Joining the Smug Marrieds

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Beau caught something last week. We have no clue how since he was pretty much at home all week except for small group and PHC classes and then a trip to Wegmans after classes on Friday. He started feeling sick early on Friday, so he caught something before then. No one in small group is sick ... yet. It’s a complete mystery.

He was full on sniffling and sneezing and miserable on Sunday. I felt the first indications of it late last night, just before going to bed. This morning I’ve got the full on sniffling and sneezing and misery. We think Jesse has it, too, but he may be a little behind me in his development of symptoms.

It sux.

I have a busy day, but I’m going to try to get things organized to work at home tomorrow so as not to infect my coworkers. That way I can be at home in my misery, but still get some work done (yay for telework) without having to take a full day of leave. I’ll probably call the sitter tonight to cancel for tomorrow night - no sense in getting her infected, too. Marmie’s day with Jesse has been cancelled as well.

*sigh*

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

We have a potential babysitter for Jesse. Have I mentioned this before? I can’t remember.

Anyway, I initially called her a couple of weeks before Christmas and we played some phone tag. Then Christmas and our colds came and I forgot about following up to see if she would work and all that entails.

Our small group meetings resume tonight and I just realized that I never arranged for our babysitter. So I called and left a voicemail to follow up on that and I’m planning to stay home with Jesse tonight.

The cool thing is that this kid (she’s 15) has infant CPR training and is a certified American Red Cross (I think) babysitter. She doesn’t drive, of course, but I think she lives on my commute home, so I can pick her up on the way and her mother assured me they would be happy to pick her up.

It’ll be nice to have a regular sitter for Jesse. Then maybe we can start to go out on the occasional date, too.

Tuesday, January 01, 2008

We had a really full weekend.

Friday: Got home from work, had dinner, watched a movie with Beau. Normal Friday, actually. We watched Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. I fell asleep halfway through, which means it can’t have been that good. 2 stars out of 5.

Saturday: I can’t remember what we did early in the day. In the afternoon/evening we had our family gathering with my Dad’s side of the extended family. It was a lot of fun, as always. Jesse did well with all of the new people. We had a lovely dinner and opened gifts. Soon after we left since Jesse was pretty much done with all of the excitement at that point. We draw names for the gift giving since there are so many of us. My cousin bought me the coolest gift, which I love, love, love (and which is much more expensive that I expected - yowzah!).

Sunday: We hit the road in the morning to make it for the service at Beau’s former church in Harrisonburg. It was great to see folks that we hadn’t seen in two years. And they all enjoyed seeing Beau and Jesse. After the morning service, we went to S/L’s house for lunch and to hang out until the evening service. They were lovely hosts, lunch was delicious, and we appreciated their hospitality. Jesse did well, playing in his Pack-n-Play while we ate and then taking a good nap. We watched the first half of the Redskins-Cowboys game until it was time to leave for church. The service that evening was their hymn sing followed by a potluck dinner. Fun times and Jesse, again, did really well with meeting so many new people. He is definitely a people person. We got home at about 10:30pm and hit the hay.

Monday: As I posted yesterday, it was our 2nd anniversary. We had a lazy day, although Beau did spend some time reorganizing a storage closet for today’s cleaning spree. He also went for a long overdue haircut and then got inspired to cut Jesse’s hair, which was in need as well. So Jesse got his first haircut in our kitchen, with much screaming and crying because he was scared of the clippers we used. Poor little guy. His cut isn’t quite as polished as it would be if a pro had done it, but I defy any pro to cut a wriggling baby’s hair straight. I’ll take pictures for posting later - he looks pretty good, we think.

Then we took him to my parents, who watched him while Beau and I enjoyed a date night. We went for an early dinner at one of our favorite places - Uncle Julio’s Rio Grande Cafe - great fajitas! Their special for last night was the Cadillac Platter (lobster tail with fajitas) and Beau suggested I get it, so I did. It was absolutely delicious. He got beef fajitas.

After dinner we walked over to the movie theater to see National Treasure: Book of Secrets. We both enjoyed this fun movie. I cracked up at the cameo from Frank Herzog, a local sports journalist, who for years was part of the radio broadcast team for Redskins games with Sam Huff and Sonny Jurgensen. We don’t think this sequel is as good as the first movie, but it was still fun and went to some cool places in the hunt. 3.5 stars out of 5.

We picked up Jesse, spent a bit of time chatting with my folks, and got home at about 10:30pm. Sadly, we did not ring in the new year at midnight. We went to bed and fell asleep pretty quickly since we were pretty tired. But it was a great day spent with my sweetie and baby.

Today: Clean up day. We’re de-Christmasing and cleaning the whole house. Fun times. I have pork chops cooking in the crock pot for dinner (and plenty of leftovers this week). It’s a great looking recipe from a crock pot cookbook Mom gave to me for Christmas. I did tweak it slightly to make it my own, so if it worked I’ll be sure to post the recipe.

Hope your New Year’s holiday is a good one. Happy new year!

Monday, December 31, 2007

For our first anniversary last year, Beau and I spent a romantic night in Labor and Delivery at the hospital after I had another bleeding event with my pregnancy. It was definitely memorable.

For our second anniversary, today, Beau and I plan a lazy day at home and then we’ll take Jesse to my parents who will babysit while we enjoy an evening out together for dinner and a movie.

It seems like more than two years since our magical New Year’s Eve wedding (and I mean that in the best sense). But I can remember that evening like it was yesterday, too. I’d do it all over again, except for a slightly longer reception so that we could actually enjoy some of it with our guests. =)

I love you, Beau. Happy Anniversary, love of my life.

Thursday, December 06, 2007

I was about 2 minutes from home this morning when I realized that I needed to nag Beau about making sure to put not just a coat on Jesse when they take Annie to the groomer, but also a hat. So I called the house and we had a short conversation about that because we realized that we’re not sure where his winter hats are after the move, so a baseball cap will do. Yadda yadda yadda and we hung up.

And then my phone started “Call to the Post,” which told me that I had voice mail. Thinking that my boss must have called during my chat with Beau, I dialed into voice mail but the message I got was a recording of Beau’s side of the whole conversation that we just completed.

It cracked me up at the time (I never realized how many times he said OK - I’ll try to transcribe it later), but with further thought I’m a little freaked out about how it happened.

Anyone nerdy enough to know?

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Small group was good last night - everyone came back, which is a good sign! We had a good discussion and seem to be gelling well as a group. After a challenging day at work and long commute home it was a nice respite.

This morning was rough because of me. Beau made breakfast and shortly after sitting down I asked him to do something. I thought it was a simple request (and it was generated from some stuff I had to work on immediately after waking up - you don’t need the details and I won’t bore you with them), but from the expression on his face it was not what he needed to be asked at that moment. Seeing that annoyed expression sparked immediate anger in me that was completely irrational but supremely strong. Afraid that I was going to say something I’d regret, I left the table without another word or having taken a single bite of food and stormed upstairs where I channeled the energy to getting ready for work in record time. Before I left, I went to apologize to Beau for the whole thing and we got things resolved.

I hate when I get like that. It happens just about every month (except when I was pregnant, which was a nice change). What’s frustrating is that over the years when I get like this I’ve been told by various people to:

1. relax
2. pray about it
3. get a grip

and all manner of other things along the same lines. My inner response is always, “Do you think I like being/acting this way?” It’s not a matter of self-control or a lack of it. It is 100% hormonal, which is why I think I may lean toward PMDD instead of mere PMS. I’m tracking my symptoms daily for the next couple of months to see where I come out on the scale. If it looks like I’m even close to PMDD, then I’m making an appointment to talk to my doc about it.

I dread when the symptoms start coming - chief among them the irritability that makes me witchy enough that I wish I could get away from myself. I warn people to keep away when I’m like this, especially my family and folks at work, because there’s no telling when I’ll snap. The smallest thing that in normal life wouldn’t even phase me now becomes the biggest irritant.

As for praying about it, I have and do. You know that whole “pray without ceasing” thing? When I get like this there’s a constant mantra to the Lord that goes through my head all day begging for control and peace. And still I snap and get angry. Battling with that prayerful self is my sinful self who is cussing like a sailor at the slightest little thing.

So I’m hiding in my office today. I pray the phone doesn’t ring or if it does the other person isn’t some idiot asking their normal clueless question because today I don’t have the patience to deal. I pray that someone in the office doesn’t happen in when I’m annoyed by something because they’ll bear the brunt of it. I pray that when I get home Jesse is his usual happy self instead of whiny and crying because I don’t want to be angry with him simply for being a baby. And I pray that when I get home I’ll love Beau as he should be loved as the wonderful husband that God gave to me.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

If there’s one thing that has caused any discord in our fledgling marriage it is Annie-the-dog. I won’t go into the details, but let me say that this morning she was the catalyst for a period of stony silence between Beau and me that lasted for four lonely hours. At the end of that silence was a discussion that had two possible endings - Annie was going to the pound or we were going to buy a crate. We just got home from buying a crate.

Now, this is a small dog - she weighs about 30 lbs and stands only about 18” to maybe 2’ tall. However, we debated for several minutes over the medium crate (for dogs up to 70 lbs) or the large crate (for dogs 71-110 lbs). We bought the large crate because we want her to have plenty of space since she hates to be cooped up anyway.

So tonight we’ll see how she does in her new home for the night. What I know is that Beau and I shouldn’t have any more disagreements about Annie like we did this morning. The post title is what I said as we walked out of the PetSmart.

Monday, March 05, 2007

It’s hard to believe it’s been a mere two years since my first date with Beau. But alas, it is true. Two years ago today I met Beau for the first time in person (after weeks of emailing). Although I don’t mention him at all, you can read about our first date here. And here’s the post about our second date here.

He laughed when I called them dates this morning. When we were first “dating” I called them meetings. I was stubborn about not dating.

And I was an idiot.

Fortunately, not idiot enough to cut him loose too early for he is my Prince Charming and the Dearest Daddy of our sweet baby Jesse.

Many thanks to our lovely matchmaker, Marty.

I love you, Beau. Happy anniversary of our first “meeting.”

Thursday, February 15, 2007

First, I took the following picture of Jesse the other day. Beau had changed him into a sleeper that’s a wee bit too big, which normally isn’t a problem. However, Jesse always has his legs motoring and he managed to get them in the one leg of the sleeper. In real life the sight was hilarious. I’m not sure it translates as well in a photo.

Our dinner last night was wonderful. Marmie and Pop came to our house to watch him and Pop let us drive his RAV-4 to the restaurant. Fortunately, the roads were mostly clear of snow/ice and there wasn’t much traffic. We had a lovely couple of hours together, ate a glorious meal (I had lamb, Beau had duck), and returned home quite full and recharged. There followed an evening with Jesse wide awake until I brought him into bed with us after his midnight feeding. From there we got a nice block of sleep until he got the hiccups at 6:00am, which I don’t remember, but Beau insists woke him up. I didn’t wake up fully until about 6:30am.

We head out in a little bit for Jesse’s doctor’s appointment. I’m looking forward to seeing how much he weighs now and I’m going to ask the doc to measure his length if he doesn’t automatically do that. After that, I think I’ll try for a nap and then I’m going to finish watching LOST from last night and then try to start BSG season two disc one, which arrived in the mail yesterday. Maternity leave rulz.

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Despite the snowy and icy roads we’ve got, Beau and I are definitely going to keep our reservation for dinner tonight at the Heart in Hand restaurant. I just talked to my mother and she volunteered her Highlander to us for the trek into old town Clifton, a quaint little town that has narrow and curvy roads. We should be fine driving to their house to drop off Jesse for them to babysit in our car.

I can’t speak for Beau, but I’m looking forward to our romantic night out.

Sunday, December 17, 2006

I had made reservations at the Heart in Hand for our anniversary night out. Beau and I were looking forward to spending a romantic evening having dinner at the site of our rehearsal dinner. But since I’m in bed, we needed to cancel the reservation.

I made the call today and had the random thought that maybe we could still have our HiH dinner - take out. So I explained that I had just been put on maternity bed rest, would it be possible for us to do our dinner carry out instead of dining in their restaurant. The gal I talked to said she didn’t think that would be a problem at all but that she’d run the question by their manager and have the manager call me later or tomorrow.

If she says no, then we’ll need to figure out an alternative for our anniversary and New Year’s.

Thursday, December 14, 2006

I was getting frustrated at the thought of Beau being house bound with me for the next two months. Or of having to have someone here at the house with me at all times when he went out for things like church or small group or whatever. I mean, seriously, it’s not like I’m a little kid who needs constant watching. What I need is some good common sense about this bed rest thing, right? In today’s cell phone age, surely Beau could be tethered by the wireless phone when he’s away from home? Or my mother or my neighbor or friends from church?

So I called my OB’s office to get clarification on this 24/7 care thing. Turns out I’m good with the common sense thing and Beau has officially been released from being housebound along with me. I’m so relieved, because while he seemed fine with it, I was stressing over it. We were facing a lot of instances when I would be alone over Christmas weekend and trying to find people to be with me was going to be a challenge. Now we don’t have to worry about anything except keeping our respective cell phones charged.

I also asked for a letter from the doc clearing me for light work via laptop to appease my boss. He’s been reluctant to let me do any work except very minimal things by phone. That’s not going to cover enough time to save on the advanced and donated leave. My doc should have faxed a letter this morning giving my boss clear approval to have me do work from bed, so I’m hoping to get my laptop early next week and start working. I’ve thought of a lot of things that I can still do from bed with the laptop, so I should be able to work for several hours each day if the office cooperates in getting things to me here.

That should help a lot with the restlessness and boredom. For now, I’m doing OK with that, but I know that after Christmas it’ll probably increase with the natural letdown after the holidays.

That reminds me, I need to cancel our reservations at Heart in Hand that I had made for our anniversary. We’re going to rain check that date for after Jesse arrives - maybe in March or April.

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

I got a call last week from a nurse affiliated with my insurance company. He wanted to check on me now that I was at home and to let me know of resources available to me, including his direct phone number if I had any questions. Impressive, I thought.

One of the resources he told me about is Sidelines - an organization for women dealing with high risk pregnancies. I forgot about it until now and in checking out the website, I found this great list of Bed Rest’s Silver Lining: 15 Benefits of Taking Pregnancy Lying Down. The whole list applies, but my favorites are:

2. He can run the house. (He no longer puts the first load of wash in the machine and leaves it to mold. He regularly fills—and empties—the dishwasher, notices when were out of milk, creates a shopping list, hits more than one store to get the goods, buys in bulk and looks out for sales.)  [This was actually true before the bed rest.]

10. I relish my babys increasingly zealous kick-boxing because I know hes well and happy, and that matters more than anything.

11. Forget any worries that my new husband loves me conditionallyfor the sex, or how I take care of business around the house, for my fanatical energy, or for my lithe body. These are a distant memory and still he treats me like his bride.

12. No doubts left about how hell handle Real Life with me. As our honeymoon giddiness has been replaced by his holding me from 3 to 5 a.m. while I await crisis-level bleeding, as well as preparing my meals and cleaning up after me, weve cruised seamlessly through a decades worth of marital developmental stages in less than a year.

13. Improbably, he still makes me feel like a honeymooner, despite my girth, exhaustion and periodic fear. Curling up together on Bed Rest Central beats a night at a Parisian café with a new lover. I feel this exquisite bittersweet appreciation of each moment we spend together thats intensified by the knowledge that a hospital bed may beckon at any moment.

14. I am finally ready to have my baby. All this lying around finally put a stop to my obsessive worries about handling the transition to motherhood, leaving in its wake the searing desire to get on with toughening up my nipples and changing diapers for the kick-boxer Im carrying.

15. Im actually looking forward to being liberated by childbirth. While my fellow expectant mothers anticipate losing mobility and independence, I cant wait to be off bed rest and carry my baby and his hundreds of accoutrements through the house and out into the world. Ill be free!

>
That last one is especially true.

Monday, November 20, 2006

It’s hard to believe that Beau and I will celebrate our first anniversary next month. The year has flown by and so much has happened. But we’re still the blissful newlyweds and plan to stay that way.

We got married on a huge celebratory day - New Year’s Eve, but we plan a quieter celebration that includes dinner at the Heart in Hand restaurant, which is where our wedding rehearsal dinner took place. Seemed appropriate and I’m thinking it may become an anniversary tradition if we continue to live in this area.

Now I need to figure out what I’m going to wear, because I don’t have anything appropriately dressy in maternity gear.

I broke one of my own “not before Thanksgiving” rules yesterday. But I had a practical reason for doing so - actually a couple reasons, starting with my growing belly.

While I was hoping we could do a full-sized real Christmas tree this year, we just don’t have the room for it - the furniture overhaul I have planned in my head for the living room has yet to take place and there’s no telling when/if it will ever happen. So we pulled out my trusty artificial tabletop tree and the other bins with Christmas decorative items and started putting the tree together. It’s all set up and decorated already. Before Thanksgiving.

I KNOW!

Truth is that it was the only time I would have to do it because we’ll be gone or busy enough this weekend that it won’t get done. ECD is coming the following weekend for my baby shower, so it won’t get done then. The following weekend we have an event at church that Saturday and another baby shower on Sunday, so it won’t get done then, and I knew that anytime after that I might not have the energy to do it. So it’s done.

Still left are the candles in the windows and figuring out what to do for the front door. For some reason there’s no electrical outlet outside in the front; only the one in the back. We need to buy a couple more timers for the window candles - I lost a couple in the moves apparently.

I love decorating for Christmas and I missed out on that last year in the craziness of wedding planning. I’m looking forward to seeing what traditions Beau and I end up doing with our fledgling family in the coming years, too.