Things are about to get interesting

We brought in reinforcements tonight and got 98% of the first floor furniture into the POD. In the living room we have 2 chairs and the entertainment center. Other than that we have my desk in the office and the litter box in the dinning room.

On the second floor our bedroom has a mattress and box springs and a book shelf. The nursery has 2 or 3 dressers, a bed frame, another set of box springs, a tv, 2 bookshelves, a cedar chest . . . The POD is full and the furniture that is coming out is out.

We took a truck load of stuff to Goodwill and dropped it off, I'm glad to have it out of the attic. I'm hoping to get up there again after trick or treating is over and then maybe Ms. Makin can set me straight on Thursday night. It's not like I'm going to have a tv to watch and I don't think I can get much out of the POD by myself. But, fingers crossed by this time next week the POD might be gone!

I don't know who this kid is, but it was in the Enquirer - how cute is this costume?

Break on through . . .

We have reached the third floor. Jim made the mistake of moving furniture around in the "nursery" so we could move the breakables to the third floor before the carpet comes (fingers crossed - Thursday). I've been waiting to get to the third floor this whole pregnancy and when that door opened - whew.

Within 30 minutes I have 4 large trash bags full of clothes and a large box that all go to Goodwill. I can't lift them and we didn't have time to pull them down tonight, but I'm hoping within the next week or so.

I started going through decorations and bags and backpacks and all sorts of stuff that's up there. I think I'm finally at a point where I can get rid of a lot of stuff. It feels good. If I haven't used it then I won't miss it and maybe someone else will want it.

The third floor is painted so cute (clouds and bees and flowers) and will make a good play room when Punkin Head gets older (although I really hope to not be in this house then . . .). I have some pretty good stuffed animals and my whole Pez collection which add to the kid vibe. If I can get half of the "attic" portion emptied then I'll have room to store some of the "not right not" baby stuff and still have the rest of the place for play and my various toy collections.

So,

• What do you do with a large Beanie Baby collection that you no longer want?
• How many suitcases does one family need?
• At what point do you pitch, even though you really want to keep it?

Halloween

Halloween is probably one of my most favoritest holidays. I love costumes and decorating and ghosts (although I hate haunted houses and really being scared). Through the years I've had a number of different costumes, heck even Jim, the dogs, and the house have been dressed up!

The top right is this year - although the costume never saw the light of day. It's supposed to be an orange barrel, but no one could tell what I was so I left it at home. I'm a little sad as I look at the bottom left picture - our house was decorated so pretty last year. But this year we haven't had the time and we can't get to our decorations.

Oh well, as we say in my family "It's only Halloween." Which means you'll get to do it again next year. And next year we'll have an 11 month old to dress up too!

Here are some pics from a dance we went to Saturday. That was what the orange barrel costume was for - but we went simple instead. http://www.flickr.com/photos/catsmine/sets/72157602772920210/

The POD has eaten

So last night my in-laws were nice enough to come over and help us throw things into the POD. The office is half empty, the dinning room is empty except for stuff that doesn't belong there anyway (crib in box, rubbermaid container of pictures, etc.) and the bookshelf and other storage thing is out of the living room. I can finally breath in this house. Jim's response to that is "Well we shouldn't bring half of the stuff back in." Great idea - what wouldn't you bring back in? "Um, I have 2 sets of poker chips." That will make all the difference in the world!

Once we have a date set for the carpet then we'll take out the chairs and couch the night before. We need someone big and strong to help carry out my file cabinet and the litter box can go in the kitchen temporarily. Lord only knows what's in the closet, I'm assuming that will have to come out too - but I'll worry about that in a couple of days.

So my sister just stopped by with her friend. She had asked me to make her a 6 month pregnant belly. Now I, who am giving birth to the jolly green giant, don't really know what a typical 6 month pregnant belly looks like so I had to guess. She stopped by to pick up the belly, she says it will work - I asked for a picture.

But as she's on her way here I'm warning her that I have no pants on. I have maybe 3 outfits that fit. I'm doing laundry, so everything goes in the wash - which means I have no pants. My 2 pairs of PJs are in the dryer and then are going into the hospital bag - which means I have no pants. Oh well, most of my family doesn't wear underwear, at least I have that on.

On the Nan update - Nan came "home" (not her home, mom & dad's home) this afternoon. She's hunkered down in Amy's old room in a rented hospital bed. I'll be working from there tomorrow afternoon.

I go to the doctor in the morning, I'm hoping we can seriously talk induction. Not only for Nan's sake, but also because I'M SICK OF CARRYING A 20 POUND BOWLING BALL IN MY GUT! Don't get me wrong, I love this child and will do whatever it takes for Packy to be happy and healthy, BUT IT'S GETTING UNCOMFORTABLE! You should have seen me at the salad bar today - trying to reach the food - it wasn't pretty.

The POD has Landed

Back her up here boys . . .

Describes both moving me around and the POD that will be coming to our house on Tuesday. With some help from AJ's defunct China fund (thanks AJ and Nan!) we are renting a POD for a month. We'll empty the first floor into that and then get carpet and then bring things back in. We can move things between the two rooms upstairs as long as I pack up some of the nick nacks to the third floor. There's too much stuff in the first floor to be able to move it between rooms.

On a fabulous note we had a wonderful baby shower yesterday thanks to the wonderful Meat Machine. Tonya and Cindy threw the greatest Halloween baby shower! Full pictures are available here http://www.flickr.com/photos/catsmine/sets/72157602579951960/ . We played match the famous "mummy" to her little "pumpkin", pumpkin trivia, and horror movie baby trivia. The decorations were custom made as there are apparently no Halloween baby shower decorations (image that). Tonya had mummies and skeletons in diapers with pacifiers. It was fabulous.

We had such a great time with the Meat Machine gang and got a ton of great gifts.

Next shower is 11/3, the Thomas family (although the only Thomases will be mom and Amy) and then the Schmidt shower 11/18. Hopefully Packs-a-lot (Jim picked, I'm pretty sure it's a reference to how much stuff we have to pack up into the POD) will hold out until then. We had to take all of the shower gifts to Amy's because we don't have room and would only end up putting them in the POD anyway.

On a Nan update. We still don't know much. I think at this point Nan has decided that she wants to go home. She's moving in with mom and dad and will have out patient chemo once a week. This and blood transfusions should help keep her even keel for, hopefully, several months, but of course they can't make any guarantees. It sucks. We went over to the box today and moved some furniture. We'll have to get a hospital bed, but it's good timing since Amy recently moved out.

Grrrrrr

There's no one you can be mad at, no one to blame. Yet here we are, a week from when she went to the hospital and we aren't sure if we know anything more.

Here's what we know:
- Nothing
Here's what we think we know:
- She has acute leukemia - we thought it was the one type that is treatable, but now we aren't sure
- She has colon cancer - but we have to wait for the biopsy to know what type, how severe, etc.
- She has a mass on her pancreas - we can worry about that "down the road"
- She has a mass on her kidney - still not sure about that one
- She had nodules in her lungs - too small to biopsy, also worry about those "down the road"

How long is this road? Every day we seem to find larger pot holes, will we ever really know anything?

33 Weeks and Counting

So let's recap the week.

Last weekend the girls went to Chicago to see AJ. Turns out Abby had a baby in her belly too!

We had a great time, but discovered that the back seat of the truck is not big enough for mom, me, and the baby (Cubby last week - being in Chicago and all).

We hit IKEA, did some damage, saw AJ, and came home. I didn't have a baby, my water didn't break. It was a good trip.








On Tuesday I woke up short of breath with my heart racing. It didn't go away. Karen ended up taking me to labor & delivery where we spent the day hooked up to monitors. Long story short - Cubby and I are okay, things are good to go.

On Wednesday Mom took Nan to the hospital, she's been short of breath and so tired. They admitted her and started doing tests.

On Thursday we found out that Nan has Acute Leukemia. Without treatment they initially have given her 2-4 weeks. That's not enough time she "has to see this baby," so we took her to Good Sam. Sam is the baby name of the week - we'll be spending a lot of time there.

They have scanned, poked, and prodded almost every part of Nan. She's gotten blood and she's on oral meds for chemo. On Monday all the doctors (I think we're up to 6 or 7) will put their heads together to figure out if she has a second type of cancer or not. If she does, there will be no treatment, if she doesn't - we'll give it all we've got with the chemo.

This week sucks. Yet through it all Nan is still worried about her hair, putting on her lip stick, and we're all laughing and sharing stories and generally making the most of what time we may have left.

And now a word from kids like you . . . a.k.a a guest writer

My Trip to Chicago
By Amy Thomas

The bathroom stall told me to kill my TV and that leprechauns were going to get me. Then my mom got confused pulling into the rest stop because it said trucks one way and cars the other. Well, since my mom drives a truck she didn’t know which way to go. Once on the road again my mom had a soapbox moment on why American coffee shops only have one stall restrooms. Why? I don’t know and I don’t care. My sister, yes, the pregnant one, is trying to attack me with her belly. Let me tell you why I don’t want to touch a pregnant belly…um, there is something living inside of there! To most, this is a beautiful thing. To me, it’s just weird. Why can’t babies come from somewhere else? Like the stork that our mothers teach us about. I would much more consider having children if someone where to leave it on my front door step preferably potty trained and in college. So while we are talking about pregnancy, let’s talk about birth. I am supposed to be in the room while my sister is giving birth! Lucky me my only job it to catch Jim, my brother-in-law, the one responsible for this whole pregnancy, when he faints. There is a good and bad to this, like most things in life. Jim is tall, tall enough to block my view of whatever else might be going on that I don’t think I am prepared to see. The other side, Jim is tall, tall enough that when he falls he is taking me and probably two other innocent spectators down with him. I hope this kid likes me.

It’s now lunchtime, we are about 30 miles outside of Chicago but mom wants to eat before we get stuck in traffic. So, being the caring mother that she is asked what we wanted to eat, offering up the restaurant that is “now serving pies?!?!” We now decided on Bob Evans….um, they have PIES too! I think someone wants pie. Mom parked the car and just came in to meet us, it’s raining outside. So as mom was putting away her umbrella she said “cheap ass umbrella” um, yeah, it’s National City. Nuf’ said.

Live Action Footage . . . A couple of months later

Finally got the DVD and the software in the same place, so here's a little snippet of Bobble. This is from when we were 27 or 28 weeks (I can't remember). I would love to have another one, but they are a little expensive and baby needs carpet, and a toilet, and wallpaper . . .

*Don't be alarmed that the top of the head seems to be missing, it's just how the sound waves bounce back. You can see a little smile and those long legs (they look long in this) right in Bobble's face.*

Quiet time

If I ever need some alone time I think I'll play quarterback vs. the Bengals . . . they seem to have all the time in the world and nobody bothers them.

Forgot the name of the week

Bobble, short for Bobble Head (given that the head is due a month earlier than the rest of the baby).

Which . . . by the way. Did you know that you are suppose to ask future spouses how big their head was when they were delivered? Why don't they teach this stuff in high school, before you fall in love with the giant?

Screw it, they have good food delivery services.

Okay, I'm in. Unless something changes between now and Thursday I'm going to Chicago. I need a break (although I'm sure that will just end up exhausting me more), I need IKEA, I need out of here for a bit. The bathroom and room are coming along - but I'm still holding out for a While You Were Out like miracle while I'm out.

I'm off Thursday and I think I might start checking out some day cares. I need to figure out if I have to make appointments or not. I'm not really sure how to go about doing this, but I guess I need to start somewhere.

I don't really have anything else to say - until next time . . .
"To read a book for the first time is to make an acquaintance with a new friend; to read it for a second time is to meet an old one."
~Chinese Saying