Saturday, April 30, 2011

A New Toy

We have a new toy:


We've talked about getting a canoe for a while. Last week we went on a "babymoon" and spent a couple days at a Bed & Breakfast at a state park. The B&B has a private lake and a few boats guests can take out at their leisure, so the afternoon we got there we took a canoe out on the lake. Hubby sat in the stern and paddled while I sat in the bow and enjoyed the ride; it was wonderful. So I said okay, we could get a canoe. Hubby had actually already seen this one on Craigslist and when we got home it was still available, so he called the seller and made arrangements to check it out, and on Friday morning he came home with it. (He also prepared to get it by getting a paddle and a car kit to carry the canoe on his car's roof rack, since a 14-ft. canoe isn't something you can just throw in the back seat.) One thing hubby particular liked about this canoe is its paint job: In case you can't tell from the picture it's camouflaged, and hubby plans to use it for duck hunting. (Apparently the seller's son did the paint job, he used some stencils and it came out really well.) It also came with an attachment for an outboard motor, which hubby may get someday down the road. (UPDATE: Hubby read my post and said it's an attachment for a trolling motor, not an outboard motor. Whatever.)

So we now own a boat, and I agree that we'll undoubtedly have a lot of fun with it, especially once kidlet gets big enough to enjoy it, too. Someday we'll probably even get a second paddle for me to use. (I have paddled in a canoe before, it's just been a while.) I told hubby that its first use is going to be him taking me out to putter around the lake at the park where he works—as soon as we both have the same day off and have time to do it. Right now that's looking like next Saturday afternoon, after I get home from a baby shower for someone at church who is having her first child (also a boy) five weeks ahead of me. So far it looks like the weather next weekend should be nice so it should be a good time for an afternoon canoe ride on the lake. It sounds lovely.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Lizard Season and Other Stuff

Forget about pregnancy—hubby thinks I should talk about lizards on my blog.

This little guy showed up on our porch recently:


He hasn't been there the past couple days but as the weather gets warmer I imagine he'll be back. Hubby looks for him all the time.

We also have a finch nest in a tree right in front of our porch, the nest is right at eye height so we have a good view of the babies. Hubby says he thinks there are four babies in the nest; when we got home from church this morning we looked at them and I saw at least three fuzzy heads, and two pairs of eyes and little beaks looking at us. They're really cute. (Sorry, no picture yet, maybe later.)

In other news, I'm still getting over the cold I talked about in my last post. It's been two weeks now and I've developed quite a cough, which I think is actually getting worse. I can barely breathe without coughing now and I'm barely sleeping at night. (I have to sleep on three pillows now to help with acid reflux, too, and sleeping on three pillows just isn't comfortable, I've found. I don't sleep deeply and I wake up a lot.) My cough is so bad I called the doctor (ob office) when we got home from church this morning and the midwife on-call called me back. She said it sounds like I might have a respiratory infection and could need an antibiotic. She suggested I call the office for an appointment first thing tomorrow morning. At the very least if my lungs are clear and I don't need an antibiotic they might be able to give me something for my cough, which I assure you isn't pleasant.

Last but not least, if you live in the south you probably experienced it and if you don't you probably heard about the storms that came through here over the past few days. I was at an all-day training session and hubby was at work when the storms came through our area; thankfully, the brunt of the storm seemed to go around our particular area, but not by much. I haven't seen it, but it's strange to read about the devastation that happened when tornadoes touched down only 20 miles or so from us. I was concerned since doggie was home alone during the storms, but hubby left her in the house when he went to work and she usually isn't too bothered by weather so we thought she'd be okay. And she was: She was very happy to see me when I got home but that was probably more because she'd been alone for several hours rather than her being bothered by the storm. Doggie isn't a fan of being by herself for more than a couple of hours, she prefers company.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Not Again

I am getting a cold. Again.

I've talked before about how often I've gotten sick this year. Not just morning sickness (which I didn't mention at the time) but the flu and then colds. I don't know if pregnancy has made it worse (if that's even possible) but I have the immune system of a slug. When I'm around people I get sick. Last week I was at an awards banquet for an organization I'm part of; maybe that did it. Or on Sunday I was in the nursery at church and there was a baby there with a runny nose. I washed my hands every time I touched him and his runny nose was clear (the woman with me said that probably meant he was okay, maybe he was just stuffed up from all the pollen around here right now) but maybe that's not enough for me. I was fine yesterday but then last night I started having a sore throat. My throat still hurts a lot today and I'm starting to get congested, which is the usual way a cold progresses for me. I'd bet you real money I'll be worse by tonight and tomorrow, and if it's like my other colds it'll take me 5-7 days to really get over it. Sigh.

On the bright (if there is a bright) side of things yesterday was my normal day in the office and I'll be working at home the rest of the week, so at least I don't have to deal with trying to go to work. I do need to feel well enough to work, though: I discovered yesterday a couple deadlines I thought I had in May are in April instead, so I really don't have time right now to actually be "out sick." It is easier to take it easy while working at home, though, and I don't have any major extracurricular activities on my calendar this week (other than cleaning the house, which I REALLY need to do someday), so hopefully that will help.

And if this sore throat does progress into the coughing/sneezing mess I usually get at least I'm prepared: I've got about a dozen boxes of Kleenex in the closet. I usually empty about two boxes per cold so that should hold me for this round.