Today I happily stumbled upon a photo of the beloved pet mouse I kept alive for over a year. It may sound silly, saying over a year, but he was already quite mature to begin with. So this post, it's for you Barnaby. You were loved by all, especially my niece, Emma.
You never bit a soul. You were soft, & playful. You were patient when the kids wanted to hold you. You were brave when Caesar would try to play with you in your rolling ball. You always ate all your food, & you were never that hard to clean up.
You lived for all three moves. You thrived after being whisked away in Daisy's mouth. You survived almost being drowned.
You were a good mouse, Barnaby, & we miss you!
& I don't think my audience has been graced with the presence of my adorable niece yet. This is Emma:
She took that picture herself using the camera on my phone. She's 4.
This is Caesar's interpretation of his day @ the park.
When I first arrived, all I really wanted to do was relieve myself. The other dogs @ the park were rude. They could have at least waited until I was done to sniff around.
I felt better after relieving myself, so I decided to make friends. Though I felt popular @ the moment, I must've said something wrong because all the other dogs ran off & played without me. :(
I asked Daddy if he would chase me, & when he said yes I was over joyed. I asked Mommy if she wanted to join, but one look at her mid-section told me that her fat ass wouldn't be able to keep up. Not sure why she let herself go so much, she would of had a blast running around with us.
Note from Rachael: Caesar isn't mean enough to call me fat while I'm 9 months pregnant. We just assume that he still has no idea a baby is coming. Mainly because he's constantly jumping & launching himself @ my stomach as if nothing were in there.
I was pretty tired after running around like a maniac for a half hour. A few other dogs showed up, but nobody that looked very interesting. I prefer hanging out with my parents, anyway. We left, & I got to do my favorite thing ever: stick my face out of the window and let the wind flap my cheeks about. Overall, it was a good day.
So, I guess Caesar had a pretty good time. I saw this sign hanging on the fence @ the park, too, and was curious:
A hookworm is a parasitic nematode that lives in the small intestines of it's host, which could be a mammal such as a dog, cat, or human. I guess if you have small cuts on your feet, you could be @ risk for contracting one of these nasty buggers. They can cause all kinds of gastrointestinal & cognitive problems.
However, I'm thinking that the pure fact of stepping in dog shit with my bare feet is enough to make me wear shoes. But, that's just my opinion.
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In other news I got to stop by Borders & pick out a few books. Phil & I had just recently watched the movie Everything is Illuminated starring Elijah Wood. It's amazingly hilarious, & I highly recommend it. I knew that it was based off a novel by Jonathan Safran Foer who is also the main character in the movie. So I picked up that novel, along with another by him called Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. I'm excited to read both!
In baby news still not much happening. Every morning I wake up I get more & more anxious, irritated, & frustrated. I don't even know how to explain it. I'm getting so incredibly anxious. It literally feels like he's never going to come out. I've never had this kind of anxiety before. But, lets hope he makes a debut soon, before I drive myself insane!
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Also, don't forget to find me on Facebook, follow me on Twitter, & watch me on Dailybooth! I love the social nets! :)
You guys remember how much I've been complaining that I never get to do anything fun? Well, I finally got to leave the house! Even the city! I went to the first night of Daytrotter's Barnstormer III tour!
Daytrotter is a well established website with it's street team stationed in Rock Island, IL that provides you with a source for new music discovery & free MP3 downloads from the best emerging bands.
Barnstormer is the term used when Daytrotter packs up a handful of amazing bands and sends them sailing through the mid-west, stopping @ fun barn venues & other amazing places to offer a night of fun & music.
Now, unfortunately due to very annoying events, my camera wasn't cooperating properly. I salvaged what photos I could to show you today. I also managed to snag a clip of Free Energy's set, so enjoy!
The show was thrown @ the historic Octagonal Barn in West Liberty, IA. It was a two story barn, & the show & stage were set upstairs. Lots of fun, not so lots of toilet paper.
The set-up was really impressive. Most of the photos were from early on in the night. The entire stage & upstairs of the barn was pretty much packed by the middle of the night.
The barn was set off the side of a gravel road. It was one of those creepy chainsaw massacre type of deals.
& now for the fun clip of Free Energy. As you'll notice, by this time it was PACKED!
I totally suggest crashing one of these parties if you ever get the chance. It was a ton of fun!
And In Baby News... still no adorable offspring in my arms. Today I turned 38 weeks. I'm getting increasingly impatient. What's on tomorrow's agenda, since I used today to recover from last night? Book hunting! If you have any good suggestions, I'd appreciate it!
This morning I woke up @ 8:00am. I couldn't breathe out of my nose. So after a vigorous Afrin Nasal spray session, I was able to fall back asleep & stay that way until 11:05am.
It was pretty amazing. I wasn't even mad that I skipped my favorite meal, breakfast, and my morning snack.
Another milestone today! The reason I ended up even getting up is because I got this sudden horrible contraction, that wrapped it's squeezing arms around to my back. I thought maybe I had been laying down too long, so I got up & went to the bathroom. Lo' & behold, there was my mucus plug. In all it's mucousy glory. Let's hope this is a step in the right direction!
I also promised a surprise. Phil was given an indefinite loan of an old Polaroid camera. After spending almost $30 on only 8 shots of film for it @ the-impossible-project.com, we got them in the mail with no time to spare. Which is good, since we wanted to use it for some of baby boy's first photos.
I, knowing that the birth of our son could come & go in a matter of short instances, was worried about the functioning of the camera & it's compatible film. Of course, not to doubt Phil's mad camera man skills, I just wanted to make sure we knew how to use the damn thing. So, we decided to take what could be the last photo of my belly as it will shortly cease to grow. It's probably my favorite belly photo, of all time. I'm really happy he thought of this idea, because it's going to be so awesome.
We'll of course be taking many, many more photos with our regular digital camera, as well. But these will definitely look good in contrast when we finally get a photo album put together. :)
Since I've been on this bedrest, my parents have been trying to help out as much as possible. Well, since the baby could be here any day now, I thought it fit to get some laundry done. My mom volunteered, but she had to bring Emma (niece) & Nolan (nephew) with her. Nolan had fallen asleep on the way over, so I just told her to chuck him on my bed so he can ride out the nap. They are few & far between, I hear. So while I fed Emma more sugar than necessary (because that's what aunts do), we waited for him to wake up. Turns out, he woke himself up by peeing all over himself. Of course, it got on my bed. Not much, but enough to leave a heart shaped wet spot on my sheets. I wish I would've taken a picture, but I didn't. :(
Phil & I were testing out angles on our digital camera before we snapped a shot with the Polaroid. I just found this on the camera, and played with it a bit. Usually I hate how my belly looks from the front, but I really liked this one:
As much as I resent the belly, I might actually miss it once it's gone.
Phil didn't make it home tonight in time for dinner, so I ate by myself. As I did, I thought baking some cookies would be a great way to pass the time. I love to get the kind you break apart and bake for about 10 minutes, because I am a horrible baker & way too impatient to make them by scratch. They usually come with 24 cookies, but normally I eat 2 blocks of dough, and save 2 for Phil.
What I watched:
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition - Heathcock Family
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition - Beach Family
The Mothman Prophecies
What I listened to:
Miniature Tigers - Tell It To The Volcano
The Good Life - Album of the Year
Fleet Foxes - Self Titled
Dr. Dog - We All Belong
Peter Bjorn & John - Writer's Block
I was hoping to possibly bust out my old Lord of the Ring's collection & start reading them again. The weather seemed nice enough earlier today. But when it rains, it pours. :( So instead I did what all the stars do and I sang instead. But still, boo. I NEED SUNLIGHT!
I never ended up reading anything, by the way. :(
Anyway, ended up going to bed around 10:47pm. After I started feeling really hot & sticky and showering for no reason at 10:30 at night. This mixture of humidity & chilly air is not fun!
As always, you can follow me on Twitter & watch me on Dailybooth for more interesting updates through out the day!
Stayed tuned for hopefully tomorrow! Which will be Day 3!
Why did I wake up so early, with absolutely nothing on my agenda? Because all night I had been having to pee inside of a funnel, & had to pour it into big orange jug to refrigerate it.
Why, you must be asking yourself. Because I had to do the famous 24 hour test, of course! Because of my high blood pressure, they wanted to dig a little deeper by checking 24 hours worth of urine. You'd be surprised what piss can say about a person.
Anyway, having to walk back & forth from the fridge to the bathroom is more of a chore then it sounds. I constantly had to pour every last drop into this stupid container. & when you pee as much as I do, it's just time consuming. But, hopefully it will give us a little insight on what's going on.
Besides having to get up in the middle of the night to pee 4 times & having to make sure it was refrigerated, I got a pretty restful night. I started my day out right with a big bowl of Fruit Loops, a big glass of milk, and a cup of coffee with French vanilla creamer.
Phil didn't wake up until about a quarter to 9.
I had to make sure I turned my pee pee jug into the lab at the hospital before noon. I was happy to know Phil's sessions didn't start until 1 or so. That is, or so we thought. He had to duck out early, & I was left to take the icky container all by my lonesome. When I got there, they informed me they also had to draw blood. The nurses never said anything about it, so it was a surprise, but I didn't really mind.
I used to work @ the lab a few years ago, so I got to see a few people I hadn't talked to since I left there! Made me realize how much I missed that place, & most of the people. However, I am sick of all the lab work being done. My poor arms aren't looking too nice.
Anyway, enough about pee, blood, & labs. Here is something that keeps me amused day in & day out, bed ridden or not. My dog. If you are unaware or haven't met him, he's a character. His name is Caesar. He is a 1 year old miniature Shetland sheepdog. AKA: mini-Lassie He's very shy, reserved, weird, & eccentric. Lately he's been doing this goofy thing where he assaults his toy duck, which in turn takes out his territorial frustrations. Like I said, he's weird. & he doesn't like people walking in our halls, or other dogs walking outside. It pisses him off. & this is what he does to take out that anger:
By this time I had snacked on a chocolate chip granola bar, some original Lay's chips, and a small glass of cherry Kool-Aid.
This next part are just some tid-bits I did through out the day. I don't have cable, so I watch all my entertaining shows via my Dell Inspiron mini. So every day I'll take a picture of the weird set-up I have to do in order to watch my shows. :)
As you can see we have my Dell Inspiron Mini, my $5 speakers, my cute little USB purple mouse, my cell phone, & my box of tissues.
What I watched:
The Office - Secretary's Day
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition - The Hill Family
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition - The Mattingly Family
The Basketball Diaries
What I listened to:
Local Natives - Gorilla Manor
Beach House - Teen Dream
For lunch I whipped up a fresh batch of Spaghettios (or happiness in a can, as I call it), a Gala apple, 2 Little Debbie star crunches, some original Lay's chips, & a can of Coca Cola.
I decided that a small, easy project would be able to take up some of my time. I remember trying to stuff an important document into our bedside table, where we store many important documents, & it was a filthy mess. So, I emptied it out, & reorganized it. I thought, "Well hey! Since I'm organizing junk drawers, I might as well do the kitchen one, too." So I did.
I know they don't look particularly organized, but if you had seen them before, you'd know.
It was a rainy day, with not much to do. As you can tell by my post. When Phil got home I made us some Velveeta shells & cheese, hot dogs w/ ketchup & mustard, a star crunch and a can of Coca Cola. We watched a movie, played with a surprise I'll tell you about tomorrow, & then went to bed.
Thanks for spending my first full day of bedrest with me!
