when we got back to the kids. I love my husband, and can't tell you how blessed I am to have him and how much he does for me!

4. I can't tell you about Wendover without mentioning that I came down with a horrible case of hives the day before we went. My doctor (my husband, that is) is pretty sure they were post-viral. I was getting over (or thought I was getting over) swine flu and it made sense, but seemed like cruel punishment. I lived through the ordeal with a steady stream of Benadryl into my body, and the distraction of a trip to Wendover, but I cannot explain how awful it was! My fingers were so swollen that I couldn't wear my ring, and my feet couldn't really fit into any shoes. Even my eyes were swollen. When I started falling asleep at night, I'd relax and forget not to scratch, and wake up scratching myself to near bleeding. When they finally went away a few days later, I said prayers of thanks several times a day and vowed to never, ever again take for granted not having huge welts all over my body and not itching like crazy!

5. I've been reading a new book by Wednesday Martin called Stepmonster. It contains a lot of statistics and personal accounts that have made me feel like less of a monster than I have felt in the last 8 1/2 years of being a stepmother. It's so nice to realize that other people - a LOT of other people - have had the same thoughts and feelings that I have, and that I'm not a witch and I'm not crazy. I can't tell you what feeling understood can do for your sanity and your peace of mind. Expect to hear more - a lot more - about this in a future post.

6. Part of the reason for my funk is that my husband is on nights again this month. This is actually the third week of four, and the last week of his entire residency that he'll have to work the all-night shift, but it's not making it a whole lot easier. The hardest part for me is that he has to sleep in the day, and I have very noisy children and a fairly small house. The week before last I planned things almost daily to keep us out of the house, but that's not that easy to do. Next week he's on call every night starting at 5, but that's much easier to deal with. And after that week, we're back to normal life. The end is in sight, so I should just suck it up and deal with it, huh?

6. Finally, this is all I can think about these days:

I bought these last week on a rare solo trip to Walmart for groceries. I have left them on the kitchen counter since I got home, and stare at them several times a day every day. I am so excited for my little baby to come! It's making it hard for me to focus on anything, and I have so many projects I want to finish and things that have to be done before Christmas, but I'm feeling really distracted. You'd think that I'd be taking advantage of these nights alone to get things done, but I'm so exhausted every night that I don't accomplish a thing. Looks like this night won't be any different. Now that I'm done with this post, I'm going to bed!