So I had 5 days off from work-would have been blissful had my allergies not gotten completely out control. I've been doing benadryl with a decongestant and saline rinses in my nostrils, but it was no longer effective. Ended up at urgent care after a few days of running on 3 or 4 hours of sleep a night and having the swelling and congestion trigger some asthma. Docs gave me a steroid shot, an intense round of oral steroids to take over this week, and Flonase. I can breathe now, yay! And the Flonase smells like roses, it's so weird. I felt an improvement immediately. Neither drug is ideal for pregnancy~Class C drugs, one of those "tell your doctor if you are pregnant or trying to get pregnant" things, but the benefits definitely outweigh the risks considering I'm not actually pregnant yet~I'm in the 2 week wait again.

In other news, I found out my batshit crazy cousin is pregnant. She's a 35 year old hoarder with impulse and anger issues, and if she'd go to a doctor, she'd most likely be diagnosed as bipolar. She's been in jail a couple times for drug stuff and once for assault during one of her impulsively angry destructive times. There is a man in her life. He's been supportive and loved her (from a safe distance) for the past 15 years, but she treats him like crap most of the time. She decided she wanted a baby, but he wasn't good looking enough, so she started banging her 20 year old neighbor's young-20 something boyfriend, because she wanted a "cute baby". My uncle was pissed at her until they found out it was a boy. Crazy cousin is one of three girls~my uncle is the last of his line. Crazy cousin's lovely awesome sister got married and her husband took her last name, but they had 2 little girls and she got her tubes tied. So now that there's a little boy coming to "carry the family name" he'll likely continue to support crazy cousin~she lives in a house he bought for her, pays the majority of her bills, etc. She works part-time at the front desk of a hotel, but that's it.

It frustrates me~because here's a woman who absolutely should NOT be bringing a child into the world. She's unstable and not able to support a child in any way a child would need support. Part of me hopes that this will be what turns her life around, but the realistic part of me knows it won't. So, best case scenario, the awesome cousin (who is estranged from the crazy one for a multitude of reasons but would never blame a baby for it's mother) will end up raising the baby along with her girls. And she is a fantastic mother. I think if this kid has any shot of growing up in a stable environment while staying in the family, it'll be with her.

A big kitchen with a center island, large pantry, and copious counter and cabinet space.
4 good sized bedrooms, 2 full baths with tubs, a half bath. A room to be a playroom/activity room. Den/library/office type room. Large, open floor plan opening kitchen up to eating area and great room. Full walkout basement with area for zach's workshop and laundry room. Attached oversized. 2 car garage.

Great news! Ben's not broken. He's got a lot of swelling and bruising, and the doctor said it may take 2 weeks or so to fully heal, but he doesn't need to stay off it or anything. He has to take motrin 3 times a day to help with swelling and pain, but he can do whatever he feels comfortable doing activity wise.

Oh hell. I may have broken Ben's foot in the recliner today. Pinched it really hard in the hinge, broke the skin, immediate swelling and bruising. Called Chris, he had me take Ben to the Dr after I picked Ali up from her school. He met us there right as the Dr was finishing up, so I brought Ali home and Chris stayed to get Ben's foot x-rayed. They should be home in a few hours, but the sooner the better. Hopefully because sooner means there's no break and no need for a cast or anything.

It was an accident, but had I checked to see where his legs were before putting the footrest down (we were snuggling on the loveseat) he wouldn't have gotten pinched. I feel awful about it, but Chris said he knew when he was carrying the new furniture inside one of the kids was gonna get hurt on it. He's just happy nothing got severed.

 

I am going to eat ALL THE THINGS and sit on my ass and watch tv and use my laptop as a heating pad. Because it’s mother-fucking shark week, which is just AWESOME, because now is it not only just an occasion to have horrible cramps and bloating and rage issues and eating habits, it also marks every month that hubby and I are failing in our attempt to have a cute little baby. So I’m making a mother-fucking kladdkaka and possibly eating it all by myself, having some hot tea, and not doing anything productive for the rest of the weekend.

Chris and kelli are expecting baby number 3 late this summer; I'm really excited for them!

I sent them an e-mail with some questions and comments and concerns and such about this summer since we never get a chance to actually talk without the kids listening in~ this is part of the one I sent:

"This is, of course, assuming y'all are still comfortable with the idea of me continuing to work for y'all and just bring mine along. I'm quite confident that 4 kids (especially since Ben and Ali and I work well together) will not be overwhelming for me or that you'd need to worry about the quality of care I'd provide for your 3 versus mine."

and this is what I got back regarding that part:

"We never question the quality of care you provide for our children. We consider you to be a member of the family and we know that you care for them just as well as you would care for your own children. In fact, Kelli and I often joke that you are a better parent than we are most of the time. Our only concern is where your comfort level is. As long as you think you can handle it, then we have complete faith in you."

THESE PEOPLE. Ali's class was talking about different kinds of families and she was telling me about it in the car on the way home~and said that the family she lives with is her mom and dad and Ben and the dogs, but her family that doesn't live with her was her grandmas and grandpas and aunts and uncles and cousins and me. I was like, "What was that?" and she said "Just because you don't live with me doesn't mean you aren't my family too!"

THESE PEOPLE AND THEIR KIDS. It's beyond awesome, I got SUPER lucky when I found them.

I really need to restrain myself from trying to have intelligent debate about religion with my father in law. He posted a really simplistic (to the point of over-simplifying and being ridiculous) explanation of atheism. When I countered with "Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones." which is more agnosticism than atheism, then asked if he was meaning practical/pragmatic atheism or theoretical atheism, he John 3:16'd me.

How can you have a debate with a person who automatically turns to John 3:16??? And yes, I've used "John 3:16" as a verb.

I generally have great respect for people of faith~having faith takes a lot of guts. But be meaningful and intelligent about your faith. Be thoughtful about it; be an apologist and be able to defend your position rationally. Throwing scripture around like it's going to make your point for you doesn't earn you any points.

Saw my doctor today~she'd really awesome, and it wasn't nearly as bad as I remembered it being.  They drew a lot of blood (well, 4 vials, but I HATE needles and blood) and she's gonna check some hormone levels, titers for vaccinations I've had (since I haven't had any in a long time and might need boosters) and check for hypothyroidism since I had a couple symptoms of that, apparently.  She wants me to start taking my temp every morning to see if I am, in fact, ovulating normally, and if I'm not pregnant in 4 months, to come back and we'll work on figuring it out.

Also, in news like that, Chris and Kelli (the people I nanny for) are expecting a baby at the end of July/early August. I totally called it about 3 weeks ago~she's had prenatals in the cabinet next to the kids' vitamins, and she was wearing a sweater I saw in target in the maternity section, but it was more of a "omg, she's pregnant!" just from looking at her. I dunno, I'm pretty good at telling that kind of thing~maybe I'm just more aware of it since babies are my job? I can usually call it, though, like our old neighbor, I knew before she was telling anyone too. But yeah, they haven't told the kids yet, I think they're waiting until she starts to show and it's obvious. I'll have to have a talk with them I guess, about how things are going to work if I get pregnant. She's got about 8 weeks she can take for maternity leave~I'll be there with the older kids and helping her as needed those weeks. And hey, if I don't end up pregnant until June or July, their youngest will be 9 months or so before mine even is born, so it won't be like 2 newborns in the house. Definitely curious how transportation will work though~Ben still needs a carseat until October when he can get a booster, and that'll be 4 kids who need to be in the backseat. The only thing I can think is that Ali might be bussed to school in the fall since she'll be in kindergarten. Chris was like, "I know you guys were planning on trying sometime soon, let us know if you think we need to re-tool your schedule or what and we can cross that bridge when we get to it" but it was over the phone and I wasn't really comfortable in that moment letting him know that we've been trying for a while.  Apparently they've been trying for a while too, and it took them a longish time~they're both about 6 or 7 years older than me.