Back in the land of the living...

Okay, so I highly recommend keeping your bowels in good working condition if you can at all help it. I was barely functioning last week, let alone even considering writing in this blog that I haven't shared anywhere yet. My digestive nightmare has come to a close for now, and I'm happy to report that I believe I am actually human again. I knew I was back in the ballgame when we were watching TV on Sunday and every single commercial prompted a "Doesn't that look SOOO yummy?" My hubby wants to know what kind of whacked out star I fell under to have diarrhea be my little "blessing" in the form of morning sickness with this pregnancy. I'll tell you what kind of star...the same one that, while performing my maid of honor duties during wedding pictures, had a golf ball fly from behind me, land on the cart path in front of me, bounce up my dress and smack me square on the kneecap! That same star was also in charge of me tearing my patellar tendon in my knee simply by standing still. I'm thinking it may have actually all started with my feet that are a half-size different in length. (Are you sensing a pattern yet?) All I know is that I take my health way too much for granted, and little episodes like the last week and a half reminded me of how lucky I am! Wouldn't you know it though...the DAY my diarrhea starts to clear up, I caught Mitchell's cold. Grrrrrr. Oh well, I can handle a cold...it just wipes me out.

Yes, that's right, I said it wipes me out and here I sit at 2 am typing. I think it might be a disease or something...I have always had sleep issues. My mom said I was a horrible napper, I never went to bed when I was supposed to, and I can still remember having really scary dreams while growing up. (I still have nightmares pretty regularly.) Grad school just sucked in the way of sleep...I actually spent many, many nights sleeping on the couch in front of the TV because that was the only way I could get to sleep. I'm a very light sleeper most of the time, and once I'm up, I'm up for awhile. Mitchell seems to have gotten Chris' ability to sleep through pretty much anything. Unfortunately, Chris and I both fell asleep on the couch tonight and I woke up at 12:45 and got us both upstairs. I didn't even turn the light on in the bedroom in hopes that I could just drift right back off, but half an hour and many, many random thoughts later, I was in the office with the computer fired up. I was just laying there thinking about things that really have no business swimming around my head at 1:00 in the morning...a couple of tasks I didn't get done today, phone calls I need to make, gifts I need to buy, the shirts waiting to be picked up at the dry cleaners, how dumb it is that I'm completely excited for our milk to be delivered in the morning, and what I'm going to make for dinner tomorrow so that I can defrost meat if I need to. Will someone please point me in the direction of the "off" switch in the brain so I can get some much needed sleep? I mean, seriously...do I really need to be thinking about frozen hamburger at 1 am? I think not. I am really tired...exhausted, actually...yet, I'm unable to just shut my eyes and go to sleep. Sigh. Off to get a snack and some ice water and then try again to go to sleep...I think I'll dig out my lavendar pillow spray and see if it helps. There's always Conan and Jay Leno...they usually help me out around this time of night. Wish me luck!!

That stupid alarm clock!!!

Okay, so it's really nice and all not having to wake up at or before the crack of dawn in order to get ready and go to work every day...but it really stinks when Chris' alarm wakes ME up, but not HIM like 10 times every morning. He woke up and went to work really early yesterday and actually got up like on the second alarm sounding. Well, we both fell asleep watching tv last night so when we went upstairs he just set his alarm and went to sleep. I didn't think anything about it until it started going off at 4:30!! Of course, then I couldn't go back to sleep. When it went off the third time I said "Are you needing to get up early?" He said "No, I forgot that it was set so early yesterday. Sorry." Grrrrrrrr!!! Totally not his fault and I understand, but here it is 5:45 and I'm about to head back in the bedroom and make sure he gets up on time. I just wish I could sleep like he and Mitchell do...they could sleep through anything and me, I hear one noise and I'm up for good.

Here's the other bad news about today...I have had diarrhea three times already this morning. Ugh. Ick. Gross. It is one of my least favorite things on the planet. I made myself an egg salad sandwich yesterday which was really yummy, but I'm guessing that it is the culprit. I can't think of anything else, and hope that this is a short-lived thing. Guess we won't be going anywhere today! I'll just try to drink even more water than normal and stick with toast and soup. Yuck.

Love the 4th...

I really do love the 4th of July...it's a pretty cool holiday. Sometimes, well--a lot of times, I end up completely taking my freedom and what it truly means to be an American for granted and it's nice to have this holiday to remember what it's all about. We really do live in an amazing country...yes, we have many problems and issues, but to be provided with the opportunity to say and do what we want to every day without question is pretty remarkable when you see what's going on in many other parts of the world. I also am so grateful for the fact that we are allowed to worship as we choose and cannot imagine having someone else decide my faith choice...or having to live in fear and be silent about making my own choice. I am married to one of the biggest patriots in our country and he has taught me so much about history and pride, and this is by far his favorite holiday of the year. He LOVES the 4th of July and I used to not really get into it, but now I love it, too. I used to just like the fireworks while eating a good ol' hot dog, but wasn't really thinking about what we were actually supposed to be celebrating. I'm not sure if it's because things mean so much more to me now as a parent, if it's just appreciating different elements of life as I get older, or if it's the influence of my patriotic hubby, but celebrating on the 4th is different for me now. We constantly pray for our troops and it's pretty humbling to think about the sacrifices so many of them are making and have made for us and this country. It's heartbreaking to think about the lives that have been changed and broken forever in the name of people that they don't even know. I'm looking forward to spending time with my own family this weekend and appreciating everything about my life that I seem to be so good at complaining about...even the 6 hours of NASCAR that I'll be watching with my ecstatic husband tonight! Happy 4th of July...God Bless America!!!

What else would I do at 5:00 am?

...but set up a little blog spot for myself? Okay, so I love being pregnant, and it's really just astounding to think that I am not alone in my own skin, but did the insomnia have to set in again so quickly? Really...it's quite inconvenient. :) Actually, I never thought I would, but I've gotten sort of addicted to reading a couple of different blogs with people that I know from different places and it sparked a little "Hey...I want to do that" button in me. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to write and this is the perfect outlet for that little creative piece of me that seems to stay bottled up. I started working for my mom again this week (she is self-employed and I do her books and stuff), and I knew I needed to start writing more when I got excited about writing a letter to the homeowner's association about changing the lightbulbs in the clubhouse where she holds her aerobics classes. That's just pathetic. I would really love to write for a living, and when I was working at school, I did -- sort of. I had to write tons of reports and even though it took up waaaaayyyyy too much time, I really did enjoy that piece of my job. I told my mom that I want to look for a work-at-home-writing-only job. If you know of any...send them my way!! hee hee.

Well, I suppose I should at least lay down. Mitchell has been waking up at or before 6am all week, so I know I'll be regretting my little all-nighter in about an hour. The good news is that we're going to the swimming pool today with my mom, so it's nothing too strenous.

Who'd have thought that I'd be this excited about talking to myself (and Lord knows who else) on some random web page? Kind of fun...