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.

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.

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.

Pregnancy

Okay, let's talk about pregnancy.

I know there are some women out there who love being pregnant. They'd be pregnant all the time if they could. I knew about two weeks into it that I was not one of those women. Don't get me wrong, I'm very thankful to be pregnant and it's definitely better than the alternative (i.e. not being pregnant), but it hasn't exactly been a bed of roses for me (unless you count the thorns—who came up with that phrase, anyway?) and I imagine once will be enough for me.

I'm 24 weeks along now (about 5.5 months) and we found out we're having a boy. So we've started gathering cute boy stuff together. I admit I'm going to miss dressing up a little girl in frilly dresses and all the other cute girl stuff out there, but God is giving us a boy so I'm learning to turn away from the girl stuff. Hubby is still a bit worried when we're around a baby stuff in a store and I oooh and ahhh at all the little girl stuff, but I'll manage.

Here are a few random thoughts I have about this pregnancy thing:

Morning sickness. I'd really like to meet whoever came up with this term—and have a stern talking with them. There is nothing exclusively "morning" about it, it's all-day sickness, period. I spent the first 14 weeks nauseous most of the time, it wasn't fun. (I didn't throw up all the time, thankfully, but I was almost always nauseous.) Thankfully, my OB believes in drugs (medicine, that is) and I've been on anti-nausea medicine since week 7, which helped me at least get through the day. (Kind of important when I was trying to start a new job and finish up school while dealing with this pregnancy thing.) I'm happy to report I'm much better now and get sick much less often, though I still have the medicine and take it occasionally to ward off nausea. Apparently I'm going to be one of those people who deals with being sick off and on throughout the pregnancy—another reason I'm thinking once will be enough.

Maternity clothes. Ugh. I know, they're so much better and more stylish than they used to be, but they're so expensive and it takes so long to find things that fit. I managed to find a few pairs of pants that fit early on, thankfully (or they fit once my mother shortened them for me), but tops are still a struggle. Even at 24 weeks I'm still not showing a whole lot, so while my regular tops are too small I don't fill out maternity tops yet and they look ridiculous. For now I've gotten a few shirts that are a size larger than I normally wear and that seems to be working, particularly as the weather gets warmer so I don't have to wear sweaters and turtlenecks all the time anymore. Some days it's quite a challenge getting dressed and finding clothes that are comfortable and work.

Seatbelts. Not designed for pregnant women. Yes, you wear them anyway. 'Nuff said.

Sleeping. How do pregnant women sleep? I did okay the first trimester (I slept a lot more due to that first-trimester-always-exhausted thing), but now I never sleep very well. I am feeling kidlet moving during the day but not particularly at night (he's not big enough yet to do the jabbing and kicking I've heard about), but I am dealing with heartburn or acid reflux or whatever it is like there's no tomorrow, and it isn't fun. Taking antacids before I go to bed seems to help (yes, approved by the doctor), but I still only sleep for a few hours at a time, it seems, and I wake up a lot during the night and always wake up early in the morning. As long as I go to bed early enough I seem to be mostly okay and can manage my days, but never feeling like I sleep very well is really annoying.

Swelling. I may not be looking very pregnant yet but my ankles are HUGE! Hubby has noticed, too. I know it's normal and all, it's just weird. I can still get my shoes on (my feet are swollen some, too) but I'm definitely looking forward to summer when I can live in flip-flops. Closely related to swelling is also leg cramps, including painful charley horse cramps in your calves. I have to be very careful how I turn and stretch in bed to avoid getting those. Ouch.

Heat. This one is just speculation on my part. From what I've read pregnant women are hot all the time and can't cool down, even in the winter. I'm still waiting on this one so I'm still cold all the time, like always.

Bathroom. No discussion on pregnancy would be complete without a word on how often pregnant women have to go to the bathroom. Even at this early stage, before kidlet is huge and hitting your bladder (and squashing all your other organs, too, from what I've read). You always hear about how you're eating for two, but it doesn't come up as often that you're peeing (eliminating wastes) for two, too!

Those are my thoughts. For those of you who have been pregnant before, what are yours?

Saying Goodbye

I know it's been a while since I posted our big news and I know I should talk about this pregnancy thing (I will soon, I promise!), but right now I need to talk about something else: I said goodbye to a friend today. We knew each other for 20 years and went through a lot together. I remember when we first met: On the drive home I patted the dash and said, "You're going to last me the rest of my life." Oh, did I mention I'm talking about my car? ;-)

I've owned two cars in my driving life: A 1988 Toyota Tercel and a 1991 Toyota 4Runner, both bought new. The 4Runner was an investment I planned to last me a while; guess I called things right there. In 1991 the SUV was a relatively new concept and there were only three comparable ones on the market: The Toyota 4Runner, the Ford Explorer, and the Jeep Cherokee. I first learned about the 4Runner when I worked as an intern at a wildlife refuge in Alaska: my supervisor there had one. (Probably a 1989 or 1990 model.) When my mother came to visit me I told her we were going car shopping; she thought I was crazy but sure enough that's what we did, and she ended up agreeing it wasn't a bad idea. I remember test driving a Jeep Cherokee that was kind of stripped down; the salesman kept saying all kinds of things were available on it, he just didn't have one in stock for me to test drive. (For the record that's a bad way to sell a car. You should always have a customer test drive one with everything on it so they can't imagine buying one without all the bells and whistles they test drove.) Jeeps are also designed for taller people, I found (which I'm not), and I think I had a hard time reaching the pedals. (I don't remember exactly but I'm guessing the Jeep—like my 4Runner—was a stick shift.) When we went to the Toyota dealer and I test drove the 4Runner the salesman there had me test drive a car that was completely decked out, so his pitch was various things were optional and I could get the car without them if I wanted to. Smart man. Japanese-made Toyotas (back then) were also made for smaller people and I had a much easier time reaching the pedals (particularly the clutch) while still being able to drive comfortably. Last but not least my parents had owned Toyotas for most of my life so it just seemed natural that I would own another Toyota. I decided it was the car for me.

So I chose the car while in Alaska, then sent my mother home to CA with the specs I wanted so she and my dad could find it before I came home. You see, I was only going to be home for a week or two before I left for my summer job in NH that year, driving across the country to get there. So if I was going to get a new car I had to get it in that window or I'd have to go ahead and take the Tercel to NH again. (I'd gone to NH the summer before, too, and the Tercel made the drive then.) When my dad first heard my plans he thought I was crazy, too, but like my mom he came around, particularly when they went to a dealer to look at the car and he test drove it to see what it was all about. The way Toyota did things then was you ordered the car with the particular features you wanted, and if the particular dealer didn't have one that fit your specs they found it at another dealer somewhere and traded one of their cars for it. In this case, I was buying the car from a dealer in Ontario, CA, and my car (with the features I wanted) was at a dealer in Palm Springs. I got the car but it was a close call: The car the Ontario dealership was trading for my car was worth more than mine, I think it was, so money also had to be involved between the dealers, and I remember something about Toyota headquarters in Sacramento being involved. All of this happened over Memorial Day weekend so the holiday threw a loop into things, too. I remember a lot of phone calls back and forth with the salesman we were working with (he knew my situation, of course, that if I couldn't get the car in time the deal would be off), and the second he got the go-ahead he called us that he was on his way to Palm Springs to pick up my car. The next day I took off for NH. I remember being told that you shouldn't drive new cars over a certain speed for the first 500 miles or so to break them in. My 4Runner hit 500 miles on the first day.

Since then the 4Runner and I have been all over the United States and into Canada (I lived in Canada for two summers in my younger days), but as I got older and settled down it admittedly got to be a little less convenient to drive sometimes. Driving a stick shift car in city traffic is a pain, and you don't use 4WD much in those circumstances. I almost got a new car in 2004: I'd test drove a Nissan Pathfinder and Honda Pilot and was saving the car I thought I probably wanted—a new 4Runner—for last. But I never test drove the 4Runner: In the midst of looking at new cars I met a certain guy, and I ended up changing my car plans and getting a husband that year instead.

Once I got married I stopped driving the 4Runner as much since my husband's car gets better mileage and he usually drives when we go places. And I was getting a little tired of driving a stick and thought I wouldn't mind finally having an automatic transmission car. Then I got pregnant, and we started talking about getting a new car for me at some point since the 4Runner doesn't have airbags. (I don't know about 4Runners today but a 1991 4Runner isn't a car, it's a truck, and back then they weren't putting airbags on trucks.) Things worked out that we were able to get a new car a little sooner than we'd planned, and a few weeks ago I started driving my "new" 2001 Mazda Tribute. Most people would probably call that an old car, too (which is kind of nice for registration and insurance purposes) but at 10 years younger than the 4Runner it's definitely "new" to me! (Newer than hubby's car, too, which is a 1998. We finally own a car made in this century!)

So all of this brings me to today, and saying goodbye to the 4Runner. When hubby took it for its annual inspection last September the mechanic who inspected it happened to say out-of-the-blue that if we ever thought about selling it he might be interested in buying it. I wasn't pregnant and we had no plans to sell it at the time, but now that we did he was the first person hubby called. Sure enough the guy wanted it, and today we signed the paperwork and gave him the car (in exchange for a fair amount of money). I know I should have taken a picture of it to post here but it all happened so fast I didn't think about it until later. Suffice it to say it's a gray 1991 Toyota 4Runner and it's gone on to its new owner now, only the second owner of its life. I have a feeling he'll treat it well and have fun with it.

I know the 4Runner is just a car and I'm definitely fine with getting rid of it, but it is kind of nice to sit back and think about it for a moment; 20 years is a long time with a car, especially one you bought new. When I lived in Oregon it went back and forth to California with me and my cat. When I got my dog the car was perfect for her: A big car for a big dog. And of course having a big car was always nice since I could carry lots of stuff (something I often did), which is particularly helpful when you're moving back and forth across the country. I should mention that my parents, who both initially thought I was crazy for wanting a SUV, ended up with SUVs themselves 10 years later. I was a trendsetter.

I'm sorry our kidlet won't get to know the 4Runner but I admit the Mazda (which is an automatic) is easier to drive now that I'm pregnant, and it'll be easier to get him in and out of his car seat since it's lower to the ground than the 4Runner is. And the Mazda is still big enough for the dog, though we'll have to see how she does with a car seat taking up half of the back seat.

Now it's onto a new era (hubby's word, not mine): An automatic transmission car and a soon-to-be kid to put in it. At least the Mazda is still an SUV so I didn't have to give up that.

Bye, 4Runner!