Paper and cans

These toilet paper wedding dresses are insane. I can’t even imagine having the patience to construct such creations.

They’re ALMOST as fun as this year’s canstruction entries. The venus flytrap is my fave.

Update

I am making a solemn vow to update this blog more frequently. I know I keep saying that things have been hectic, but really. Things have been hectic. So here’s a random summary of the highlights and low-lights of the past few weeks.

First off, I am happy to report that I finally found a place in Boulder that offers preservative-free flu shots. One dose was $75, but I figured the peace of mind was well worth the price of admission. Because the whole topic was about to make me looneyrific.

We went to Taos for our last “romantic getaway”/4th anniversary celebration the weekend of the 12th. We lucked out with beautiful weather and appropriately scenic fall leaves. We would move there in a second if it made any sense financially. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a great need for healthcare architects in northern New Mexico. Anyway, we did a lot of loafing, eating of green chili, and lazing about. To counteract the overall theme of sloth and gluttony, we also took a 3 mile round-trip hike down and back up the Rio Grande Gorge. We were originally going to pick a trail that was a bit more mellow, but I was feeling up to a challenge and I’m glad we went. Here I am in all my largeness about 1/2 way down the trail to the river.

There is an odd disconnect in that I don’t feel nearly as big as I look. For the most part I’m still easily able to get around and about (though it’s getting harder to pick up things off the floor) but when I see myself in pictures I’m like, “Holy crap! I guess I really am pregnant!”

It’s a good thing we relaxed while we were away because once we got home all hell broke loose with Rooster. Jim left the the Monday after we returned from Taos for a 2 day business trip to Oregon. This neatly coincided with the explosive diarrhea that Rooster began to exhibit by Tuesday afternoon. I arrived home from work to find Rooster and his crate creatively decorated with wall to wall fecal matter. He’s such an artistic guy! But after a thorough cage cleaning, a bath, and what turned out to be a 3-hour trip to the emergency vet (we didn’t get home until 11 pm) we were well armed with antibiotics and Rooster was already looking (and smelling) better. And I was thanking my lucky stars that he’s not a 100 lb. Great Dane.

But just as things were looking up, Rooster started coughing like crazy. So I spent this past Monday morning at the vet’s office AGAIN because despite the fact that he was vaccinated for this type of thing, Rooster picked up kennel cough. So now he’s on more meds, but doing well. The hardest part is keeping him calm. He and Banjo so love to roughhouse. See Exhibit A below.

Although it appears Banjo is attempting to eat Rooster head-first, he is merely going in for a delicious (yet firm) ear-nibble. I’d also like to note that through it all Banjo has remained as healthy as a horse. So maybe we’re destined to having one weak-link (but precious) dog?

I thought we would be done with medical scares for a while, but I went in for my regular checkup on Thursday and my OB informed me that I was measuring 3 weeks ahead and I needed to schedule yet another appointment with the perinatologist even though it was “probably nothing to worry about”. So of course I lost it. Couldn’t stop crying, thinking something was majorly wrong, etc. I had only gained the (recommended) 4 lbs. in a month, so that wasn’t the issue. I drove home after my appointment because I was such a mess I couldn’t possibly go back to work. And the internet wasn’t very reassuring. Is it ever?? I should know this by now. Amazingly, by some stroke of incredible luck, the ultrasound scheduler at the hospital called me and said the peri was able to squeeze me in on the SAME DAY at 2 pm. So at least I didn’t have to spend a week or two fretting. The verdict? Everything is totally normal. The kid is on track, no excess amniotic fluid, no nothing. Goes to show how well tape measurers work for determining how a pregnancy is progressing.

Now that life has been relatively calm for almost 2 days, I plan to dedicate the rest of this weekend to relaxing and enjoying the clans’ relative good health. While I can.

Flu blues

I need to stay off of the internet. I swear it’s enough to make a person lose it. I’m a total info addict, but now that I’m pregnant I seem to come across all kinds of information that is not so much making me feel informed as totally paranoid.

My latest obsession is the flu shot debate. Some people say it’s best to avoid the standard flu shot because it still contains a mercury-based preservative that MAY cause problems for a developing baby. There are preservative-free versions of the shot available, but I’m having a hard time locating such an animal. You’d think they’d be all over the place in hippietown Boulder, Colorado, but that is apparently not the case. It’s so frustrating.

I considered skipping the shot all together until I was informed that having the flu during pregnancy seriously increases the odds that your child will develop schizophrenia later in life. And really, having the flu while pregnant is such a scary proposition. I had a wicked case a few years ago and I couldn’t leave the couch for days. My fever was near 104 at one point, and my cough eventually turned into bronchitis. It was brutal.

So I guess I’ll keep trying to find a preservative-free version of the shot and hope I get lucky. And what would I really be without yet one more obsession?

Playing catch-up

Here’s a haiku for today:

So very behind
Way too much to accomplish
Thus my blog suffers

Life continues to be hectic. Work is busy, and just as I check off a “to do” item at home another task springs up. I haven’t gotten around to birthday present thank-you notes, and I can’t remember the last time I sat down and paid bills. My parents were in town the weekend of the 21st and then I was visiting my friend Shelby in Phoenix this past weekend, so it’s been hard to get anything done. I have managed to do quite a bit of shopping, however. I’m not a great shopper (very picky) so it’s always an accomplishment when I actually find something I like and buy it. But of course, buying means more bills. Boo.

In exciting news, for my birthday Jim got me the digital SLR I have been coveting. So expect more and better pictures from now on. Once I figure out how to use the thing. The instruction manual is as thick as my head feels lately. But I can already tell it’s going to be fabulous from my limited picture taking experiments. We’ve managed some especially pleasing portraits and action shots of the dogs. So there’s another “to do” item: download pictures.

And yet another “to do” is awaiting me upstairs: laundry. So off I go.