Down for the count!

After the Hetricks left on Sunday, I thought I was doing pretty well to stay upright after all the shopping and running around all weekend. Then Monday hit, and somewhere between 11 am and 7 pm, I managed to catch one heck of a cold. I started sneezing and sniffling at work, and by the time I got home around 7:30 that night, I could barely breathe. This led to a night with very little sleep, mainly because my entire nasal cavity was plugged up. I woke up Tuesday with a sore throat and pounding headache, I assume from all of the congestion. I spent most of Tuesday laying in bed, although with the headache I had a tough time sleeping. I took a bath last night after Casey got home, which seemed to help my congestion a bit. Some time during the evening, my airways started to unclog, and I was able to sleep quite a bit better overnight. Now I'm up and around, although I can't smell or taste anything right now. I was pretty excited to get my appetite back this morning, until I realized I couldn't taste anything at all. I'm eating chicken right now and it's not got a whole lot of flavor... food is much more exciting to eat when there's flavor. The grape juice I'm drinking has a bit more taste, though. I managed to drink about half a container of OJ yesterday. I will be much happier when I can breathe better and not sound like Steve Urkel when I talk. That should be fun tomorrow at work when I have to say things over the intercom... hopefully it will improve by tomorrow!

Not much else is going on here, except I'm taking more pictures of my neighbor's drum set this afternoon. His wife came over and brought more equipment. I just wish I had more energy to do this, but since his birthday is on Sunday, I am running out of time. Hopefully she'll like the pictures and everything will turn out the way she wants it. Again, just wish I had a bit more energy (and a macro lens for my camera!). :) That's all for now... I'm sure I'll have more to write as the weekend arrives. I have Ashlee's baby shower on Sunday and hopefully by then I'll be back to normal, health-wise at least. :)

-Ash

Another crazy weekend...

I'm about to start another crazy weekend. Casey's family is coming up tonight and we're going to the Harry Potter exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry. It's the last weekend for it, so hopefully there aren't a ton of people thinking the same thing we are. :) The museum is open until midnight tonight... we expect the Hetricks to arrive in Aurora around 7 or so. Looks like a late night!

Tomorrow, I'm taking more Senior pics for Leslie, visiting one of Val's friends in downtown (and hopefully a few of mine because I found out one of my Columbia friends is in town, and Jenny & Olivier are driving up from the Springfield area to see him tomorrow... hope it all works out!). Casey and Keith are staying at home to work on the basement. In the afternoon, we're coming back, and hopefully stopping by Kyle & Mandi's housewarming party. I think after that I may collapse.

Today I'm working on cleaning the house. I've been a bit more productive than normal this morning so I'm taking a small break and eating some lunch. Then it's back to cleaning the kitchen, bathroom, and vacuuming/mopping the floors. I've already done 3 loads of laundry and the dishes are running right now. I'm glad to finally have a little more energy these days! I sure do need it as we seem to keep pretty busy around here.

In baby news, I am officially 18 weeks along today! Peanut has been dancing a bit more this week, which has been fun. :) No real kicks yet, but I'm sure that will happen sometime in the near future. I am excited for Casey to be able to feel the baby move, too... because right now all I can really do is describe what's going on. It's definitely not as fun for him... although he still seems to get pretty excited to hear about it. :) I now (finally) have a list started for registry items, and we have started looking at cribs. Our neighbor has a changing table that we have decided to buy, so although our baby furniture won't match, I have to say that I really don't care. People seem to make a big deal out of things like this, but I guess it's not really a priority to me. I DO need to start seriously narrowing down a theme for the nursery, though... I'm pretty sure we'll go with some sort of animal theme, but I haven't decided if it will be general, something more specific like the ocean, or Winnie the Pooh (Classic Pooh at Target, not the more 'cartoony' one). I'm really glad that the color of the room is a very light, neutral green... that way we don't have to worry about painting it. I might like artsy things, but I am definitely not very good at decorating, as witnessed if you ever come to our place.

That's all for now.. Hopefully I'll have pictures to post soon from the weekend. Back to cleaning!

-Ash

Weekly... or daily... Frustration-Fest

SO I know I have a tendency to complain about things that happen at work, but today I think it is for a valid reason. I spent multiple hours over the past week printing materials for a new marketing system our company has come up with. I went over it several times with the assistant manager to be sure I was doing everything she wanted me to do. Since the big 'reveal' was this morning at the bi-monthly office meeting, I spent extra time yesterday printing a TON of stuff to go in the folders so they would be ready when the agents needed them. (8 pages per file, X 9 towns, X 20 copies of each, color, double sided, as instructed. You do the math because I don't want to!)

This brings me to this afternoon when I come in to work, and see a note on my desk that says, "Reprint everything on the new 'buff' paper."

Everything. EVERYTHING. The printer was running for 3 straight hours last night... on WHITE paper. No one mentioned this to me, or I obviously would have changed it before I ran the (literally) thousands of printouts I made yesterday. And of course the person who wrote the note definitely knew I was printing all of that yesterday as well, but never told me. Needless to say, I'm a little put out when I basically have to start from scratch. What a waste!! I am SO glad our office recycles!! Grrrr... Seriously, I have been in a funk most of the afternoon over this, mainly because it has taken THAT LONG to redo.

I'm done now. GRRR.

-Ash

Dumb Pregnancy Moment #3

Somehow I managed to leave Walgreens yesterday with two bottles of shampoo and no conditioner. It was not until I was washing my hair this morning in the shower that I realized it. Interesting.

The funny thing was that I spent a lot more time than I had intended in the store yesterday, just trying to figure out what brand to buy. The previous brand smelled AMAZING but has caused me a lot of problems. My pregnancy skin is super sensitive, and because the first shampoo/conditioner I had contained coconut oil, it was causing the skin around my hairline to break out. I wonder if Walgreens will allow me to exchange one of the bottles? Since it doesn't have a tamper seal, they really won't know if I used it or not. Hmmm...

I woke up pretty early this morning- probably around 4:15, and had a tough time getting back to sleep until Casey left around 5:45. Then I slept until 9:15, which is pretty late for me anymore. I'm putzing around the house a little bit longer until I go in to work at noon. I still have pictures to take for class tomorrow, but it looks like the weather isn't going to cooperate too much today. I am supposed to take pictures with 'leading lines' that take your eye from one part of the picture to another... and for some reason I can do things like this until it is an actual assignment... then I can't think of ideas. I may 'cheat' and use some of the pictures I took last Wednesday for my neighbor. Technically I took them before the assignment was given, but if I have things to turn in, I doubt my teacher is really going to look at the date I took them on. Not only that, but it's not like I'm trying to pass pictures off that I took a year ago as new. I have seen people do that in class, and it was really awkward when they get busted because someone spots snow in the picture when it's summer, etc. (Speaking of that, today is the last day of summer! Booo!!)

On that note, I should probably go try to dry my non-conditioned hair, and get ready for work. :)

-Ash

The Dancing 'Nut, and Self Doubt

Another Sunday at work. I will not really miss these. :)

On a lighter note, this morning Peanut has been pretty much dancing in my tummy, so much so that I started laughing out loud because it TICKLES! I had Dunkin Donuts coffee... pretty sure it's decaf... and one of the agents was playing Creedance. Suddenly The Nut starts flipping around more than it ever has! It's a very cool, weird feeling. Peanut still hangs out on the left side, which is interesting to me. When we went to the Doc on Wednesday, they always look for the heartbeat, and the nurse couldn't find it. When I pointed out that it likes to hang out on the lower left side, there it was! Even as I type this, it is dancing around a bit. :) Very cool. :)

So last night, Casey and I decided to check out Target and Babies R Us to see what sort of things we should be thinking about for the kid. Target was a good place to start, because it was pretty contained and slightly less overwhelming. We went down the street to B.R.U., and dang if it wasn't intimidating! There is so much to think about!! Definitely trying to figure out the crib situation first, because apparently it takes awhile to order and ship it here. Another thing is the theme of the room. Since we are not finding out the sex (sorry Mom!!) we are looking at neutral themes, and settling on one is tough. I still like the Classic Winnie the Pooh, and there are some animal themes we saw last night that were cute. Now it's a matter of narrowing down the idea and starting to register. Again, a little overwhelming, but I'm planning to ask more of the girls I know who have had kids recently and see what they would put on a Must Have list.

Other than baby stuff, we're just continuing to keep busy. Casey's family is coming to visit next weekend, mainly to help with the basement and also to check out the Harry Potter exhibit at the Museum of Science & Industry before it closes on the 27th. Oh, and to take some more Senior pics for Les. The weekend after that, I'm going to a baby shower for one of the girls at work. That brings us into October, which is sure to be insane!! We have the 20 week ultrasound on October 13th. Who knows what we are doing for Halloween this year. How can summer already be over?! I am freaking out!!

Between working, school, and weekend activities, time is really starting to fly by. There have been a few moments where I've allowed myself to step back for a second and actually think about all the things that are going on and what I need to do in the very near future, and I have to say that I'd rather stay busy and distracted right now. I am plagued with "What If's" concerning the baby, and I can't allow myself to worry too much about it, because a lot of it is out of my control. Self doubt is something I have spent almost 28 years struggling with, and still haven't managed to fully overcome. I feel like I can be one person at work, and then go home and be someone totally different- someone I don't really respect. I feel lazy and unmotivated. I really hope it's just a phase. It almost has to be, because when the baby arrives, I will be doing a lot more than I ever have, and there's no time to be like this anymore. Time to grow up! And from what I can see, I definitely need it.

I try to be realistic about things, and I think for the most part I am. There is this weird hurdle I have between knowing what I need to do, and actually doing it. To other people, it sometimes comes off as though I don't care, and that is the part that I hate. I really DO care, I just procrastinate too much and end up putting things off, usually until I don't have a choice and just have to do them. Then things don't turn out as neat and 'perfect' as I want them to be, and I get down on myself. It's a vicious cycle. When I get down on myself, I literally shut down, and then nothing gets done. So, I pretty much don't do anything, ever. Or so it seems. But I am ready for all of it to change. I think that is a step in the right direction, at least. The trick is going to be to actually DO IT. Nike had a good slogan, and it gets stuck in my head every once in awhile... just not often enough to increase my motivation as much as I would like it to.

Anyway, I feel like I'm going on and on about how little I get done, and then I realize that I'm blogging at work (again) and I should probably be more productive. Irony is also a big part of my life, and I seem to figure this out more often these days. Then I blog about it. Hopefully my sarcasm, and my momentary preoccupation with self doubt has not scared you away. Everyone has times like this, and I just need to come back and reread this every once in awhile so I can put things into perspective. I guess that's part of being human. And a woman. And pregnant. Yay for over-thinking!

-Ash

Dumb Pregnancy Moment #2

I was attempting to boil water on the stove. Turned on the burner, left the room. After almost 10 minutes, I went back to check on the water. I was stumped because it was not even bubbling. Then I realized I put the pot of water on the front burner, but turned on the back. Awesome.

The first time happened a few months back when I walked into the bathroom and turned on the water so I could wash my face. I decided to let it run for a minute to warm up... then apparently I got distracted, because I walked back in the bathroom at least 5-10 minutes later and the water was still running.

So in general, my pregnancy is bad for the environment.

LOL.. on a lighter note, I went in for my triple screening exam (for birth defects) today, which required a blood test. Normally this would not be on my 'lighter note' list as I absolutely hate needles, and freak out every time I have to have blood taken... but Casey decided to surprise me and drive all the way across town so he could be there with me. I almost cried when he walked into the waiting room. He is amazing and I need to definitely let him know that on a more regular basis. :)

The test went well (although I won't know about any results for a few days). We also got to hear the baby's heartbeat again today! This time it was 148 bpm. The next appointment is on October 13th when we have the 20 week sonogram! :) I look forward to seeing Peanut again!!

That's all for today!

-Ash

Just...blah

Still not sure what's wrong with me right now. I am not feeling like my usual 'people person' self today. I guess I can chalk it up to hormones, but how annoying! Just easily frustrated right now.

I'm trying to motivate myself at work today, but it's just not happening yet. I have been here since noon and it's almost 6:20 now. I tried to take a break and go to McDonald's to get a chocolate shake and see if that would lift my spirits, but so far that's not working either. I guess I just feel tired and a little less tolerant of people the past few days.

I really don't want to be like this so I'm trying to give myself a pep talk and get out of it. It almost seems like one little thing set me off this morning and I haven't been able to shake it yet... and we're talking something super shallow and ridiculous... so much so that I won't even write it in here. But I do realize that my mood was sour from that point and now I am not any better than I was then.

I do all of this complaining, and then someone just came by and asked if I have felt the little one move yet. Thinking about that definitely made me smile. Yay for the momental pick-me-up!

On that note, I should go. I have 30 minutes left and should probably be a bit more productive. :)

-Ash

Moodiness and Peanut

Last night Casey and I decided to take Charley Brown to downtown Naperville because we heard that Quigley's Pub had a dog-friendly patio. So we packed the kid up and went down to check it out. The weather was perfect for eating outside, and apparently everyone else felt the same way... it was tough to scout out a table that was 1) out of the way (aka not right in the middle where Charley would be able to lick everyone and everything around us), and 2) not a high-top table where we would have a harder time keeping track of CB while we ate. The hardest part was looking for a table because there was no real order to the seating, so everyone had to fend for themselves. Case and I tried to be respectful of other people that were standing around waiting for someplace to sit before us, but another couple showed up that had already ordered drinks on the inside and then came outside to look for seat. I felt myself getting a little defensive toward them because I felt like we had more of a right to the next free table than they did, since we were there before them, and there were more of us. I find myself feeling a little bit more entitled these days than I probably should, but part of me thought, 'My pregnant butt has been standing around here for over 45 minutes looking for a spot- I think I have the right to sit down.' Maybe that's wrong. It feels wrong. Oh well. I luckily struck up a conversation with two guys that were seated near the front entrance where we were standing, and we managed to swoop in and get their table while the seats were still warm. I saw the other couple give us dirty looks, which was annoying since we were playing by the unspoken 'rules' and they weren't. Anyway, dinner ended up going well, and we met a lot of nice people that enjoyed Charley's company. I love taking Charley out in public because he's normally really well behaved and people seem to like him a lot. We only ran into a few people that seemed afraid of him.

My tolerance for people right now is rather low; I'm letting little things make me angrier than I should. Like last night after dinner when we walked around outside, some girl sees Charley and screams out, "Oh my God! DOG!!" in complete fear of him... I said, "He won't hurt you, I promise!" (and then "Idiot" under my breath)... I shouldn't' be like that. Not everyone likes dogs, and some people think Charley looks mean, etc. Maybe they had a bad experience growing up. I should be sensitive to that. Part of me felt like she just did it for attention, so I was annoyed. My fuse is so short right now... I pray it's just the hormones. I don't remember being this intolerant of people before. At work, I put up with quite a bit. I'm proud of myself for being patient. But when we go out in public these days, I sometimes find myself saying something louder than I normally would because I don't really care if someone else hears me. I have NEVER been that way. Casey surely wonders what is going on with me for being so 'catty'... I'm not proud of it, but sometimes I just don't care. That's terrible! Is it better that I at least realize that it's bad? I don't know. Too much going on in my head right now, I guess. It doesn't always have to make sense or be logical... and hell... most of the time it's not.

On a random note, I hear our mailman outside right now, which is notable. One day when our front door was open, I heard the mailman coming down the street. It's the consistent whirring noise of his engine slowing down and speeding up at each house that I can hear all the way down the block. Anyway, I knew he was coming, so I subconsciously listened for him to be outside the door so I would know when the mail had arrived. Then I hear the sound of metal being twisted- not like a car accident, but like something had been hit. By the time I got to look out the door, he was already down the street. I walked outside to get the mail, and realized that he had hit our mailbox with his jeep, and broken the hook that you pull to open it. Not really a big deal, since the box worked correctly... I just thought it was a little strange. I've made it a point to watch him now if I'm home and hear him coming down the street. He's unlike any mailman I've ever seen. He smokes a big ole stogie while he drives... it's always hanging out of the side of his mouth. And he is (maybe obviously) a little reckless when he's driving. He swerves around a lot. And he doesn't wear a uniform. Other than that, he seems like a perfectly normal mailman. Ha!

Here's another random bit of info for you... I am officially 4 months pregnant now! Every Friday I get an update on what is developing this week and what to expect in the near future, so the update this week raised my eyebrows when I read that the baby would double in weight over the next few weeks, and it is about the size of an avocado, apparently. Now I wish I would have bought the fruit or vegetable that they compare it to each week, and take a belly picture with that fruit to show what size it is supposed to be. If only I would have thought of that before... but hindsight really is 20/20. We're really looking forward to the 20 week ultrasound to see how much Peanut has developed!!! And I think that everyone is coming to terms with the fact that we are not going to find out if Peanut is a She-nut or He-nut. The nursery is neutral, and there are plenty of neutral things out there we can get before the baby is born. As long as it's not all ducks and teddy bears, I will be happy.

I should go now... I really need to head to Walmart but I'm putting that off as long as possible. :) If I'm good at anything in life, it sure is procrastination.

-Ash

Wedding weekend and Casey's birthday!

Hello all! SO I have a ton to update and I've waited almost a week to do so, so I guess I should get to it. I didn't have many pictures, unfortunately, but I stole some from Daniel & Brian from and Ben & Amanda's wedding last weekend so I will include some of them as well!

A few hours before the wedding, I found out that my friend Brian, who I grew up with and hadn't seen since right before we moved to South Carolina 6 years ago, would be there as well. Just walking up to the country club where the wedding was held was exciting for me because I got to see Kyle's parents, and 'little' brother Chris (who is now 22, which absolutely blows my mind). I hadn't seen his family in years, so it was great to get to catch up with them as well.
The wedding was an absolute blast. The outdoor ceremony was pretty short- maybe 25 minutes- and then everyone went inside to enjoy dinner, drinks (good ole H₂O for me!) and dancing. Getting to see so many people I hadn't seen in years- a few I hadn't seen in 5-6 years- made it even better. One of the best things about being at this event, besides seeing my friend and his long-time girlfriend get hitched, was getting to see my best friends on Earth. I can't tell you how great it felt to see people again, some after a long period of time without much or any contact, and have it feel like I had just seen them yesterday. True friends always feel like home to me. It has been a long time since I've laughed as hard as I did last weekend. Sitting at dinner with Brian, his fiance Gale, Sara, Lindsey, and Casey was one of the highlights of my weekend. Having this much fun in one weekend makes me wonder how our 10 year THS reunion next year could ever top that.

Other than the wedding, we got to see quite a bit of Casey's side of the family this weekend, which was something we haven't gotten to do in awhile. Valerie recently moved to Kansas City, so we got to go visit her on Saturday afternoon and see her new apartment. We went to lunch, which was the first time in awhile that Casey's immediate family was all together, especially to help celebrate his birthday. Having everyone together is rare now that Val doesn't live at home and Les is a Senior in high school.

We also got to go visit Casey's Uncle Lloyd & Aunt Jeanie in Lawrence on Sunday morning. It was nice catching up with them, as well as Casey's cousins Pam and Lisa. Lisa just started college at KU and has had some issues with her roommate, so it was nice to talk to her about it and encourage her to try and move out. I had a similar situation when I first went to KSU... my first roommate was a total weirdo... but moving out a month later was the best decision I could have made. Then I went potluck the next year and got Chelsea, which worked out better than I could have ever hoped for! *(PS... Chelsea, your blog always inspires me to write, so I always read it right before I make a new entry.) :)

After visiting Lloyd, Jeanie, and their family, we went home and visited my mom in the hospital. She was admitted on Friday night. At first everyone thought she had the flu, but it turned out that blood was leaking somewhere in her body and her hemoglobin levels were extremely low. She got a blood transfusion, which seemed to do the trick. We got there just in time to meet one of her doctors and hear what his thoughts were about why she was there. Shortly after that, she was released from the hospital, so I'm glad we got to be there for that. I'm also glad that 1) it was not the flu, and 2) she's home now, and feeling a lot better.

Monday, De went to Kansas City to help Valerie unpack, and Casey stayed home in Topeka to help his dad with their deck. I went out with Leslie and took some more Senior pictures. I really have a lot of work to do and wish I was better at posing my subject, but I think these turned out well. We went to a farm close to the Hetricks house, and spent probably 1.5 hours walking around taking pictures. I have yet to edit them and will probably work on that after I get done writing this novel.

We left KC early Monday evening. Picked up Charley from the vet early Tuesday morning (they closed early Monday for the holiday, so we had to leave him there an extra night... boo!!) Fast forward to Wednesday, Casey's 29th birthday. I ended up making my first layer cake, which turned out well! Casey took half of it to work with him yesterday, and apparently people gobbled it up. He wanted to keep his birthday low-key this year, so when he got home from work Wednesday night, I gave him his presents, and we went out to dinner. In all he seemed to really enjoy everything. :)

Now it's Friday, and I've got plenty to do around here. This is what I get for waiting so long to blog... I could have split all of this up into probably 2 or 3 blog entries at this point. Oh well, hopefully I haven't lost all of you due to the rambling. Now it's time to add pictures to this massively long entry. Enjoy!

-Ash

Feeling Peanut!

So this week has been going well, mostly due to the fact that I have started feeling little movements of Peanut in my tummy! I thought at first that it was just digestion or something, but I definitely have been feeling some little pokes and tickles. :-D According to babycenter.com, Peanut is about the size of an apple now. I am willing to bet that it's a small apple, but an apple none-the-less. Today is the start of 15 weeks! I can't believe how fast time is going. I'll post a pic, but I'm going to state that I am definitely not as big as the picture makes me look. The shirt I was wearing makes me look like I have some extra poundage that I don't have... yet.

That said, I definitely feel bigger than I have before. I'm still trying to fit into some of the older t-shirts I have, but my belly is starting to poke out the bottom. Since I've never really been the type of girl that likes to show a lot of skin, I have been layering a lot... and the cooler weather has been a nice excuse. Maybe now I won't get teased about shopping for myself at Gap Kids... I'll be able to do it for Peanut instead! ;)

On another note, I am pretty stoked about going home this weekend. A friend I've had since 6th grade is getting married in Kansas City on Saturday!! It's going to be a fun wedding, for sure. I can't wait to see them, and catch up with other friends I haven't seen in a long time.. some I haven't seen since OUR wedding 6 years ago! I'm sure I'll have a lot to update next time I blog.

That's about it for now... just getting things ready around here... doing laundry, dishes, and whatever cleaning I can stand to do before I have to finish packing. Casey should be in here in about 2 hours, then we'll be on our way to the airport!

Happy Labor Day weekend everyone!

-Ash

Duggar Disgust

The Duggar family is on their 19th child. This really disturbs me.
Seriously. I honestly do not think that anyone can have that many children and be a 'great parent'. I would love to be proven wrong! (Don't worry, that will not happen first hand... because I know that I could NOT be a great parent to that many children!! At least I am sane enough to realize that... and if I wasn't, I would have needed to start a LONG time ago to achieve that 'goal'.) I am worried enough about being a good parent to one child.
Their situation makes me think of so many things. For instance, you would think that someone out of the 19 would be the 'odd one out'. Someone has to be the weirdo. Who will be the first to get arrested? (Okay, that's horrible... sorry. Blame the baby hormones.) At first I wondered how that woman's uterus stays inside her body after all of that... then I heard she has C-sections. Still, apparently you are not supposed to have more than 3 or so of those. I mean... does her stomach look like a freak accident with Edward Scissorhands? I don't know. I am past the point of asking logical questions now. I have to think something is wrong with them if they keep having more and more and more and more kids. How do they support them all and stay "debt-free" (according to one article). The same article said she has been pregnant 147 months of her life. Oh. My. God. Insane!
And they say that they will have as many children "as God allows". Okay. I don't even know what to do with that one.
Bottom line, I think they are crazy. You should know when to say 'when'. Enough is enough. There are plenty more cliche phrases I could write, but I'll stop now. And they should, too!!!!

-Ashley