Manhatten Clam Chowder

I put the lettuce in the bowl, cut up the tomatos and grated some cheese. My salad was ready. I grabbed the bowl, all proud of myself for actually wanting to eat some vegetables. Placed it on the table and walked back into the kitchen. I glanced down at the delicious looking soup on the stove. It wasn't boiling yet. I squated down around my big belly leaned over and grabbed a paper bag, from our recent trip to the grocery store, off the floor and collapsed it. Again I glanced at my soup, still not boiling. AND Again, I grabbed another bag; this time with my toes because leaning over is u.n.c.o.m.f.o.r.t.a.b.l.e. Lather, rinse, repeat. I prepared HRJ's dinner...ya, it was left over night..why is it I never want to cook after stocking our kitchen with food?...got him all set up. Then I scrubbedthekitchenpaintedtheentireupstairswentthrough18hoursoflaboragain and headed back to check on my soup. Still it waaaaasn't boiling! I stood there at the stove, looking puzzled.

"Oh my gawd!" I yelled. said in a inside voice. "I am such an idiot."

"What?" said the hubs.

"I turned the wrong burner on!" I whimpered.

Five minutes later my soup was boiling and ready.

In my defense, I've only ever had gas stoves and this one is electric. It doesn't show which one is on if someone say doesn't use their brain.

Sicky comfort

You know most people when they're not feeling well like to curl up with a bowl of chicken noodle soup. Maybe they get in their most comfy clothes, snuggle in to bed and fall fast asleep.

But my HRJ? My poor little baby who's nose is running down his face three days before Christmas. When he's ready for bed, he needs his Mama to sit by his crib with her hand through the slats, laying on the mattress palm up so that he can lay his face on it. Then with his closest hand he holds onto her other arm. Until he and his stuffed up nose fall fast asleep with his little mouth open wide.

It melts his Mama's heart.

How to: Move to a new state.

First of all don't move to a new state unless you want to deal with the hassle and a half. I mean if the love of your life is obligated by the military to relocate, than do move to said state. But let me tell you, there is a ton to do. And if you don't know what these things are, like moi, than you are in for a treat.

Here's a heads up of what could happen.

BANK.
If you belong to a credit union check if they are affiliated with other credit unions. Because if you get to your new state and have a pretty little check of your previous renters deposit in your hot little hand and all you want to do is deposit it. You will find that you can't. You will drive from credit union to credit union unable to even find an envelope to put the check in. You will get frusterated and have to join a new bank, which has an annoying policy of holding checks for 20 days. 

FORWARDING MAIL.
If you don't have a house when you move to your new state and you have your mail forwarded to general delivery at your new base. There are important things you need to know. Like filling out a second change of address form, like the post office told you to do, won't mean your mail will come to you. It will indeed still continue to go to general delivery. And if you don't provide general delivery with a current address they will send your mail back to the sender. So when you go to general delivery three months after you arrive to inquire, if maybe just maybe they might be getting those missing magazines. You will discover that they are and have been returning all of your mail since September 30th.

CARS.
If you aren't active duty military you are required to change over your registration to your new state. Especially if your car is an 03 and your lovely home state of California requires a smog every two years. To change over your registration you must have the title to your car. It does help though if the bank you had your loan through, that you paid off two years ago, had sent the title to dmv. If they haven't, even though their records show that they did. You must then get the bank to send some document to dmv and you must fill out an application and pay a fee. Even though you had absolutely nothing to do with the failed transaction. I do suggest in this situation insisting that the bank pay the fee. After the bank sends the letter to dmv you hope they expedite your request so that you can get your car transfered over to your new state before February when your registration expires. If you live on a military base, this is really important as they won't let you on base with expired plates.

CAR INSURANCE.
If you happen to belong to an insurance agency that only serves the state you lived in, you were forced to cancel that policy. Being rule abiding people, you and your husband do upon arrival. You open up a new policy with the same company but in your new state. Then three months later you receive a letter from the state of California that you don't have insurance and bad things are going to happen. So you must go online to prove that you do have insurance, except California won't acknowledge your new states insurance companies. This is especially frusterating for your husband who again, isn't required to register his vehicle in your new state. When you speak to dmv they will tell you that insurance companies are required to report insurance holders every 30 days. So if you decide to stay with California car registration you will receive bad letter once a month. Awesome.

I hope this helps.

Emo ramble

Do you ever feel like you don't want to share anything at all about your life? Like you want to be all moody and emo and just address your christmas cards. But you can't because your order for said christmas cards hasn't gone through and is lost in cyberspace somewhere. And you feel guilty that you haven't blogged in a couple of days but when you try to think of something to write you get all Idon'twanttosharethat and stick out your bottom lip. And finally you do think of something that you are alright with sharing but it's basically a one liner about how you bought sparkling apple cider that you'd been craving for a week and when you got it home the bottle managed to fall to the floor and break before you got any. So you decide that isn't good enough to write about. Then you start thinking about eating more of that pizza you had for dinner. And your stomach starts to feel hungry but you're pretty sure that it is more in your head than in your belly, but you kinda still want the pizza anyways. Ya, that's where I am right now.

I wonder if she thought I was crazy

as I handed her my ID and began giggling.

I was talking to my Padre on the phone as I came to the stop sign. I turned right and slowly pulled up to the front gate. I tossed the phone to the passanger seat and handed the serious guard my ID. As she checked to make sure all was right, I thought of what my Padre had just said. My body began to shake, a smile grew across my face. I tried to hold back but it was just too funny.

"They can't even do that at the feed lots."

He's so weird, I thought.

The guard handed me back my ID and I pulled forward. I leaned over and grabbed my cell phone.

"No Dad, it's a good thing I've gained weight, I'm supposed to. The doctor wasn't concerned that I'd gained six pounds in six weeks." I responded.

"Oh, ok" He said and handed the phone to my Madre so I could tell her about my 16 week doc appointment.

"Your husband" I said. "How does he come up with this stuff?"

What not to do..

When your hubby works a 12 hour day.

Don't make his favorite soup for the first time, from scratch. (Thanks Padre for the delicious recipe!)
Don't warm his core with fresh off the stove, creamy goodness.
Don't fill his belly full of hearty potatos. And toast.

Why?
Because then you will most likely be sitting alone at 8:38 at night while he sleeps soundly in bed upstairs.

Upside?
Full control over the remote! Score!

And by don't I mean do, because the satisfied look on his face as he sips (very manly sips of course) your dinner and relaxes, is worth not really getting to hang out with the love of your life. As long as it doesn't become common.

The roach super highway

So, I've been telling you since we moved into this house back in September about our roach issues. You know like the one in the kitchen that I tried to catch but I ended up running across the house instead. I think I told you about the one that was sitting right next to my toothbrush one night and how I boiled the hubs and my toothbrushes afterwards. No? Oh ya, that was absolutely disgusting.

Pretty much all of our roach issues have been in our downstairs bathroom. Everytime the hubs would kill one I would stand around afterwards going how are they getting in here?? I've looked in the cabinets, I've looked in the empty space next to the cabinets. I've looked everywhere, there was nothing I could find. Finally I started to imagine them coming out of the sink and the toilet..I know totally not plausable but I was desperate for an answer.

Then one night, I finally got my answer.

I headed to the bathroom that night so I could wash my face, etc. before heading to bed. Like normal I stopped at the edge of the carpet, threw open the door, checked the floor, stepped onto the tile and turned on the light. I looked to my left and then my right. There on the sink were 2, read that TWO, roaches. One sitting on my make up bag, the other on the counter. I ran out of the room and got the hubs. By the time he and I returned there was only one. Where had the other one gone? The hubs took care of the one and I started on my routine, you know after a quick dissenfecting. Later that night I had to come back down to the bathroom to grab some toilet paper. I opened the door as normal and there was the other roach. He stood frozen, as did I. I tried to lean over and get the paper out of the cabinet, cause I had to go! He didn't like the movement of my arms and decided to run. Where did he decide to run? AT ME! I jumped back and sprinted up the stairs. Waking my sleeping hubby so he could go take care of the problem.

Again after my night in shining armor saved the night, I stood around dumb struck. Where had that roach gone and come back from?

Then I saw it.

Right behind our pedestal sink where the pipes come into our house where two gapping holes. Basically, when they had installed the pipes years ago, they hadn't bothered to close up the wall. Leaving a nice pathway, you know so they could enjoy a liesurely walk right into my home.

Are you kidding me?

And this had never been resolved? What did the previous, previous, previous tenants enjoy these antennaed visitors?? Yuck.

You better believe I was on the phone with maintenece the next morning! It's been a week now since the holes were patched and I have no new stories to tell. Hopefully it stays that way, cause seriously I am sick of writing about roaches.

Trust me I'd rather have been here.

Woooo.

Life is crazy. And unpredictable. So many times I have wanted to sit down at this desk and write about our thanksgiving. About our 14 hour drive to see the hub's family. About the funny time HRJ was sleeping on my legs and my red ant bite started itching...ok, you had to be there, but trust me it was funny! And then something side tracks me...yes normally, it's just plain exhaustion, but lately?

It's been my severe morning sickness, worse than it's ever been. In fact it was so bad that besides that not making to the bathroom in time episode, I ended up in the ER on Thursday with dehydration. They even gave me an iv of saline and everything. It's been an insane couple of days. That's right, it was two days of morning sickness and then it was gone. I was fine Tuesday, sick as a dog Wednesday and Thursday and back to normal Friday. Crazy.

I thought since I'd reached my second trimester that all would be done. But I was wrong. Hopefully though, it's over now. Because having to do this, be this sick, in front of HRJ is just killing me. I hate that I can't get off the sofa, that is until I'm running to the bathroom. That I can't play blocks with him or vroom, vroom cars. The worst part? When I'm actually throwing up he is standing behind me hugging my back or laying on my legs. Breaks my heart. He is such a sweet boy, I don't know how the hubs and I got so lucky.

So for his sake especially, I'm hoping this is the end of that misery. I'm also hoping that I can get back to blogging regularly. That I won't always need to nap when baby naps and that some creative bone pops back up in my body. My creativity has been limited lately to a status update on my personal Facebook. That's it, that's all I've been able to muster. Sucks.

Here's my belly at 15 weeks.