What is sleep?

Okay, can someone PLEASE tell me WHAT sleep is & how I get it? OMG! I remember being sleep deprived during my last pregnancy because I had to pee 10 times in 6 hours. I remember the pregnancy induced nightmares that made no sense. I remember gas that would wake the dead. What I DON'T remember is how I finally overcame it all & finally got some sleep. When you add a toddler to the mix, sleep RARELY happens. During my last pregnancy I didn't catch a cold or anything either. I sure as heck have a doozie of one now though. I felt it comming on Saturday afternoon, so I did light housework, finished the NASCAR pillows, wrapped a few gifts & basically rested the rest of the day. On Sunday, we met up with our DD's Godparents for a gift exchange. Since they live about 140 miles from us, we met them halfway. I felt it beginning to hit me on the way to the meeting. By Sunday night, I felt like I'd been run over by a Mack truck, then the truck backed over me only to run over me a second time! DD & I slept until almost 11am yesterday, then I napped a second time about 3:30 pm. DH came home from work about 4:30 & I headed to bed about 9pm. DD keeps waking up & has woken me enough times that now I am awake. I am getting her diapered behind up today, she can nap about noon (as will I because I'm sick) & she IS sleeping tonight. My parents will be here on Christmas Eve & we are to go see my parents & a brother on Christmas Day. My brother is Wiccan & his coven celebrates Yule. Since many members still have Christian families (like ours) this lets them celebrate Christmas with their families. I guess there is a TON of drama going on at my Mom's house. My brother vents about my mom & mom about my brother. Personally, I think BOTH of them thrive on drama, are feeding off of each other & the truth about everything lies somewhere in the middle of their stories. I just let them vent, try to get them to look at the situation through the others eyes & don't talk to anyone about our convos. My Mom is a great lady, but unless there is something going on to worry about in ANY of our family members lives, she's not happy. My brother has been dealing with SO much the past 3 years or so. He relocated from the Midwest to be close to his family, had to bury his infant son, his wife left him & then died on Christmas Eve last year, he lost everything he owned that was stored in the Midwest in a fire & he's been unemployed for close to 8 months now. Toss in living with my parents at the age of 40 & it equals misery. My mother is a lady that has to be the family member with the worst problems. She's manilipulative in that way. What she doesn't seem to realize is that it is driving her entire family away from her. I love my mother, but the sympathy train has nearly forgotten about her station. Most of her problems, were created by her. I no longer have the time, the energy or the emotions left to keep holding her hand. Her guilt trips no longer work on me. When she would accuse me of laying a guilt trip on her my relpy was often, "Well MOM, I learned from the master didn't I". I make a consious effort NOT to be like her in so many ways. My mother is 61 years old. She needs to grow up & act like it. I am the only one in my family that has the balls to tell my parents the way it is. I'm only blunt when I've been given no other choice. I love my family, but my family doesn't seem to see me as the person I've become. They still see me as the 18 year old that was a carbon copy of her mother. Only my sister & one brother can see me for the person I am today. My sister & I have come to many of the same conclusions in regard to my parents over the years. We did this at the same time without even speaking to each other about it. We do our best not to gossip, talk bad about people or family (unless we are trying to figure out what the problem is & if we can help them see it), we support each other & each others choices, & don't hold my parents actions against them. We know our parents did the best they could with the knowledge they had available to them. Another thing we do that our parents have NEVER done is to vote.

A big surprise at the Dr & stuff

Well, I got a BIG surprise at the Dr on Dec 8th. I was 13.5 weeks pregnant instead of only 6!!! At the first appointment the Dr. said she wasn't SURE how along far I was from the physical exam, so she requested I get an Ultrasound. I did that the following Wednesday & found out the due date is June 10th instead of July 27th. I was shocked to say the least. We should be able to find out in about a month or so what the sex of this baby is. We are hoping for a boy but ultimately just want our baby to be healthy. I am already in my maternity clothes because most of my regular clothes just don't fit. When I saw my best friend today she complemented me on the shirt I was wearing. When I told her I made it, she was very surprised. We exchanged gifts & the kids all liked what they received, as did my friend & I. She gave me a BEAUTIFUL oriental copper horse that I'd NEVER be able to afford. I gave her a box of 2 dozen hand selected Christmas ornaments...per request. She likes my tree & it is covered with all types & colors of ornaments. All she has (mainly) are the orbs & she's bored with them. So, I granted her request. She liked them so much that she said I could do the same thing next year! I made a blanket for her daughter from Care Bears Fleece & gave her a Barbie doll. Her son received 2 Spiderman toys that change direction when they bump into something. She gave my daughter the Fisher Price Little People Castle & some wooden beads with strings for lacing. Then the kids all played together while we talked. It was a nice relaxing couple of hours. As for last night, my husband calls on the cell phone to tell me he had a blow out in the middle of nowhere on the way home. I asked him if he wanted me to come pick him up or birng him something to eat & he said no. He didn't want to leave the truck with all of the equipment on it, which I understand completely. His boss ended driving out to get him & sending tow truck to bring the work truck to our house & to remove the shredded tire & rim from the truck. Today, another employee got the tire replaced, brought it out to the house & helped my husband put it on the truck. I offered to postpone my gift exchange but my husband said no because we already had to postpone it once due to my friends children being sick with the cold. My husbands boss & fellow employee told him out outdoor Christmas lights looked really nice. One also told him that not only the red & green lights looked nice, but they also went the same direction & didn't look just "thrown on" like most other lights do. They both also liked that our lights weren't overdone like some others in our neighborhood. I still need to get the NASCAR pillows made for my daughters Godparents, the peppermint bark for my Grandmother & finish the Christmas sock for my daughter. This may be the last entry until after Chrsitmas.

It's offical!

It's offical! I had a Dr. appiontment today & my pregnancy was confirmed. I am 6 weeks pregnant & I'm dead dog tired! The due date is July 27th. One of neighbors said "Ha! Ha! You'll be pregnant in the summer!" It was meant as a joke though, not as a jab. Being toward the end of my pregnancy during the hottest part of the year in the desert southwest USA is NOT my idea of a good situation. I'm SURE I will be miserable. Oh well, I'll just have to drink plenty of water, swim at the YMCA & stay inside during the heat of the day. There's nothing else I can do! There is always the possibility that this child could be born on it's Uncle's 41st birthday. That would be July 23rd. I sure am glad I didn't give my neighbor ALL of my maternity clothes. I have to get dinner started. Bye for now.

Home Owners Association, maternity clothes & great neighbors

I attended the HOA meeting tonight at the community I live in. It was about where to put a playground. In this meeting many things were discussed but the main adgenda item was the long overdue playground. The builder was SUPPOSED to install one playgorund in every phase of development that insured our children didn't have to cross a busy main street. Well, here we are, PHASE ONE having been completed OVER 1 year ago & STILL NO PLAYGROUND for our phase! In fact, there is only one very small & substandard playground for ALL the phases! WTF! At least in all of the other phases a spot has been designated for one. PHASE ONE is the only one NOT TO HAVE A SPOT DESIGNATED for our playground. The builder refuses to give up a lot for what we were promised, so the residents met tonight with the head of our HOA to purpose a site to the builder. We found out that we will have to get builder & county approval because zoning has to be changed in order for the playground to be built in the propsed site. WHAT A PAIN IN THE A$$! I'm sick to death of our HOA! If you can buy a home without an HOA....DO IT! On a good note, the base price of the home we purchased is up to nearly $130,000. We bought our home for only $104,000 nearly two years ago. I personally don't think our home is worth what the builder is selling it for, but hey, I won't complain because when it comes time to sell it...it is profit for us! Now we just need to deceide what we're doing with our backyard & to get it done. I'm sick of looking at dirt & weeds. The thing is, we have to get approval for how we landscape our backyard. That ticks me off because who is going to see our backyard except us. Get this, if you don't get HOA approval before you landscape, then the bylaws say you have to get it before you sell your home. If they don't approve it, they can order you to remove what you've done. Sorry, but I THOUGHT I lived in the United States of America! If WE are PAYING for OUR HOME & the property on which it sits, then WHY must we have APPROVAL for simple landscaping. WHAT A CROCK! Like I said before, if you can afford a home WITHOUT an HOA then go for it. I know it's to keep the yards & homes from getting out of control with wild colors & unkept property, but in my opinion most HOAs have too much say in what homeowners can & cannot do. Most residents already refer to the HOA's bylaws enforcers as "HOA NAZIS". That should tell you something right there about how our HOA is viewed. On to another subject. I tried on all of my old maternity clothes today. I think if I purcase a couple of long sleeved shirts & one more pair of long pants I'll have enough to get through the winter. About March the temperature begins to rise enough to wear shorts & capri's on a regular basis. Since I figure that I'm due in July, I'll need to add a summer wardrobe to my collection. I have a sewing machine, some material & my mother that is BEYOND talented with a machine. HECK! This woman is downright GIFTED! I have limited skills in the area of sewing, but enough to get by. Most of my short sleeved shirts SHOULD get me through until March as well. By then I'll probably need the next size up. For most, this wouldn't be a big deal, but since I'm already a size 20 in regular clothes & by the end of my last pregnancy I was almost too big for 2X maternity clothes, it could be a problem. I didn't gain a huge amount of weight with #1 either. In fact, I only gained 20 pounds! That is my goal this time as well. Two great things happened as a result of pregnancy #1. The first was that DH & I were blessed with a beatiful daughter. The second was that I FINALLY grew BOOBS! Yes, I got to keep an entire cup size! WOO HOO! Let's see if I get that lucky with this one! LOL! On to another subject. Three of us walked to & from the meeting tonight & as we dropped the first neighbor off I complemented him on the Christmas lights in his yard. He didn't know where I lived & he said to me "That house that has The Grinch with red & greens lights looks pretty neat!" I said "Thanks, I'll tell my husband you liked it". He said "Oh! I didn't know you lived there! Your husband did a nice job" Our house is the only one that has mainly red & green lights. The Grinch (that stole Christmas) has a little white on him because he's one of those inflatables you buy at Wal-mart. The candy canes that light up our front walk also have red, green & white. Past that, the rest are red & green. We have about 1200 lights this year. It looks nice, but it isn't overdone either. We put ours up on Thanksgiving Day. Almost half of the people on our street put up lights this year. Just like on Halloween, most of the adults dressed in costume. The holidays are just a ton of fun in the community I live in. People are really nice. It often reminds me of growing up in small town Illinois. That is how nice most of my neighbors are. I'm not close to any of my neighbors, but here's a few examples of the people that live around me. My next door neighbor was expecting an OOPS baby with her husband. She already has a daughter, age 8, from a previous relationship. None of her friends or family gave her a baby shower, so I loaned her my bassinet, infant carseat, baby swing & exersaucer. She was SO greatful because if you had to BUY all of that stuff, the cost adds up quickly. I was glad to help her out. When my best friend gave me a four piece entertainment center, we used it to replace two in different rooms. One neighbor (now deceased) had almost no furniture. We offered both of ours to him but he only wanted one. I offered the other to a neighbor that has EIGHT kids. She had almost no furniture either. She was SO greatful. When she cleaned out her garage, she gave me probably $100 worth of clothes for my daughter, that hers had outgrown. I was the greatful one then. My other neighbor (the one I loned baby stuff to) knew DH & I were to be gone for a few weeks. While we were away, she got a notice about weeds on her property that is adjacent to ours. She weeded all of her property AND ours. It only takes one good rain here & our yards are invaded & overcome with weeds. When another neighbor is away, I take in the paper from her driveway & the fliers left on the door. She does the same for us while we are away. A neighbor down the street comes & checks for any signs of break in's when she knows were away. We do the same for her. My lady across the street just had a baby a couple of weeks ago. I gave her a ton of maternity clothes because she didn't want to spend the $$$ on them. She's a plus sized girl also. Shortly after she had her baby, I found out I'm expecting #2. I don't want them back because I got sick of those clothes. She was more than glad to have them. They looked really good on her too! Gosh this entry is getting long! I guess I just felt like writing tonight. Until next time, stay smiling!