Thursday was a bad, bad day! After leaving work over my lunch hour to deliver some Avon orders to a bank in West O, my car broke down about 5-10 minutes away from work on the interstate. I just happened to look at the gauge and see that the car was as hot as it could possibly be. I was right at an offramp when I saw it, so I shot off the offramp and into the first gas station. I waited there for an hour and a half for the car to cool down enough to add water and coolant. It was too !@#$ing hot for that. I was already a little overheated, since the air has been broken in the car for a while. So, after I add water and coolant, I head back to work since I’m already over-extended on my lunch hour. My customers are going to have to wait…

So, I jump back on the interstate. I watch the gauge rise again, which isn’t surprising since it is a hot day, but quickly it rises too high and I’m in the danger zone. Fortunately, I’m at another off-ramp so I shoot off again and into another gas station. (Being broken down on the side of the interstate, terrifies me.)

Now, I’m hosed. It’s hot. My car is toast. I have no way to get back to work. I’m not a happy girl. Well, someone from work is nice enough to come and get me and my hubby is wonderful and handles all the towing and service arrangements, since I lost two hours from my workday and couldn’t spare any more.

The next day we get the news back on the car. The water pump needs to be replaced…$500. The alternator bearing (or something like that needs replaced)…$300. In order to fix the AC, they would have to do some electrical testing and they couldn’t even begin to provide an estimate. Yowza! On an old car that we don’t really want anymore anyway.

After the terrible winter storms we had in our area, my husband and I decided that we needed at least one 4 x 4 vehicle. So, we’ve been shopping other people’s vehicles on the road. We’ve been looking at used car circulars and rubber necking at every dealership, since then. This whole event clenched the deal. It was time. We wanted to have more saved that we could put down on the vehicle, but I’m not driving that car again. So, we did it!

We are the proud new owners of a 2002 Ford Explorer. The mileage is good. The price was great. It is a “Certified Pre-owned Vehicle” so it has already had inspections and some service done. It looks new…nothing about this big, beautiful, red, S.U.V. looks used. I love it. I’m so happy.

We couldn’t do this, if it weren’t for my husband’s second job. Thanks, Baby for working so hard for us. I love you bunches! I love my SUV bunches…almost as much as I love you.

pictures to come later

I’m still here….just give me two more weeks and I promise to come back to life.

Saw this over at Firebrand’s so I decided to play along.

Pick your birth month and cross (strike) out what doesn’t apply to you. To strike out you use the S tag. So for the cross out you would surround the “strike out” with strike out . Then post the whole list for the next person or link back to here.

——–

JANUARY:
Stubborn and hard-hearted. Ambitious and serious. Loves to teach and be taught. Always looking at people’s flaws and weaknesses. Likes to criticize. Hardworking and productive. Smart, neat and organized. Sensitive and has deep thoughts. Knows how to make others happy. Quiet unless excited or tensed. Rather reserved. Highly attentive. Resistant to illnesses but prone to colds. Romantic but has difficulties expressing love. Loves children. Loyal. Has great social abilities yet easily jealous. Very Stubborn and money cautious.

Agree…disagree? Let me know. It’s so hard to make a non-biased assessment of yourself. I’d like to know, if it was necessary to cover stubborn twice? Geesh…

Well, I know one thing is for certain. If stress can cause a miscarriage, my job ain’t helping this situation any! Aside from the fact that I’ve worked two 12-hour days without a lunch break, let alone any other breaks…I had to stop through a high-priority deadline project today, just so I could go to the bathroom and breathe. Being drawn and quartered like that was making me stress and I was starting to cramp. The two may not have been related, but I couldn’t take the chance. So, I went into the bathroom and hung out for about 5 minutes, just breathing and doing my best to think happy thoughts.

It is amazing to me that my boss knows that I had bleeding this weekend. He knows I was mandated to bed rest. He knows that I had to miss work Monday, because of it. It is almost like he’s trying to make it so hard that I leave on my own. Perhaps, I’m being too conspiracy minded, but I can’t help but wonder.

On an up-note, the pregnancy calendar has some interesting news today:

Baby’s eye lens pits, optic cups and nasal pits begin to form.

So much is going to develop between now and the 23rd (my next doctor’s visit). I hope they do another ultrasound. I can’t wait!

My little Taz-Cee girl is getting old. She’s starting to get more aches and pains. Sometimes, she’ll just be sitting or laying somewhere and something will hurt. She’ll let out a yip, and run and find us if we aren’t nearby to give us a dirty look and cower a little. You see, she just doesn’t get that if she’s hurt, one of us didn’t cause it. Her little brain doesn’t understand what could be going on otherwise.

She also has this other little quirk. As my husband and I were sitting on the couch, Taz-Cee was lying on a blanket. My hubby could see her, but I couldn’t. He looks at her and says, “You did that yourself.” I just assumed, she got one of those little aches and thought it was Mike that caused it. I asked him about it and he said, no she’s just running from her butt. LOL! It’s true, whenever she passes gas, she turns around and looks to see who caused it and then she tries to run away from her own butt. She sure is a silly old dog!

Well, I went in for more blood work this morning and visited the OB/GYN for the first time at 2 pm. I really like her. To respect her privacy, I’m just going to call her Dr. Lucy going forward. Mike and I had to answer a few medical history questions. Then we went into an ultrasound room. Which comforted me, because I was hoping to get an early ultrasound, but Mike thought that was a bad sign. We waited in that room for a while. I knew there would be a wait since she was already fully booked, but fit us in anyways since there were concerns.

My mind was spinning. Was everything okay? Was it ectopic and that was causing bleeding? What would we find out? Finally Dr. Lucy showed up. As I mentioned before, I really like her. She has the kind of personality that anyone would be comfortable with. I felt at ease the moment she came in. She talked to us a little first and informed me that I was still pregnant and my hormone levels were rising which was a very good sign. She proceeded to do the exam. I must admit, my husband has been taking this all like a champ. I would think it might be a little uncomfortable for a man to be a part of that process for the first time. He handled it all like a pro.

After the exam she said that everything looked really good. Then she did the ultrasound. We got to see the baby for the very first time. While it was very comforting to see, it was uneventful..

…until she moved the wand a little and zoomed in, then we saw the steady flutter of a heart beat. It was amazing. We saw our little dot baby and we saw it’s heart beat.

Dr. Lucy also informed us that the risk of miscarriage decreases to 10% after detecting a heartbeat. I’m feeling pretty good right now. After a tough and long weekend, I needed this up beat news!

I’m stuck on this stupid couch and I don’t even know if I’m pregnant. This sucks.

We had the hubby’s family (Mom, Dad, 2 Brothers, 1 Sister-In-Law and 1 Sister-In-Law-To-Be) over for a barbecue today. After some delicious chicken breasts, grilled vegetables and corn on the cob we let them in on our happy news. With one grand child living with them and 2 grand kids on the way, I figured they would be numb to it, but to our surprise they were extremely happy. My mother-in-law was in tears. I was tired, feeling icky and grumpy, but their happiness really gave me a little pick me up.

It was a delightful day. The night wasn’t quite so delightful….

I woke up at 1 am with bad cramping, so I went downstairs to the restroom. There was blood…very red blood. My heart sunk. I walked into the computer room and while getting clothes out of the closet, I told Mike that I think it is happening…I think we are losing the baby. I had so many flashbacks to the first miscarriage. Mike took me across the street to the ER. They took some blood and then we waited for an hour to be seen by the doctor. By the time we arrived the ER, the cramping stopped. I sat in there and waited. Finally, just before the doctor came in, I asked to use the restroom and noticed that the bleeding stopped. I wasn’t sure what to think or what was going on. I had spent the last hour in the ER, waiting and crying. Mike held my hand, but he was worried and tired.

So, the doc came in and did a quick exam. She said that there was still some “oozing” but my blood tests still said I was pregnant, so she couldn’t tell me definitively whether or not I was pregnant. She prescribed bed rest until Tuesday and I’d need to go in for more blood work and get in to see my OB/GYN right away.

Well, the doctor didn’t offer much insurance other than they took my blood in a very abusive manner and confirmed that the test results are positive. She basically said that I need to see the OB/GYN. Well, I guess it is a little comforting to know that I’m pregnant by a doctor’s test. I scheduled an appointment with the OB/GYN for next Wednesday.

We had dinner w/ my Mom, her boyfriend, Grandma and little brother tonight and gave them the news. Needless to say, my mother is extremely excited. This is her first grandchild. I hope all goes well and we bring a beautiful little boy or girl into the world for her.