29 weeks and 3 days

This a picture of me with my friend Wendy, caught her just after making the "oh my gosh, look at how big it is!" face.

Life is going fast and furious.  I love it!  The past week we've done some more de-cluttering and cleaning, although our house looks trashier than ever.  I had to give up the lease on my massage studio since I can't do that kind of work (Ashiatsu) right now and I haven't used it since January.  That note was killing me.  Anyway, we have a house and garage chock-full of "stuff" as the late George Carlin would say.  My left hip has been flopping out and causing me difficulty with walking so I've been skipping the swimming exercises and I missed one day of work.  Besides, the rain has been interfering with the pool stuff anyway.  I did have an appointment with my acupuncturist this week and she did a great job in relaxing the muscles that have been pulling my hip out of place.  BTW -- I weighed myself this morning and I'm just a notch under 200 lbs.  I started this pregnancy at 154 lbs.  That's a 45 lb. gain so far.  I'm expected to gain about a pound a week from here on out.  I guess that's not too bad considering all that my body has had to go through to get here.  

When I'm at home, this is generally the view I have from my easy chair. The only exception is that I had to wake Rita up to get these pictures.  Here she's like " what?  got milk?"

Here she's like "enough with the camera already!  you didn't even bring milk!!!"

A Visit from BFF, Tiffany & an update

This week has been busy, AGAIN!  That's good though because I can chalk up another week.  My HS friend Tiffany lives in Chicago and she is down here visiting family and me!  I worked as much as possible so that I could take some time off to visit with her.  We went to dinner last night then got snoballs.  I had THE BEST chocolate snoball with condensed milk that I have ever had in my life!  I forgot to take pictures :(  Maybe I will get another chance on Tuesday.  We may be hooking up for breakfast before she flies back to the Windy City.  I can't wait. Also, Tiff gave me a wonderful little book of prayers called Mother's Manual by A. Francis Coomes, S.J.

(Update on pregnancy)

This week I got my results back from the AFP test .... all normal!  That's more than I can say for our little pumpkin's parents. I'm still getting migraines, they usually last through the night into the next day.  I take Ty.lenol, but it hardly ever helps.  I also have tried ice packs after a warm bath.  My headaches are directly associated with shoulder and neck tension.  I went to see my acupuncturist this week and it seems that all of the immunity points relieve the tension and the headache, so I suspect that allergies are the main culprit.  Zy.rtec has worked VERY well for me, so much better than Clar.itin ever had.  I guess I'm more allergic to cats and dogs than I thought, but they are my children too and they are staying inside.  

I noticed that in the mornings my belly is softer and smaller north of my belly-button.  In the evenings I look and feel like I've eaten a whole pig.  It's hard to move and breathe.  My acupuncturist suggested that my digestion is slow and I'm just filling -up so to speak.  I'm still very thirsty in the evenings and can't seem to get enough water.  I'm sleeping harder since I started the aqua-aerobics and swimming, which means that I don't wake up when I have to pee!  No ... not that!  I wake up in the morning and literally have to carry my belly to the bathroom while carefully dodging the way-too-slow cat that thinks the the best route from point A to point B is to travel in a zig-zag pattern.  She follows (leads) me to the toilet every time I have to go because once I sat there and brushed her while waiting for something to happen. I know, TMI.  Well, now she thinks that she is going to get brushed every time I go to the bathroom.  NOT!  

Let's see what else ... my energy is picking up in little spurts.  Today I washed the dogs and planned on taking them to the park for a walk, but got too tired by the time they were finished being bathed.  Oh well!  This weekend they will be able to play and romp around when we go to Abita Springs to visit my folks for Mother's Day. Maybe I will get more me pictures!

14wk pic & spring flowers

Haley and my Joseph's Coat roses...Lilies...

..And, here is my 14 week pic ... could be a better shot, but I was working solo.

Our Little-Uns ...

This is Haley, rescued at 6 months old.  She had climbed out of a 6 foot chain link kennel and was hit by a truck.  After nearly $3000 of rods and mesh to hold her front legs together, she can now run faster and jump higher than any dog I've personally ever seen.  Haley is 5 1/2 years old and she is a full-blood yellow lab.

This is Rain, he was also rescued at 6 months old, exactly 6 months prior to Haley.  Rain was dumped onto the Interstate over Lake Manchac.  He was trying to stop traffic and I decided to pick him up before he got hit.  He was making it very difficult for everyone on the road to avoid running him over because he would run into their lane and start jumping straight up and down.  I pulled over to the shoulder of the road and opened my passenger door and he jumped in, curled up on the seat and fell straight to sleep.  It was raining that day.  Rain looks like he is part chocolate lab and part pit bull.  The jackasses that dumped him tried to clip one of his ears then they probably noticed that he doesn't have a mean hair on his big block head.  Well, g

ood for us and better for him that I picked him up.  He's my "special" puppy.

This little girl is Rita.  I rescued her 15 years ago come June.  She was about 4 weeks old.  I rescued her from death row at the SPCA on Japonica St. in N.O.  She gets more awesome with every year that passes.  Why did I name her Rita?  See Animaniacs' characters Rita and Runt.  They were my favorite cartoon characters.

Please consider rescuing animals before purchasing them.  And don't forget to spay and neuter.