Updates

Me: Sty is gone. Mucus is here to stay... but at least is remaining inside me and not being projected through any orifices.

Dog: The tinfoil was not the cause of her problems (it was like the foil of a wrapper and barely measured a quarter of an inch squared), but changing her dog food has seemed to help.

My cousin: Mom and I drove to St. Cloud yesterday to visit with her. She's in a lot of pain (but on some good drugs) and they're mainly waiting to see if the liver can repair itself. She was having some issues with her one shoulder. It was so sore that she couldn't even have the thin hospital gown fabric touching it! They were going to have it x-rayed, but I haven't heard the results of that yet. Mainly she was starving. She hadn't eaten since Thursday at lunchtime and they had only approved clear liquids since the potential for surgery still exists. Other than that, she was in good spirits and we had a nice chat (as long as we didn't make her laugh - ouch!).

We heard the long version of what happened and honestly she is amazing lucky that she isn't in worse shape. When the horse spooked, it reared up and turned 180 degrees to run back in the other direction. She flew off to the side and into a ditch. She thinks she must have still had her hands on the reins because this pulled the horse down on top of her. The two front legs smashed down on her side (she has two huge hoof-mark bruises) but somehow didn't break any ribs. Then the horse lost it's footing on the slope of the ditch and fell over onto her. This is a 16 hand horse mind you - like 1300 pounds!

The horse is fine in case any of you were wondering. :)

Today has been pretty lazy, just visiting with people I haven't had the chance to see yet. Tonight Mom and I are heading out to dinner with some girl friends and tomorrow afternoon Jon arrives! This means my vacation is already half over - time sure does fly when you're having fun!

Sickness All Around

It's been an interesting couple of days...

First, my hacking cough/mucus/pregnancy/asthma deal is back with a vengeance. I apologize for the graphicness, but today I sneezed and crap literally flew out of my mouth. Not even sure how this is physically possible, but it was disgusting and disturbing on so many levels. Oh, and for added fun, I got a sty (spelling?) in my eye. It's all swollen, itchy, and I have to wear my glasses. Yeah!

Of a slightly more serious nature, my Mom's dog (Angel) is also sick. She hasn't been feeling very well and is having very runny poops (again, sorry!). Last night she was circling (as all dogs do when they're trying to get into the poop stance) and poopy goo literally flew out of her butt as she circled. Poor thing! She spent the majority of the day in the vets office today and we're still not sure what is wrong: blood work came back okay and the x-ray didn't show any blockages (it did show a minuscule piece of tinfoil we saw her eat the night before - dumb dog! - not the cause of her issues though). For now we're hoping it's just a stomach bug so she's on antibiotics. If that doesn't solidify things, so to speak, she has to have a biopsy of her colon. Let's hope it doesn't have to come to that.

This last one is serious. My cousin was riding her horse today, when it spooked and bucked her off. Then the horse somehow lost its footing and either stepped on her or fell on her, I'm not exactly sure. Luckily her kids were riding with her so they rode to her brother-in-law's house and he was able to carry her home and then call 911. She has a ruptured liver and there is risk of complications that will result in a tricky surgery so they've transferred her to St. Cloud as a precaution. We're hopeful that everything is okay and that she will not need the surgery or anything else, but it's a little too early to tell. If you're saying your prayers tonight, she could use a little shout out. Thanks!

I Have a Brother?!

Last night after having dinner at our friends' new house (they designed and built it - gorgeous!), we came home and watched Deadliest Catch. I consider myself an expert on all things "deadly" now, and I especially love the Northwestern crew, so imagine my surprise when I learned that Sig and Edgar have another brother on the boat. How did I not know this! From the clips they showed, he's obviously anti-camera interaction, but still. Did you all know about Norman??

I'm currently blogging from the library as I ran up here to check my email finally. I'm waiting for a friend to finish reading for Story Hour and then we are heading out for lunch. (I'm also awaiting the results of my gestational diabetes test which I had done this morning.)

That's all that's new with me!

Bad, Bad Blogger

Technologically Challenged

Last night, I finally had time to blog so I wrote a short story about being technologically challenged and then a novel about the baby shower on Saturday. Of course, something messed up with Blogger and it didn't post! Argh! Obviously it hadn't been saving too much along the way because this is all that made it into the draft...

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I feel so tech challenged when I come home to visit.

One: I can't check my email unless I go to the public library. My parents don't own a personal computer and their office computers (which are downstairs from their living residence) block my access to Bellsouth. They are open limited days and hours so I'm lucky if I get up there once a week.

Two: It's hard to find time to blog. Even though the computers are downstairs, I can't really use them during business hours and using them in the evening seems a little inconvenient too. Normally, I blog while Jon is making supper (I am on dishes duty lately) or while we are hanging out and watching TV. Heading to the office seems like more of a production for some reason.

Three: Tonight we're trying to relax and order a pay-per-view from DirectTV. My parents account was never set up so we're waiting to see if they can fix it.

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I guess I should have added...
Four: Blogger bugger! I have to say that this is the first time I've ever lost a major post - but I'm a bit perturbed that it had to be this particular post.

So on to the shower (this is going to be very condensed because I'm not in the mood to write everything over, sorry!).

Mom and Sara did a great job organizing and setting everything up. Lots of people volunteered to bring food, plus Mom and Sara each made a few items. Everything was delicious! We played games of course and then I began the marathon task of opening presents.

I got so many great things (which I explained in great detail in the phantom post from last night). I will briefly categorize instead:

Clothes: Lots of adorable pink clothing (if somehow our baby turns out to a be a boy, he's going to be getting real comfortable with his feminine side!). [Also, as an aside, if anyone is thinking of buying us baby clothes we could really use things in 12 months or bigger. She can't possibly wear all the beautiful things she has already.]

One especially notable piece of clothing cam from one of my Mom's friends. She knit the baby the most gorgeous pink and brown sweater with little flowers in the pattern. It is way too precious for her to even wear - I wouldn't want to ruin it!

Sheets/blankets/supplies: Tons of great things, some from our registry and some that came mommie recommended (those are the best!).

Toys: Lots of little crinkly, rattley things that Rio will love to chew - I mean, MBP will love to chew!

Lastly, my Aunt came up with a very unique and meaningful gift. She wanted the baby to know and love the resort like we all do, so she painted a picture of cabin 7 with Agate Lake in the background. (It's based on the photo my mom uses on her blog.) It's beautiful. Jon and I get to keep it until the baby gets a place of her own... so a couple of years anyway!

Sorry this isn't as detailed as the post last night, but I wasn't really in the mood to rewrite everything again - go figure?! :)

Roadtrip Day 3 & 4

Sorry! The last couple of days have been busy and hectic visiting relatives and friends so I haven't had the time to find a computer I can blog from. Today is the first of my baby shower's (and since I know I will want to blog about that tomorrow!), I would like to finally finish off my roadtrip post this morning.

Day 3: Paducah, Kentucky to Middleton, Wisconsin
By day 3, the trip was starting to get long. Not that I was uncomfortable or anything, but we weren't laughing and enjoying ourselves as much as day 1 and 2. We just wanted to get on with it already! We made pretty good time through Illinois and were on schedule to make Tomah, Wisconsin that night. Then as when we got closer to the WI border (somewhere near Rockford, IL), we started to see signs for road closures due to flooding. It was obvious that our route was affected so we stopped at a Ruby Tuesday and tried to regroup.

After calling the WI travel hotline and listening to the recorded message of road closings about five times each (there must have been a hundred roads listed and the lady was talking so fast that it was impossible to follow along in the road atlas), we finally gave up on that angle. We decided to press on to WI and hope that there would be more information available along the way.

We stopped at a huge visitor center/rest stop and were given an alternative route to follow. Bad news: since the traffic was so heavy, the cars were only traveling about 15 mph and it was taking 5 or 6 hours to take the detour. Ouch! Rain storms were predicted for all day the next day so we weren't sure what that would mean for travel and/or additional road closures. However if we pressed on that night, we would be traveling in the dark and on smaller unfamiliar roads, though we obviously wouldn't be traveling fast, without the aid of our cell phones. (The night before we had accidentally plugged our phones into an outlet controlled by a switch and they had never been charged so we were both down to zero battery. Murphy's Law at it's best!) We took our chances and pressed on to Middleton, WI (a suburb of Madison) and checked into a hotel for the night. In retrospect, this was the best decision we could have made (and not only because I discovered a pizza better than Rafferty's...see below).

Day 4: Middleton, Wisconsin to Crosby, Minnesota
We rested up, charged the cell phones, and then got up super early the next morning and headed out before the majority of the traffic. We were able to make the detour in about 1 and 1/2 hours and then it was smooth sailing all the way to Mpls. and home. The sun was shining the whole trip (weather "fortune-telling" is obviously not an exact science)!

Best Pizza Ever:
For those that know me well, you know that I measure all pizza by Rafferty's standard (a local Brainerd establishment). It has remained my favorite even when compared to restaurants in Chicago, Houston, and Ft. Lauderdale. But now I must confess that I have discovered a pizza that is even better. It tastes very similar to Rafferty's in sauce, cheese and pepperoni, but the crust was way better - very light and crispy, yet not too thin. As an added bonus, they had these little pepperoni-type bacon bits that were out-of-this-world-fantastic sprinkled on top. So my new favorite is...
Boston's Gourmet Pizza: Ultimate Pepperoni! Yum.....
Must find a way to franchise to Florida immediately!

Roadtrip Day 2

Macon, Georgia to Paducah, Kentucky
Day 2 started out well. We wanted to hit Atlanta post-morning rush hour, so that meant we could sleep in (well as much as was possible on the chainlink fence mattress) and have a leisurely breakfast at the hotel before setting out for the day.

I love continental breakfasts at hotels if they have those awesome waffle flip irons. I know I could purchase one of these for home, but it wouldn't be as convenient since the batter wouldn't be pre-mixed and in a machine that delivers it in the perfect measured amount. I am a picky one, aren't I? Anyway, after some delicious waffles and fruit, we checked out and had an easy trip all the way to and through Atlanta. The traffic (and by traffic I mean horrendous amounts of rude, scary truckers) is truly awful there, but hitting it at the right time and taking the downtown route was much less white-knuckley and stressful.

Of course our good fortune couldn't last. North of Atlanta we ran into some major road construction. The road construction itself wasn't major (we never did see people working - it was just lane closures for the fun of it apparently), but it was a major pain in the ass! It took us two hours to go approximately 10 or 15 miles and I'm not exaggerating.

Then we ran into severe weather (i.e. torrential rain storms and tornadoes in Kentucky). It was so bad that we had to stop and eat at a Cracker Barrel just to wait out the worst of the rain. We met a woman traveling alone and invited her to dine with us. Turns out she's a primary education teacher like myself and her husband is a CNC machinist for NASCAR trucks so we had plenty to chat about.

I also had the most yummy sandwich. I highly recommend it if you are ever at a Cracker Barrel and if you don't have high cholesterol or clogged arteries. It was like a BLT and a Grilled Cheese all in one with fried chicken strips thrown in between. An hour afterward I would have run someone off the road for some Tums, but it was worth it!

Being behind schedule and with the continuing storms to take into account, we decided to stop short of our goal and stay in Paducah. Mom was thrilled with the room since the thermostat had been set at 57 degrees by the cleaning crew (again, not exaggerating) so she toughed it out on the sofabed while I slept in my clothes (for added warmth!) in the nice King sized bed.

To be continued...

Sick Skip

I know you're going to be devastated when I tell you the news, but I'm going to skip blogging about day 2 of my mother-daughter roadtrip today. Before you start searching for steak knives or turn the gas on in your oven, I promise to get back to my amusing storytelling of roadtrip antics tomorrow.

Tonight I'm taking it easy as I've had a splitting headache all afternoon. Even now that I'm feeling somewhat better in the jackhammering/throbbing department, I am completely wiped out. So I'm off to rest, watch a little Deadliest Catch, and probably turn in early.

Later homies!

Roadtrip Day 1

Hi all! Mom and I arrived safely in MN yesterday just in time to celebrate Father's Day with my Dad. The trip was long and interesting (as will be my post about it, I'm sure... long anyway, I can't guarantee interesting!) so I've decided to break it up a bit. Here is:

Day 1 Ft Lauderdale, Florida to Macon, Georgia
Day 1 was quite pleasant and the only day without drama really. Mom did all the driving. (And I don't just mean during day 1. The only driving I did was a short trip from the restaurant to our hotel on day 3 after Mom consumed a margarita the size of a fish bowl... but that's getting ahead of the story.) She'll tell you that she drove so that I could relax and put my feet up so they wouldn't swell, but this is only the partial truth. She drove because she is a control freak and the worst backseat driver. It would have annoyed her more to sit in the passenger seat as she would have spent the whole time telling me that I was driving too slow and that I wasn't jockeying lanes to advance in traffic at the appropriate time. She did an excellent job, kept her road rage to a minimum, and I got to sit back and be the "entertainer" so it was fine by me. (She did have a little issue pumping gas, accidentally putting in V-power at one place and then Super Plus at another, but with so many fillups over the past four days, she was afforded many additional opportunities to practice!)

Mom's van with it's alligator skin hood got many interesting stares at all our restroom stops, which was often since we kept a pretty tight schedule of stopping every hour and a half as that is what my doctor recommended. But what it lacked in style, it made up for in comfort. Her seats recline almost flat back so I literally reclined, stuffed with pillows on all sides, and with my barefeet up on the dash a good majority of the time. I'm sure the truckers we passed thought it was an interesting sight!

Mostly I read aloud to keep us entertained and laughing. Jen Lancaster's "Such a Pretty Fat" was our favorite causing mom to laugh so hard she cried and couldn't see the road at one point. I also read a little of "Breastfeeding Sucks" and "Bedtime Sucks" which were also both very funny, but slightly negative and depressing at the same time - I think I'd rather cross those hurdles as they come up than obsess about them ahead of time. :)

We stopped at a very nice La Quinta for the night, but I got stuck on the sleeper sofa since the air conditioning in that part of the suite didn't have a deep frost setting like the one in the bedroom with the king sized bed. I have slept on many bad sleeper sofas over the years, but this one takes the cake. It felt like I was laying on a chain link fence as the springs were literally an eighth of an inch from the top of the mattress! Luckily, I used many pillows to prop up my back, belly, and head so in the end I could only feel them digging into my legs. :)

Stay tuned for day 2's adventure tomorrow...

Blog Break

This isn't a great blog post to celebrate my 200th post, but it's not that huge of a milestone (Jess hit her 1000th a while back - now that is impressive!). No time to be cute or clever... I am swamped with packing, last minute household chores and I'm running out to the ob/gyn one last time to make sure I am AOK to travel tomorrow.

Since I will be roadtriping with my Mom Thursday - Sunday at least, don't expect any posting until at least next Monday or Tuesday. Do something fun or productive with the two minutes you usually waste checking my blog!

Minnesota or Bust! :)

Tah Dah!

The nursery is done and it looks amazing! Okay, it needs baby stuff, clothes, junk and, I guess, the actual baby... but for the most part it's finished. Huge thanks to Jon for all the painting (really wall art) and labor assembling furniture and hanging curtains.

I can't even begin to thank my seamstress extraordinaire (my Mom) for all her hard work. Everything looks fabulous (she made both sets of curtains, crib skirt, crib bedding, and hamper) and she happily worked within my unrealistic time frame of... this weekend! Currently she is wiped out and resting her sore arms and neck. Oh, and did I mention her sewing machine broke on the last project with six stitches left to go? See mom, you outlasted your machine, "you're stronger than you think!"

The pictures don't really do the room justice, but for all of you long distancers, here you go...

This is the view from the doorway/hallway:


Crib area against Jon's art wall:


The dresser is next to the crib on the art wall. You can see I won the closet debate so the doors have been replaced with curtains:


The opposite wall from the crib/dresser. I wanted mirrors to reflect Jon's art wall onto this wall as well, unfortunately you can't see that too well in the photo. The space above the mirror is reserved for baby girl P's name (to be determined) which will be spelled out in painted wood letters:


Here's another closeup of the crib bedding:


I love, love, love it! I may move in myself! :)

Look Before You Leak

I'll admit it. I tend to have irrational fears when it comes to creepy, crawly bugs. When sucking them up with the dust buster, I worry that they somehow will come shooting out the other end and fly up my arm. If Jon squishes one and throws it away in the garbage, I never feel entirely safe until that garbage has been removed from the house and picked up by the city. And if he chooses to flush it down the toilet, I always think there is a remote possibility that it wasn't truly dead, managed to avoid drowning, and will somehow crawl back up and attack me while I'm sitting on the toilet.

I know you're reading this right now thinking, "wow...this girl has issues," but before you judge me too harshly, let me recount a little tale from my last day of school...

Being preggers and all, I obviously have to use the restroom more frequently than before. So Friday while visiting in another K teacher's class, I asked if I could use her bathroom. Of course she had no objections to this so I slipped in, sat down, and peed. As I stood up and turned around to flush, my heart skipped a beat and my breath caught in my throat: a live cockroach was chillin' inside the toilet bowl (near the back of the tank where the water whooshes out)! I didn't see him in the bowl when I sat down so I don't know exactly where he was hiding and honestly I don't want to give too much thought to the fact that a disgusting roach was in such close proximity to my bare bottom. Thank God I wasn't sitting there any longer!

So you see, these fears are not entirely unfounded. Just in case this is a new form of insect attack, I will be pre-flushing all toilet bowls before assuming the position. I suggest you do the same... especially in bathrooms of questionable sanitation (like Sears, for those of you who read Minnesota Mom's blog)... and even if you plan to use the hover method. One can never be too vigilant!

Knowing my level of fear towards bugs, you might find it hard to believe that there is another teacher on my team who is even more petrified (especially of the roach variety). After telling "L" about my harrowing experience, she was practically trembling with fear. When our other friend "K" innocently commented about there being a toy tomato near L's foot, she only heard "I think there's a..." before she freaked out, screamed bloody murder, and practically knocked me down in her attempt to escape the area. It was like George Costanza ramming his way through children and the elderly while trying to flee a fire.

So there's one more cautionary tale for you. Beware a woman freaked out and fleeing the presence of creepy, crawly creatures. Not even your pregnancy status can save you in such a crisis.

Miller Time!

Sorry I didn't get to post last night, but I was very busy introducing myself to little Miller Jeffrey Froyd! And let me tell you, he is one cute little dude. I'm not just saying that either. He has great skin. He's not all weird and alien looking. Mom and Dad say he has a conehead, but with his adorable spiky hair sticking out in true bedhead fashion - I couldn't tell. If this is any indication of his future good looks, it will be extremely difficult to keep our little girl from falling under his spell. :)

Visiting also gave us a chance to scope out the hospital since I will be delivering there too. Getting in and out was a little like entering and exiting Fort Knox so I'm no longer concerned about baby snatching. They even have a little theft detection monitor on Miller, ala baby LoJack! Listening to Erin's delivery horror stories, however, was not as reassuring. Not really looking forward to the delivery part of this whole pregnancy gig. :(

Afterwards, Jon and I stopped at Pizza Time for some pizza. It's reportedly better than Anthony's Coal Fire Pizza, but after taste-testing for ourselves, we still like Anthony's best. Though nothing can beat Rafferty's for me - I started salivating just thinking about eating some when I'm back in MN.

Today was officially my last day with my kids. We didn't do anything except play games all day and both my stinkers were playing hookie, so it was a really nice time. At dismissal one of the boys said, "I might miss you Mrs. P." "Might, huh?" I asked. "No, I will miss you forever and ever," he corrected. Can you believe those boys are already players at age five! Actually I think his original sentiment is right on the mark. I might miss them too... after I celebrate my freedom, enjoy my summer vacation, and forget all their annoying little habits! Nah, I'm only half-serious. I'll miss those guys, but I am definitely ready for a break.

Tonight, I'm off to book club. Tomorrow is clean up and then our teacher luncheon. Tomorrow night... crib time! At least I hope I can con Jon into setting up the crib and dresser, that's my plan. Check back for photos over the weekend!

Waiting!

I'll spare you my boring existence of school days followed by cleaning out my classroom at night and get right to the good news:

Erin is in the process of having her baby right now! Ryan got the call at work this afternoon that her water broke (can't wait to hear the details behind that) and they rushed off to the hospital. Fans of her blog know that she had a false alarm last night, but this is the real deal!

So I'm sitting back, wishing her an easy and speedy delivery, and waiting for the final call that baby has arrived. Can't wait to meet you Miller!

Too Busy to Blog

Whew! I've had a productive and eventful weekend. I have the aching back and sleepy eyes to prove it. If I had more energy I would give you all the details, but you'll have to settle for this brief recap instead. (I know you're all groaning inside at the thought of missing out! ha ha)

Friday:
Doctors appt - all good, staying on asthma meds, appts set and insurance approved for MN trip, check. Dinner with Jon followed by Lost season finale (interesting, shocking, confusing). Lost was such an appropriate title for that show since that is how we viewers feel most of the time.

Saturday:
Last marathon day of school work for the year! Burned kids DVD gift, graded papers, ran errands, stayed out of Jon's way as he finished painting the nursery (pink color blocks added), made fabric covered cornice board for nursery, hosted MMA (mixed martial arts) party, consumed lots of Totinos pizzas (minus the one Jon spilled on the floor - our waistlines actually thanked him for this!), checkity-check.

Today:
Finished lesson plans, paid bills, headed up to Boca Town Centre for maternity shopping (capris, jeans, sweats, flip flops, check), started figuring out fabric placement for drapes and crib bedding, dinner, laundry, last friggin' check - I'm exhausted!

Good News: Nursery furniture has arrived! We should be able to pick it up on Thursday, so I'm hoping to have updated pics on the blog next weekend! Stay tuned...