Jodissimo

Zeddy turns 18!

2012-02-14T18:27:00.000-08:00

Guess it's time to sign him up for Selective Service.

Blogging Goals for 2012

2012-02-11T14:06:00.000-08:00

One of my 2012 goals was to blog more. I thought this was a good idea to keep people informed about the pregnancy and our new addition once he arrives. Unfortunately, in sharing this information, I have been unintentionally offensive to others and, being 8-months-pregnant myself, I am not emotionally well equipped right now to deal with constructive or nonconstructive feedback. For now, comments have been hidden and turned off until I can deal with them in a more mature fashion. I will also be limiting my posts to mostly photos and possibly before and after house projects with limited summaries until I figure out a better way to write about the items that interest me without offending those closest to us.

Thanks for understanding.

How Many Animals can Fit on Our Couch?

2012-02-10T05:00:00.000-08:00

Pregnancy, Week 35; Fat, Fatty, Fat, Fat

2012-02-09T09:24:00.000-08:00

We went in for another ultrasound yesterday but I think the staff was running late and trying to leave early because of an impending snowstorm (which was barely a dusting) so we didn't get any ultrasound photos- something I didn't notice until we had already arrived back home. Also, the tech made a passing comment about trying to get a 'face shot' but couldn't because Baby H is still holding his feet in front of his face. Oi.

But, we did have some updates to pass along so I thought I'd go ahead with a blog post. First, we were getting all these ultrasounds to monitor the marginal cord insertion that supposedly might stunt growth. Well, that's not a problem for Baby H. First, they showed us an image of his abdomen and pointed out that he is going to be a chubby baby since he already has a good layer of fat visible. Then they took all his measurements and determined he is currently in the 72 percentile at just over 6 lbs. They also have an initial estimate thinking he'll likely be over 8 lbs when he is born. I'm not particularly looking forward to that.

But he was also resting with a good heart rate in the 130s, he is head down and ready to go, and the tech also said he has lots of hair! I hope he does and I hope his hair is dark and crazy like his dad's was when he was a babe. But I was a towhead so this kid could also be born blonde.

We only have one ultrasound left in early March, but everyone has been quick to point out I might have a baby prior to making this appointment. Although I'm rooting for a 3.14 birthday, I also wouldn't mind being done with this whole pregnancy thing. We just had our hospital tour, our infant care class finishes tonight, but our childbirth classes aren't until this weekend so as long as Baby H holds off until next week, we should be good.

Major life event in 5... 4... 3...

In Our Ongoing Quest to Make Our House Browner- 2012, Part 2

2012-02-08T05:00:00.000-08:00

We've also slowly been making progress on our nursery. With the help of Dad & Thelxi and their contribution of the crib mattress (which will have chocolate brown sheets), as well as the new brown and tan bouncer we just received from Mom & Bob, the room almost feels complete. I also special ordered a chocolate brown version of a wall decal a few weeks back which finally arrived and I couldn't wait to install. It's as awesome as I had hoped!

(and yes, Logan and I are slightly crazy- okay, it's mostly me who is crazy. Anyway, it is our intention to keep the crib mattress on the floor and use it there as is promoted here. Yes, we may decide later we want a crib and, if we do, we'll get the crib then instead of now and the mattress should still work with it. In the mean time, this and the bassinet in our room seems far more like how I hope to parent than a matching crib and nursery set, however crazy as it may sound).

In Our Ongoing Quest to Make Our House Browner- 2012, Part 1

2012-02-05T05:00:00.000-08:00

I've mentioned several times on this blog that Logan and I have been making plans for installing wood floors in our house. I was hoping to have wood floors for baby's arrival since, in my mind, this kid will do nothing but spew bodily fluids from one end or another and wood floors would be easier to clean than our current carpet. Well, we have slowly been making progress on this goal and finally have something to report: we now have wood stairs!

First, our dogs being cute on our old carpeted stairs:

The carpet was demolished and I pulled up all the tack strips and leftover staples:

We purchased a prefinished wood floor, but from our research, the best solution for wood stairs was to buy solid wood stair treads and risers, and stain them to match your selected wood floors. Logan did a great job at staining and sealing since I'm not supposed to be around all those vapors.

Logan prepped the stairs by removing the old nosing:

And then between the two of us, we cut and installed new stained stair treads and painted risers:

I think they look fantastic! (Even though caulking and painting still remains- Man! I hate that projects always seem to be completed to the point where only caulking and painting remains). At least now we might actually start on the floor...

How Cooper Does Walks...

2012-02-03T05:00:00.000-08:00

...especially if it's cold....

Babies and Gifts

2012-02-01T05:00:00.000-08:00

Dearest Friends and Family,

I am apparently pregnant enough that people have started asking us where we are registered. I have been hesitant to tell people about our baby registries because I don't want anyone to feel obligated to buy us baby gifts. So although Logan and I have set up some tentative baby lists, please take the following into account before you feel compelled to purchase anything. If you still feel gifts are in order, I've listed our registries and some suggestions at the bottom of this post.

Most importantly, we are incredibly lucky to have such wonderful and supportive friends and family and we are very excited that Baby H gets to be surrounded by such incredible people as he grows up. We can never emphasize enough that you being you is the greatest gift we ever hope to receive. We do not need anything else. And we know how much we are loved. And so will Baby H.

For those of you we haven't spoken to in person about this, I have been approved for 6 months of maternity leave at my work (this is unpaid but they are happy to keep my job for me). During this time, Logan and I are going to attempt to live off of a single income and there is a good chance I may not return to work at the end of my maternity leave. We also still hope to relocate to Utah in the near-ish future where I may or may not seek a new position for a few years.

The loss of income, the extra costs of having a child, the possibility of extending our own little family even more, and our ever expanding extended family means we do not think we can keep up the notion of exchanging gifts with each and every, current and future, niece or nephew. We also do not expect our friends and family to keep up with gifts for our growing family. We would much rather focus on keeping in touch and enjoying visits and time spent with each other rather than trying to find a perfect gift and failing, or purchasing something just so we have something to give.

You may have also noticed a theme among many of my blog posts over the past few years. After years of collecting "things," Logan and I are really trying to pare down our possessions so we have more time and money to spend on experiences with people we love. As much as possible, we would really like to instill the value of simplicity on our children (don't worry, we're not planning on depriving them of anything, we just want to place as little emphasis on "stuff" as possible- especially during their younger years when they out-grow everything in a matter of weeks).

It is these thoughts that made me and Logan want to try a few things that may not be a "standard" way of parenting. We understand we may change our minds but we would prefer to find a flaw and seek a solution rather than buying everything in the hopes of being prepared for every scenario, however unlikely.

As a result, almost every baby item we have received so far has been highly recommended but also used hand-me-downs from friends. Or used purchases from ebay. Or used purchases from consignment shops. We've opted against a crib and a stroller until we feel like we need one, we're trying cloth diapers and wipes, and although we know baby #1 is a boy, we are trying to keep as much as possible gender neutral since we don't know what the future may hold.

We also have several items that we would like to pass on to our children rather than buying new. For example, I have a large children's book collection I inherited from my mother. She was a child development major and worked with toddlers up to kindergarteners in age. She, personally, was also a fan of young adult fiction, so we have a TON of children's books covering a span of ages from infant to pre-teen. Any other books we might need we would like to get from the library.

Along those same lines, my grandmother hand quilted several baby quilts for me that we still have and plan to use with our children. Logan and I also have several dolls and toys from our own childhoods, from pound puppies and cabbage patch kids, to playmobil and star wars, and these toys will be more than sufficient until our kids hit school and want more popular items that I'm sure they will ask for themselves.

So in other words, if and when you can, we would much prefer visits and experiences rather than gifts and packages. And we hope to return the favor as much as possible.

But if you still feel a gift is in order, we have compiled a list at Target and Amazon (or you can always search by our names). Of course, gift certificates to Once Upon a Child can be used as little Baby H grows, and contributing towards a college education would be more meaningful than any toy they may not remember.

Thanks for listening and we appreciate all the love and support. And should you choose to send gifts, we will also appreciate them.

Love doesn't begin to cover it.

-Jody and Logan

That's My Boy

2012-01-27T06:00:00.000-08:00

Okay, so technically Friday Photo was meant to be an easy way for me to make regular posts and allow me to showcase my animals easily and without words. Well, I'm breaking that rule this week because I want to share a Sparta story:

We allow our animals to "pre-wash" our dishes. We probably shouldn't, but we do. This bad habit lead to another bad habit with the dogs trying to clean out our dishwasher as we load it. We discourage this behavior but the treats the dishwasher dispenses is apparently worth any discouragement we dull out. And our discouragement has always been a bit half-hearted because, well, the behavior has never really hurt anything.

So the other night, Sparta was "helping" me load the dishwasher. I had finished loading the bottom tray so I pushed it into the dishwasher and pulled out the top tray. This meant I could no longer see what Sparta was doing. Well, what he was doing was sticking his head all the way into the dishwasher to continue to lick the plates on the bottom tray (normally he would just lick the dishwasher door, so I wasn't too concerned).

Well, apparently he got his collar caught on the corner of the bottom tray. He pulled his head out of the dishwasher but the tray followed him- so he panicked. He then pulled the whole bottom tray (full of dishes, no less) out of the dishwasher, stepped on the dishwasher door, and then proceeded to run in circles with the dishwasher tray "chasing" him. He screamed like a little girl the entire time. I think he spun around 3 times before I pinned him to the ground and unhooked his collar.

By this time, Logan had made his way into the kitchen to see what catastrophe his pregnant wife had created this time. It was, after all, quite the racket with all the dishes being pulled around the kitchen floor and Sparta screaming. I managed to explain something about Sparta and a caught collar as I laughed. Logan then looked at the kitchen floor and said, "what is that?"

Well, there was some splatter on the floor, stove, base cabinets, etc, and I thought maybe it was the remnants of coffee from one of our dishes. Nope. Then the kitchen really started to smell. Turns out, my manly-little-Sparta-dog was so scared of the dishwasher tray that he had expressed his anal glands. All over the kitchen.

You'd think he'd have learned his lesson, but later that night, Sparta tried to help load the dishwasher again.

In the end, two of our new dishes were chipped, our dishwasher door hasn't quite been the same, and our kitchen counter was pried upwards when Sparta stepped on the dishwasher door leaving some chipped paint and an off-kilter kitchen counter.

Yep. Comical Chaos. That's my boy.

Oops! I did it again.

2012-01-26T05:00:00.000-08:00

Well, for those of you keeping tabs, my "belly" photo from last week looked like this:

And the one from this week? This:

Yep. I cut my hair. Again.

For the past 30 years, I've been looking for the perfect haircut (which I still haven't found). I spent most of those 30 years with really long hair, mostly because I didn't care to take the time to go get it cut. When I did cut my hair short, I pretty much immediately went to growing it out again because, well, I hate going to get my hair cut and short haircuts require lots of trims.

So although I really liked my short marathoning haircut from last year, I started growing it out mostly because I hated going to Hair Cuttery so often, and I wasn't going to spend a lot of money on a nicer haircut every 4-6 weeks. I thought, for my future 'mom' do, I would go back to my chin length haircut from the previous year. Turns out, my memory is faulty and that haircut required almost as many visits to the dreaded Hair Cuttery and I had to straighten it every day. No deal.

Several months ago, we got a set of clippers and clipper guards from Costco and I have been cutting Logan's hair with them ever since (he, too, hates visits to the Hair Cuttery). I wanted to use the clippers on me, but the longest guard was still too short to make me comfortable. But after some research, I found some larger guards online and contemplated ordering them for some time. I'm probably going through some kind of crazy nesting/prep/obnoxious mom-to-be period, but I could no longer stand straightening my hair. So I bought the guards... and cut my own hair.

I'm hoping this might be the 'perfect' new haircut for me since I no longer have to make any trips to Hair Cuttery, I can easily duplicate my last haircut by using these guards (and grow it out slightly in between cuts), and super short hair is by far the easiest thing to clean/style/keep up. I might even look somewhat presentable in photos with Baby H!

Now if only hardwood floors could magically appear, wall decals suddenly be applied to Baby's room, and all those heavy boxes I'm sorting suddenly be featherlite, I might just about be ready for Baby's grand debut!

But then again, maybe not.

"Finished!"*

2012-01-24T05:00:00.000-08:00

We may be a couple weeks too late for Annie's visit, but we finally "finished"* our downstairs bathroom!

* And by "finished," we mean it is functional. Technically, we are still contending with the 7/8ths rule (or possibly the 31/32nds rule at this point) and have another coat of trim paint needed, as well as installing doors on the furnace room. But the important parts work so WELCOME GUESTS!

Jody Crazies! Letter Edition Update!

2012-01-22T05:00:00.000-08:00

So after I mentioned to my dad on our weekly phone call that I was scrap booking old letters I had, including many from my mom, he said something along the lines of "well y'know, I have a box of letters here from you that your mom kept." Well, along with joking about having to redo the scrapbook I just finished so the letters and responses could be together, my dad said he was going to send me the box.

Sure enough! Mom kept my letters just like I kept hers. She even stored them in a similar fashion, but I'm pretty sure my mother was better at keeping her collections organized, unlike me.

I think she sent me more letters than I sent her, or she was better at filtering what she kept, but either way, this project is quickly spiraling into quite the collection.

And since the scrapbook of letters from my mom was already filled to the brim, I'm not sure how I'm going to combine these collections...

... I think I'm going to need a bigger book.

Zzzzz....

2012-01-20T06:00:00.000-08:00

Annie Comes to Visit!

2012-01-19T05:00:00.000-08:00

My good friend Annie came up from Atlanta last weekend for a quick visit and to see me pregnant. Unfortunately, I'm no fun pregnant, but Annie was a good sport and was content to go out to eat with us, watch some Harry Potter movies we needed to catch up on, and come with us on our standard weekend dog walks. She also graciously shared a single bathroom with us since Zeddy has taken over our current guest bathroom, and Logan and I have been swamped dealing with Zeddy diapers, a broken heat pump, and baby appointments that we are oh-so-close-but-still-haven't-quite-finished our downstairs guest bath. We WILL finish this bathroom pre-baby, though, since hopefully we will be having lots of guests post-baby.

Maryland weather wasn't completely cooperative for Annie's visit, though, and it was kinda cold on our walks. Annie can wear my pre-maternity coats, though, so we made do.

Apparently I do look pregnant when viewed from the side.

Sparta also discovered a neat new toy on our walk with Annie: Sticks!

We've been encouraging this toy for a while but this was the first time Sparta really took to it.

But mostly, we stayed warm on the couch and finally got around to seeing the last Harry Potter movies. Logan and I were disappointed in the last book so we put off seeing the movie until we could see part I and part II together, and Annie hadn't seen anything past Goblet of Fire, so we got her mostly caught up and then finished the series.

But poor Toph is used to squeezing in on the couch with me and Logan, which was less feasible with three people. So as soon as Logan stood up, she stole his seat:

Then she passed out like this:

So Logan didn't disturb her.

Thanks for visiting Annie! I don't know how you managed to put up with us and our obnoxious, demanding, and geriatric animals. I only hope it didn't discourage you from coming back after the baby is born!

This is for you, Sean!

2012-01-17T05:00:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday, Big Brother!

I sent you a gift package but it may not arrive until Wednesday. Sorry!

Anyway, if you don't want to ruin the surprise, do not look at the photo below. Otherwise, this was the Crazy-Jody-project that took longer than I thought it would and made your birthday package late.

Yep. You will soon have two reversible velvet dice bags and there should be no question who they belong to :-)

Week 31 in Captivity

2012-01-15T05:00:00.000-08:00

Well, I finally got the results back for my 3-hour glucose test and guess what? It was completely normal. As in, I didn't even fail the 1-hour portion of it. Stupid-making-me-take-a-glucose-test-the-week-of-Christmas-and-the-day-after-our-dessert-filled-office-party.

We also got to go in for another ultrasound so they can monitor the marginal cord insertion (the umbilical cord not being centered on the placenta). Turns out little Baby H is currently 4 lbs and in the 60th percentile. Yay! Slightly above average! Go baby, go!

I've never liked the 3D images but they keep doing them. Anyway, they wanted us to have a face shot but little Baby H is related to Logan so, in the photo below, that creepy thing to the left is his arm, and the creepy thing under his chin? Well, that's his foot. Apparently baby still likes to sleep with his face near his feet making 3D face shots both hard to get and slightly creepy. But also kinda cute.

I was also told to put on more weight and was encouraged to gorge on peanut butter. I'm pretty 'cited!

31 Weeks and counting!

A Day at the Office...

2012-01-13T06:00:00.000-08:00

Jody Crazies! Letter Edition!

2012-01-12T05:00:00.000-08:00

I am a bit of a pack rat.

I hate throwing things away and I'm overly sentimental.

But I'm working on it.

When I was young, I had a few friends that moved to other states and resulted in several year long pen-pal relationships. I kept the letters. All of them.

Then I moved away to college, and my best friend and my mom became my regular pen pals. I kept the letters. All of them.

Later, trying to be Marthe Stewart (back before she went to prison), I ended up buying a suitcase (yes, a suitcase) to hold all my sentimental letters. I wrapped letters from each pen pal in burlap or muslin, tied a ribbon around them, and labeled them. It was incredibly impractical and hard to access, the suitcase was filled to the brim, and the letters from my best friend and my mom overwhelmed the collection.

Since I didn't have a system, and I converted to digital scrapbooks in 2005, I suddenly had more letters I didn't know what to do with- Christmas cards, wedding invitations, baby announcements, etc- normally I would have scrapbooked the important ones but now they were homeless. So they got thrown in the now disastrous suitcase storage system. Once the collection had expanded to include a suitcase, a basket, and a couple of plastic bags, I decided I should really address this issue.

I had hoped to reduce the collection to only the most important pieces and scrapbook these pieces so they could easily be viewed and accessed in a single scrapbook. I easily cleared out at least half the collection, sorted more for scanning (and now I need to remember to scan these types of letters so they can be included in my digital scrapbooks from here on out). But despite what I thought was a very successful purge, my progress stopped when I came across all the letters from my mom.

Not only did I have trouble finding a single note or letter that could be purged, but I also had a hard time letting go of the envelopes since seeing my name and address in her hand writing brought up more emotions than I was expecting.

So Mom got her own letter scrapbook, and my childhood pen pals got another.

Tera, my best friend pen-pal from college, will likely also get her own letter scrapbook. But since scrapbooking is not a cheap hobby, her letter scrapbook may have to wait until next month...

Either way, I think this is a major improvement over a suitcase...

Jody Crazies! Cloth Baby Wipe Edition

2012-01-10T05:00:00.000-08:00

It probably comes as no surprise to those who know me but when Baby H arrives, I plan on trying cloth diapering. I fully understand I might hate it and may convert to disposables anyway but I wanted to give cloth diapering an honest attempt before assuming disposables are the way to go.

So, a couple months ago, I bought a used gDiaper system off of ebay- the "used" portion being the outer shell and plastic liner, not the cloth insert that gets soiled- those I'm going to buy new and/or possibly make.

But even if I do switch to disposable diapers, there are a ton of other diaper related items that are also disposable, such as baby wipes.

Again, I suspect we will supplement our baby wipes with disposables, but I would like to make an honest attempt at using cloth wipes until/if I decide another way is better. Unfortunately, new cloth wipes cost way more than they are worth, and supposedly you need quite a few so I cringed at the investment.

Luckily, I have tons of fabric remnants I saved from my wardrobe purge last year. These are clothes that I either saved an emblem from for my t-shirt quilt, or they had been damaged and/or stained and were destined to be rags anyway. So I pulled out all my scraps and found all the cotton knits. I was hesitant to use this fabric for any kind of quilt since the knit makes it very stretchy and results in puckering when sewing (especially if you are me and only kind of know what you are doing). I did some water tests and these knits hold wetness really well so I decided to make them into baby wipes. And if we don't use them, they will probably be great dusting rags.

Only problem was, these knits pucker regardless if you are making rags or quilts and I still wanted to keep this to a minimum.

I was quite thrilled with myself when I came up with the solution of starching the fabric prior to sewing! It worked quite well.

In the end, I made double sided wipes with serged edges. And I have a ton of them.

They're not perfect, but I just reminded myself that at best they would be rags and at worst they would be wiping a baby's butt.

I think they'll work out just fine...

Zed Pants: Update

2012-01-07T07:40:00.001-08:00

Sorry in the delay for this update- it's been a busy week here.

First thing on Tuesday, Logan took Zeddy to the specialist appointment. They confirmed what our vet had initially thought- a cancer or polyp is partially blocking his urethra, making it difficult for Zed to urinate. They were also able to confirm the location of this mass, and even if Zeddy were a young spry kitten, the location makes the condition inoperable.

So Logan and the specialist went on to discuss options such as steroid shots, aspirin pills, or chemotherapy/radiation. At the time, none of these sounded like phenomenally good ideas due to side effects and other issues. So then we spent the rest of the week playing phone tag with our vet to get a better understanding of a realistic approach and what would be a good quality of life decision for our sweet Zed Man.

After speaking to our vet, the steroid shots and aspirin pills were not recommended by him since they are very hard on the kidneys, which Zeddy is already having trouble with. So even if they were to succeed in addressing the mass for a short time, it would further complicate his existing kidney troubles. He also didn't think chemo/radiation would be worth it for a cat Zed's age (and we agree). Not only would it add the stress of driving to a clinic 1-3 times a week, it would also result in Zeddy being sick more often and may only postpone the inevitable by a few days or weeks (maybe months) at best.

So the end result is eventually the mass will block off the urethra entirely, toxins will build up, and we'll have to make a tough decision for Zedders. In the mean time Zed is on pain killers (which, in theory, may also be reducing swelling making it easier for him to pee). We don't know how long the mass took to develop so we don't know how fast it is currently growing... following that thought means we don't know how long we have with our Zed Man.

And since we want Zeddy to be as happy as possible for as long as possible, he is getting the royal treatment with regards to food and Logan lap time.

Only problem is, he is still leaking urine. So we made him a make-shift-rag-diaper.

Pretty stylish, huh?

Unfortunately, it took two people to put these diapers on, resulted in a lot of sore fingers since they required the use of safety pins, and rags don't have a water resistant layer so it was questionable at best. Zed has spent a fair amount of time in his penthouse suite (the upstairs bathroom- which is where our second litter pan has always been and Zed will actually seek out the room since it includes a bed for him). But we wanted him to have more freedom around the house so enter a new Jody Crazy project: cat diapers!

Based off a design for baby cloth diapers, and using material Joann's sells specifically for baby cloth diapers, Zeddy now has a water resistant-terry-cloth-lined-lime-green diaper of his very own... with removable inserts (so in theory we only have to change the insert and not the whole diaper). The design still has some flaws to work out, mostly in the location of the snaps I think, but it is much easier to put on, and once we get the snaps right, will hopefully be secure enough to trust him around the house once more.

And for the record, we did look into purchasing some cat diapers, but cloth ones took 3-4 weeks to produce and arrive, which wasn't a very good option. The pet store also appears to only sell diapers for dogs (both disposable and cloth), which may have worked, but it was odd that none listed dogs and cats...

Just Relaxin'

2012-01-06T06:00:00.000-08:00

Sir Zed Pants

2012-01-01T14:01:00.000-08:00

2011 was a rough year for our animals. It was the year we lost Tosca, the year Firefly lost her sight (and all her teeth), and it was the year we added Sparta to our clan. I wouldn't have thought that adding a puppy would qualify as a rough part of the year, but if you know Sparta then this categorization will suddenly make sense.

In our time in Maryland we have adopted many older animals and, as a result, have some VERY old animals in our care. Cooper and Zeddy both turned 17 in 2011 and Zeddy is just a couple months away from turning 18.

Zeddy was also diagnosed with the initial stages of renal failure several years ago, which we addressed with a special diet. Then he developed thyroid problems, as is common in cats with renal failure, and we discovered Zed was one of the easiest cats in the universe to pill on a daily basis. So far, so good.

A couple weeks ago, Zeddy appeared to have a cold and went in for a vet visit. Other than old age and his existing issues, nothing appeared to be wrong. It cleared up, we went to Salt Lake City without too much worry, and returned to a pretty normal Zeddy. A couple days after our return, Zeddy was constantly rummaging in the litter box and then we noticed he was "leaking" as he walked around the house.

Another vet visit and some x-rays later, our vet came to this conclusion: Zeddy has a blockage preventing him from urinating normally. It isn't a UTI and it isn't kidney stones. This leaves the much more dreaded outcome of polyps or cancer. For a young cat this might be considered operable but for Zeddy, his age, his weight, and his kidney problems all complicate the issue of anesthesia. In fact, our vet will not perform surgery on him since his chances of survival and recovery are so slim.

But, hoping for the best, Zeddy has an appointment with a specialist on Tuesday (they were, of course, closed for the New Year weekend). The appointment may only confirm the inevitable but we'd rather have that confirmation.

So this weekend, Zeddy has been wearing a very stylish diaper, has a penthouse room of his own, as well as a large array of pain meds at his disposal while we wait to see what happens on Tuesday...

Zeddy: Best. Cat. Ever.

2011- Monthly Resolution Review

2011-12-31T06:00:00.000-08:00

I consider this blog to be part family updating, part journaling, and part scrap booking- all of which are things I enjoy even though they are not always applicable to my blogging "audience."

So I apologize for the boring journaling and scrap booking components of this blog...

...

... and this is one of those posts....

Anyway, as another year comes to a close, and since I've rather enjoyed my 2011 Resolution successes, here comes a 2011 summary of my Monthly Goals. I've enjoyed them enough that I'm going to attempt to continue monthly goals in 2012. But since I don't want my sidebar to get overly cluttered, and more for posterity than your reading enjoyment, here are my 2011 Monthly Goals and how they went...

JANUARY MONTHLY GOAL:

FEBRUARY MONTHLY GOAL:

MARCH MONTHLY GOAL:

APRIL MONTHLY GOAL:

Well, I did manage to get TONS of stuff out of our house this year. We have several large Goodwill tax deductions, I actually had a several hundred dollar paypal balance from selling stuff on Amazon/ebay (but then used it to pay for a large portion of Shepherding camp), we made multiple trips to the recycling center, and I mailed several specialty recycling items to the appropriate places. Of course, I did most of this throughout the year instead of April. And I still have more to go. But many items left the house, none-the-less!

MAY MONTHLY GOAL:

JUNE MONTHLY GOAL:

Scrapbook fever never ends. Although I did finish our 2010 scrapbook, I never got around to finishing 2006- which is the last gap in my digital scrapbooks since I converted in 2005. But I did finish a Cabin Log Book, scanned many items I would normally have kept, and made some progress with scanning my Mom's old scrapbooks and negatives. I also finally caved and sent all my VHS home videos into a digital converting service. But then I still have a Cabin scrap book I want to make progress on, a baby book to set up, a box of negatives to scan, and cassette tapes to convert... One day... one day...

JULY MONTHLY GOAL:

AUGUST MONTHLY GOAL:

SEPTEMBER MONTHLY GOAL:

OCTOBER MONTHLY GOAL:

NOVEMBER MONTHLY GOAL:

Happy New Year!!!

2011-12-30T06:00:00.000-08:00

If you didn't get a card from us this year, it is still in the mail, I don't have your address, or I'm suffering from pregnancy brain... either way, here it is:

Yep. 2011 was a great year!

"Can I Sit on the Couch with You?"

2011-12-23T09:00:00.000-08:00

3...4...5...

2011-12-22T09:50:00.000-08:00

Three

Well, today it is official- I've entered the third trimester! Home stretch baby!

Of course, today I also learned that I failed the 1-hour glucose test and now have to go on a special diet and then take a 3-hour glucose test to confirm/deny if I have gestational diabetes. Oh, and I'm also anemic. Good thing baby's survival rate goes up in the third trimester because I'm about to evict him. (just kidding, I want a normal, healthy baby who comes when he is ready but I really do hate this "being pregnant" thing).

Four

But this time of year keeps us busy what with our anniversary and all. I can't believe Logan and I have been married for 4 years, together for 7+ years, and known each other for 17+ years (whoa!). We celebrated in our usual fashion with our 4-year-old beers (I only took a tasting sip) and the required photo album commemorating another year together.

Five

And to cap things off, this cute thing turns 5 this weekend.

If she had any friends, I'd invite them over for a party. But since Izzy is Izzy, I don't think her housemates would even want to come to her party... she bites.... literally.

Animal Couch

2011-12-16T09:00:00.000-08:00

Symphony of Lights

2011-12-14T18:43:00.001-08:00

Apparently, there is a tradition here in Columbia that still revolves around one of those Christmas light displays where you pay an entrance fee, turn off your headlights, and then drive through and look at jumping reindeer and Santa going down chimneys in Christmas light form. Here it is called 'The Symphony of Lights' and it benefits the local hospital.

Well, this particular light display is held at the Merriweather Post Pavilion- a wooded outdoor concert area that was right by our old apartment building.

In fact, Merriweather was one of our favorite dog walks when we lived in the apartment building. One day, before they had turned the lights on but after they had set up the wire frames holding the lights, Cooper was running around in a grassy field, in the dark, and ran full tilt into one of the displays. She made one of the cutest "HORT!" sounds ever.

Needless to say, it was a very traumatic experience for her.

But she got over it and this week we participated in the yearly 'Tail Lights' night for 'Symphony of Lights,' i.e. the light show is open to dog walkers and their furry friends instead of cars.

Sparta, being a puppy and nervous around new experiences, screamed almost the entire time. I swear having dogs is like having perpetual two-year-olds (however, I also know I'll understand how much of an understatement this is once I actually have a two-year-old).

Anyway, here is photographic proof of Sparta screaming:

And Sparta's screams are high-pitched-little-girls-screams... so much for naming him after a fierce-manly-warrior-people.

But mostly we had fun and decided to attempt a 'Sparta's first Christmas Photo:'

I'm calling it mostly successful however I highly doubt we will ever try this again- wrangling 3 dogs is hard enough- I have no idea how we'll juggle a kid on top of this. Next Christmas is going to be interesting...

Happy Christmas! (or You're-Welcomes-Giving)

2011-12-11T11:18:00.000-08:00

Yep, it's that time of year again!

Since Logan and I will be visiting family for Christmas, we decided we would have our own little Christmas celebration before we left so we had to worry less about hauling presents around or stressing out about buying more presents for each other. We also had a turkey that needed eating and a made up holiday of You're-Welcomes-Giving to celebrate. So we did.

Now neither of us have ever cooked a turkey before but Logan did his research and we got the bird thawed, and a new roasting pan, in time for cooking.

We also brined it (hence the bucket):

For our first try, I would say the turkey turned out fantastic! (Well, we know GM can make turkey that is more moist, and Uncle Scott is better at carving turkeys, but we are proud of our accomplishment none-the-less).

I also attempted to help Logan as he made stuffing, gravy, cranberries, and baked potatoes (we figured we would try to stick to traditions- but not entirely traditional traditions).

It was indeed a VERY successful first attempt. The gravy turned out better than either of us could have imagined and we are happily looking forward to leftovers.

Of course, when we made the turkey/vegetable stock for the gravy, we had left-over vegetables that we decided we would give to the dogs (along with a small amount of turkey):

Yep- that's dog food.

Normally, we don't encourage Toph to jump, but she was SO excited (and very cute) that we let her get away with it.

So after the required Christmas music and Christmas specials, Logan and I went to bed so we could wake up to (fake) Christmas morning!

We have a long way to go before I would ever call us minimalist in our possessions, however I do think Logan and I have adopted a minimalist approach to what we acquire. Hence, our stockings were stuffed with mostly candy (and a Christmas orange- I had no idea that was a tradition!) and we really didn't have many presents to give other then the prerequisite photo calendar, etc.

However, a couple years ago, Logan's mom bought us an incredibly nice set of utensils. Logan and I had never considered replacing our crappy college utensils since they did the job nicely. But after using these utensils for a while, I can say the new set was a BIG improvement. With this previous success in mind, Logan and I have been considering replacing our college dinnerware sets for some time. Just like the utensils, our dinnerware was functioning just fine, but it was a concoction of several types of sets with no special meaning, several of which had chipped but not broke, and generally were not of high quality to begin with.

So along with (hopefully) getting new wood floors soon, we also invested in a nice new, higher quality, everyday dinnerware set.

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

I'm hopeful these dishes will be much higher quality than what we had before, and since we bought each piece individually, we theoretically should be able to replace any single broken item without too much stress. In the process, we are also getting rid of far more plates and bowls than we purchased, so I'm counting this as a win in the reducing-the-number-of-our-possessions-department as well.

Now what to do about that wood floor...

Partners in Crime

2011-12-09T09:57:00.000-08:00

Shepherding Camp

2011-12-06T09:38:00.000-08:00

Why yes, I am still crazy.

And I still dream of shepherding my own flock one day.

Along those lines, a couple weeks back I attended the Juniper Moon Farm Shepherding Camp. I held off posting about it because I was hoping to get some of Shepherd Suzie's photos- alas, she had a computer crisis and lost most of her photos... guess mine will have to do:

Among other things, we got to catch sheep (and goats), feed them, & deworm them; visit a fiber mill; build a fence; learn about compost; and discuss all things fiber farm. We also got to trim hooves:

image credit: Juniper Moon Farms

all the campers and hosts

While visiting the farm, I also finally got to see (in person) the new Juniper Moon Farm Yarn Lines. These yarns are blends and colors selected by Shepherd Suzie, but since they are commercial lines with the need for LOTs of wool, none of her farm's fiber actually goes into them. But experiencing the yarn first person was enough for me order several skeins upon my return home. And then I distracted myself from my many crochet projects I had hoped to finish for Christmas while I played with my new yarn instead:

New Finger-less Gloves

New Herringbone Cowl

I also caved and bought myself a serger for some of my many other crazy projects (at this point, mostly baby related projects). And Logan bought himself a new Kindle Fire- so now we both have no idea what to get the other for Christmas.

We also got a a whole turkey from our CSA to have our own post-Thanksgiving/pre-Christmas celebration (Logan wants to call it "You'reWelcoming" since it follows Thanksgiving... but I digress). Anywho, we found out we don't have a single pan that fits a turkey, so now we bought another gift/non-gift with our first Le Crueset! Hopefully our turkey will thaw and our new pan will be delivered in time for our early celebration...

Cooper Hibernating for the Winter

2011-12-02T09:00:00.000-08:00

Situation Normal: Baby, 25 Weeks

2011-11-30T13:59:00.000-08:00

During our last ultrasound, little Baby H was in just the right position for the tech to photograph the umbilical cord and where it attaches to the placenta. Apparently this info is not always attainable in an ultrasound. Well, in our case, it made it obvious that baby's umbilical cord did not attach to the center of the placenta like they prefer and instead was very close to one edge. Although this is quite common, and there's a term for it (that I can never remember), most people have no idea of this "condition" until after the baby is born. Well, the point of this story is since they discovered this with us, we get to have more ultrasounds to make sure baby is getting all the nutrition he needs and is growing accordingly.

And he is.

Little llama (my preferred nickname for baby) or Charlemagne (the Pace's vote for baby's name) is perfectly on track at an estimated 1 lbs 13 oz. Not that anyone really expected anything otherwise. And it's nice to have more ultrasounds.

I also can't believe that baby is not quite 2 lbs yet and I feel HUGE!

And to think I'm supposed to get MUCH BIGGER is really starting to scare me. How the human race has managed to survive is beyond me...

Can't Leave Well Enough Alone

2011-11-26T13:08:00.000-08:00

Well, Logan and I got to spend another fantastic Thanksgiving with GM & GP, Uncle Scott, and Joshua. Like usual, the food was fantastic, the company was even better, and I forgot my camera. Again.

As an added bonus, we scored a free pack n' play! (Thanks GM & GP, Scott, and Joshua)

A very good day, indeed.

Upon returning home, I opened up my email and found my weekly pregnancy update from BabyCenter. They offered the advice that now is a good time to finish up any home improvement projects you want completed before the baby arrives...

Don't mind if I do! (although I don't think this is what they had in mind)

Yep, Logan and I tiled the shower walls as well as the floor of our downstairs bathroom. I think it looks FANTASTIC!

And since this was meant to be last Christmas' present to each other, it looks like we might finally finish before Christmas this year.

Of course, this year I'm asking Santa for new wood floors....

Typical Jody and Sparta

2011-11-25T09:00:00.000-08:00

...and I'm Done

2011-11-20T11:47:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm officially done running for the season.

And it couldn't have come at a better time since this morning Logan and I ran the Philadelphia Half Marathon!

I think this may just be my new favorite half marathon- too bad it's just far enough away to make things complicated. But as a special bonus, we got to spend the night at GM and GPs, which was well worth it even if we had to leave at the ridiculous hour of 5 am.

us before the race

Overall, the course was fairly flat, wonderfully scenic, and big enough to draw huge crowds of cheering spectators. Although I ended up going a very similar pace to the Baltimore Half last month, the number of people watching this race made me wish I had a sign letting everyone know that I'm pregnant and not usually this slow.

Of course, Logan took this picture of me near the finish (and the Rocky steps behind me) which makes me hope some people would just assume I'm pregnant- but so far everyone has had enough tact not to say anything to me directly:

Logan either beat or came very close to his PR at 1:42, and I came in about 10 minutes slower than Baltimore at 3:17. Overall it was a very good day for a half marathon.

So what motivates a pregnant woman to finish a half marathon? Philly's finest, of course!

After the race we headed directly to Philly's famous competing cheesesteak establishments: Geno's and Pat's. We ordered one from each and had a taste test:

I think Pat's won but either way, a cheesesteak after a half marathon is a good way to spend the day.

24 weeks and counting!!!

Dog About Town

2011-11-18T07:00:00.000-08:00

Another Year! Hooray!

2011-11-04T07:00:00.000-07:00

Click here to view this photo book larger

I Don't Even Know How Cooper Does This...

2011-10-28T09:00:00.000-07:00

Super Secret Project Success!

2011-10-27T09:57:00.000-07:00

Sometimes too much public accountability is just too much.

All year I have been posting my "monthly goals" on the sidebar of this blog. The idea was to create a small amount of public accountability to keep me on track, which generally has worked well, but the amount of effort needed to keep up with my monthly goals was usually enough to detract from the amount of effort needed to blog about keeping up with my monthly goals- so I'm sure very few people have noticed the goals change throughout the year.

But for those of you who were keeping track, this month's goal was a "super secret project!" And although the threat of public failure was meant to keep me on track, this months goal was grand enough that I only wanted people to know about it if it was a success.

And it was!!!

Backing up a minute:

Some of you may or may not know about a crazy little idea I had back in ~2001.

Well, as far back as high school, I had been interested in attending massage school but didn't want to take the time off from a traditional high school -> college -> career path. But when I transferred to the University of Oregon in 2001, I was suddenly at an odd point in my architecture schooling where I was dealing with transfer credits and not technically being part of the architecture school until the following year.

As a happenstance occurrence, I met someone who was attending a local community college massage school program. The program lasted a year and was phenomenally cheaper than past massage schools I had looked into. Since I was only taking partial credits at UO while anticipating acceptance into the architecture school, I thought it would be a great idea to attend massage school for a year, and then work as a massage therapist as I finished my architecture degree.

I excitedly enrolled, but like all best laid plans it didn't go exactly the way I anticipated. Due to class availability, enrollment policies, and life in general, it took me 1 1/2 years to finish the year long program- not to mention starting a quarter or two behind my odd year off due to transferring. By the time I finished the program, I was approx 6 months away from also graduating with my architecture degree.

Initially, I thought I would still sit for my massage licensing exam but after realizing I would likely soon be moving back to Utah due to finances, I also found out Utah was one of the few states that did not accept the National Massage Certification offered by my school and accepted by Oregon (as well as many other states). I decided to save the exam and registration fee until I had settled into a life somewhere.

Well, Logan and I moved to Maryland, which also accepted the National Certification and I started looking into testing again. But between finances still being tight, more promising career advancement opportunities in my architecture office, and being intimidated by a 2 year gap in studying, I kept postponing the thought of taking a national exam.

Of course, after taking the LEED exam and my AREs, the National Massage Exam was looking far less intimidating. Adding to the fact that Utah recently started to accept National Certification, my program still qualified to sit for the exam, and the idea that I might be looking for more flexible work in the next few years while our kid(s) are young, I decided it was time to dust of my old massage books.

So this morning, after stressing myself and Logan out for the past several days, I took the National Certification Examination for Therapeutic Massage & Bodywork and PASSED it!

Now this doesn't mean I have a license or certification to practice massage- I still have to apply to the state board wherever I end up working, but passing this test is often the first hurdle and should make applying to state boards easier, even if it means opening the door to additional state specific tests.

But mostly I'm just thrilled that I retained enough information in this area that I could pass this exam even though it has been approx 7 years since I was last in a massage classroom.

HOORAY!

And I'm making my husband take me out to dinner tonight.

October Goal: SUCCESS!

Sonic Baby ~19 weeks

2011-10-20T12:00:00.000-07:00

19 weeks!?!!

This pregnancy must be official since today I had to take all my non-maternity clothes out of my closet for storage until after next March- I just don't fit into anything normal anymore. Luckily, a friend at work just had her second (and last intentional) kid and was happy to pass along her whole maternity wardrobe- score!

We also got to go in for another ultrasound today!

Apparently baby takes after Logan and sleeps curled up and on his head... oi.

I also don't really like the whole 3D imaging thing-they never convince me that a baby is developing normally, but apparently we didn't have a choice and a couple of 3D images were recorded for us.... I only post this one because I like the pensive hand location- the baby is well on their way to being born a geek- nerd glasses and all...

So did we find out the sex?

Yep.

Ready?

Drum roll please....

It's a BOY!!!

(and no, I'm not posting the "money shot" that proves it...)

Now what in the world am I going to do with a baby boy?

Babies and Half Marathons

2011-10-16T06:57:00.001-07:00

Congrats to the new parents of baby Connor!

He is beautiful (and so is Riley). I'm going to frame this photo of the two of them for our family wall just as soon as I get some more frames...

In Baby H news, we have our anatomical ultrasound this Wednesday- and could potential find out the sex of the baby. We decided we'll find out if we can, and then only tell family members of the outcome (I'm rather scared of letting people at my work know if it's a boy or a girl, because either way someone will give me every boy/girl hand me down they own and I am really not a fan of the traditional pink/blue themes that are common in my office...)

But in the crazy-Jody-department, the Hauenstein/Bell family participated in our first family half-marathon yesterday! Yep, Baby H went along for the 13 mile run and at the tender of age -5 months, s/he completed their first half marathon!

Although the Greece Marathon is still the most physically challenging thing I have done in my life so far, I have to say running a half marathon while pregnant was a close second. Training through morning sickness, fatigue, loose joints, and being easily winded made preparation for this race much more difficult than any race I've trained for before. On top of that, I was supposed to slow my pace significantly and suddenly I was taking marathon-training-length-times to complete half-marathon-training-distances.

I had been training with the idea of running 2-3 miles and then walking 1, but as the race grew nearer, it became obvious I needed walking breaks more often. In the end, I decided it was more important to pay attention to the course rather than arbitrary time or mile markers, and I ended up walking up hills, running down them, and choosing how I felt on the flats. Like usual, I left my watch at home so as not to become focused on time or performance and just decided to do what felt possible on this particular morning.

Well, I had thought I would finish between 3:40 and 4:20 but instead, despite feeling like I walked more than I thought I would and taking everything very easy, I finished at 3:10 instead. Due to the hills, Logan was a little disappointed with his 1:51 finish, but the race was much hotter than expected, had gusting winds, and left us all sunburned.

Now, perhaps in the TMI baby department, my midwives had informed me at my last appointment that baby's placenta had attached to the front wall of my uterus so although most women would have felt the baby moving a couple weeks ago, it may be another few weeks before I'm able to feel anything. But Baby H either loved or hated this 13 mile jaunt, so I either had some quick muscle spasms at mile 8 or baby may have decided to stretch his legs- but I haven't felt anything since so still no confirmation. Either way, I'm currently convinced we're having a little boy, and he's going to take after his father and be a pretty impressive runner one day. Of course, this early half-marathon experience may also convince the poor kid that running is a terrible thing to do and s/he may never take up the hobby...

So here we are before and after our Saturday morning run through Baltimore:

My coworker & friend, Lauren, also joined us- this was her FIRST half-marathon!

Way to go Lauren!

And yep, after finishing this race I still think another half marathon is a good idea- so assuming all goes well, on November 20th we will have our 2nd family half-marathon when we travel to Philadelphia.

And for those of you who didn't hear from facebook, you should never trust a pregnant women to dress herself in the early morning hours before a race- I (unintentionally) wore my pants backwards for the whole race and didn't even notice until after I crossed the finish line...

No, I am not Sitting on Toph

2011-10-14T15:44:00.000-07:00

She just wanted to cuddle...

Our Little Parasite

2011-10-08T12:47:00.000-07:00

We knew we were a little crazy when we adopted our little puppy.

But little did we know what we were actually in for.

When Sparta came home with us, we knew he had been treated for fleas and worms by the shelter.

Sparta (who was broken) was fixed last week and as part of that, he got a follow up to his follow up vet visit.

And guess what?

Sparta is the perfect host for all kinds of parasites.

Not only is he still positive for hook worms (nasty intestinal worms that require an initial treatment as well as a dewormer every month for the rest of their lives, luckily this dewormer is combined with their monthly heart worm preventative- but a more expensive version of the medicine).

But as soon as he got home from his surgery he also brought us some fleas...

Now I've never liked flea treatments- the powders are known carcinogens and the collars and topical monthly treatments are terrible endocrine disruptors that shouldn't be used around children and make me very nervous in general, but especially as a pregnant lady.

So not only did Sparta, along with the rest of our dogs, have to suffer through a flea bath, but I also found a "natural" flea treatment that doesn't have the same health concerns as the traditional ones you get from vets. I was actually looking forward to using the product at first because the ingredients include cinnamon oil and peppermint oil- and those definitely smell better than our dogs typically do. I was less excited after applying the product because, ever since, our house has smelled like a Joann's store at Christmas- the smell is overwhelming.

Too bad I ordered many different versions of this smelly product- carpet powder, spray, topical applicators, etc. Good thing the weather is still nice enough to have our windows open.

And it looks like everyone will be getting another flea bath this weekend...

Oi...

Logan Eating Breakfast

2011-10-07T14:16:00.000-07:00

And to Think This Dog Needs Fixin'!

2011-09-30T06:00:00.000-07:00

Good thing there's a surgery for that!

How in the World Did I Manage to do This?

2011-09-25T13:55:00.000-07:00

Logan and I are still (slowly) working on our bathroom downstairs. Yesterday, we did the relatively simple job of installing the water proofing membrane and the cement board.

This only took a few hours, didn't involve any heavy equipment or lifting (okay, the cement board was kinda heavy), but somehow in the project I managed to do this to my wedding ring:

What's really odd is this ring sits right next to my wedding band, and my wedding band isn't bent at all. Of course, the wedding band would be really easy to fix, but this diamond wedding ring not only has to be bent back into a circle, but 4 diamonds fell out due to the odd shape.

So today, I spent about 4 hours sorting though vacuum bags and sweepings trying to find the missing diamonds.

I gave up after finding 3 of the 4 and we'll find out tomorrow if the ring is even fixable.

So how did I manage to bend the crap out of this one ring?!??

Logan credits my super-human-pregnancy-strength.

I blame my super-human-pregnancy-stupidity.

Maybe we're both right.

Baby Pumpkin!

2011-09-23T09:47:00.000-07:00

Lindy sent us a baby name game for little Pumpkin. Silly us thought a lower case 'n' was a 'u' instead- made for some unusual name combinations....

Once we figured out our mistake, though, we found that the Kincaids have selected yet another great name for their little one... Welcome to the family, Pumpkin!

Many Things A'happening

2011-09-17T14:16:00.000-07:00

Right after labor day weekend, we had another rain storm from Tropical Storm Lee. This one was WAY more impressive than the hurricane. We had substantial flooding in the area, including the nearby lake (but luckily, not our house).

This dam is usually a trickle...

This bench is usually in a grassy field...

The two rails you see in the distance? A bridge...

And this area is usually a small stream with a pathway system...

Perhaps due to electricity in the air from this storm, some kind of power surge, or some other event unfathomable to me, all our appliances that perform some kind of cooling were suddenly on the fritz.

First, Logan's keg-erator stopped working. We didn't think much of it since we bought it used and it was approx 15 years old. So Logan suffered through a few days of warm beer and then we bought a new chest freezer.

Then our 20+ year old refrigerator stopped working. We discovered this when I took a big swig of soured milk. [ick face]. We ended up buying a consumer reports best buy on sale, so in the end it was a win:

Since we refused to buy an almond colored fridge to match our other appliances, we decided to go ahead and buy a stainless one. Too bad Sparta thinks it fun to try and lick the bottom of the fridge when the door is open, so we have a ton of dog nose swipes on the door at all times...

At this point, we thought we'd had all the bad luck we were going to have, but then our air conditioning decided it, too, didn't want to work. Luckily, it was only a semi-expensive repair to get it up and running again. Of course, it then went from super-hot-air-conditioning-weather to some pretty-chilly-almost-need-the-heater-weather in a matter of days. Oh, well- where is my sweater?

Sparta is (slowly) becoming quite the good little man. He started training this week, and Toph went in for a refresher course. At 4 mos old, he is above and beyond most dogs in the class- and that's just from a little bit of work with him on our evening walks! His biggest problem we're trying to address is that Sparta thinks Toph is the coolest dog in the world (which is probably something he learned from us, but anyway). This means Sparta only comes if Toph comes. Sparta only sits if Toph sits. Sparta does a dance with Toph when Toph is being fed. He follows her constantly- like two steps behind her and runs into her when she stops to smell. Toph has been very patient with him and has taken on a loving surrogate mother role. Of course, none of us want to claim Sparta when he wakes up at 2 am and thinks that would be a good time to start the day. But he's getting better.

But training on a rainy Saturday morning makes an (awkward teenage) puppy tired:

Poor puppy.

Charlie's Favorite Place to Sleep

2011-09-16T09:51:00.000-07:00

...under the bed.

Learning to Love Water

2011-09-09T17:00:00.000-07:00

Ultrasound SmackDown- 13 week edition

2011-09-08T15:14:00.000-07:00

Hey! It looks like a baby this time!

So Logan and I decided we wanted to do some prenatal testing options with regards to genetic disorders. Scary stuff, but on the plus side, we got another ultrasound!

We had been warned on a couple different fronts that these screenings often come back sounding dire when really, most babies with a possible negative screen come back completely healthy after additional ultrasounds/tests. So Logan and I braced for bad news, but since the baby is related to me, instead we just had an uncooperative and stubborn baby.

The tech kept shaking her head, jiggling the ultrasound wand on my belly and saying "wake up," and then had me flip from side to side. It was kinda nice not having a cooperative baby because it meant we got to spend that much more time looking at ultrasound images. And then watch the baby "wake up" and squirm. Totally cool. Way cooler than still images.

And the best part? No dire news (so far)! Apparently a clean screen at this point means it is very unlikely the baby will have a genetic disorder. We are still waiting for results from blood work, but we're super happy the baby participated just enough that we don't have to wait nervously for another ultrasound.

Oh, and I think our kid just might be related to Skeletor- am I right?

We have an anatomical ultrasound next month, where we can find out the sex of the baby, but we haven't decided if we want to or not.

But for those of you who want to make predictions, I've been told you need to know things like heart rate and what not. Well, yesterday at my non-ultrasound appointment, the heart rate was in the 150s. Today it was 143.

And I'm posting belly progress on the side bar, which I've been told is another important item in the baby prediction department.

As for my prediction? Well, I think I take after Lindy. When we first found out we were expecting, I was absolutely convinced it was a boy. I could just feel it.

Then I searched the internets, looked at the Chinese gender chart, took an old-wives-tale sex indicator test, dangled a string with a ring over my belly and guess what? The internets predict it will be a girl.

I am currently deferring to the internets over my motherly intuition.

But since we never intended to have a blue or pink room, I think I'm going to stick with the color theme that appears to be emerging from Logan and my's personality in looking at baby stuff: chocolate brown and lime green. This works out especially well since one wall in the future nursery is already chocolate brown.

13 weeks and counting!

Labor Day Weekend Project #2, #3, #4...

2011-09-04T18:08:00.000-07:00

Busy, busy weekend.

Logan woke up early on Saturday so he could harvest his hops:

There was a lot of them.

Then we made a trip to the landfill (i.e. recycling center) with two full cars of items to recycle and/or donate.

Our basement is much cleaner for it.

Then, Logan replaced the ramshackle phone/internet cable installed by the previous owner (and hooked together with (2) screws on a piece of plywood) with new cat-5e cable. I can't say it improved our internet experience, but it does give me piece of mind.

I also used the rest of the half bushel of tomatoes to make a HUGE pot of tomato basil soup with tons of fresh basil from our porch garden. We ate lots of it, have lunch plans for some of it, and froze the rest.

So on Sunday, the weekend officially began with our actual labor day project: the new bathroom!

Our goal this weekend was to drywall, including the ceiling:

It's looking good so far! And along the way we discovered Logan has super-human strength:

He's scared of his new found power.

Labor Day Weekend Project #1

2011-09-03T08:13:00.000-07:00

Our CSA offered tomato seconds at a great deal of $15 for a 1/2 bushel. These are the ugly, spilt, or too ripe tomatoes that are great for canning and soups but, well... ugly.

So Logan and I ordered some since I have some limited canning experience and we are always using tons of canned tomatoes. Too bad I didn't know the actual size of a bushel.

So weekend project no.1 was to prepare and can tomatoes on a Friday night. We even had to stay up late to finish the project.

We ended up making 5 liters of crushed and raw packed tomatoes. We used every canning jar I have. And I think we made it 1/2 way through the bushel. Well, guess we'll just have to make some tomato basil soup for freezing in the near future!

Sparta's first visit to the field...

2011-09-02T19:16:00.000-07:00

We Went for a Walk in the Hurricane- Sat 9pm

2011-08-27T19:53:00.000-07:00

Earth Quake Damage!

2011-08-26T17:40:00.000-07:00

That drawer opened all by itself...

and now we brace for a hurricane.

Our Newest Addition

2011-08-19T17:17:00.000-07:00

Well, the rumors are true.

If you haven't already heard through the grapevine (or facebook) Logan and I adopted a puppy.

But since that's like reading the last page of the book to find out what happens, how about I start from the beginning, yes?

Well, about a month ago, Logan and I decided we would like to add another pup (i.e. adult female) dog to our family. Nothing could ever replace Tosca, but we wanted a second big dog for Toph to play with, Cooper to cuddle with, and for me to walk.

Yes, I know, we are also expecting our first child.

But the logic was that we had a few months to foster, find, and then adopt the right dog, take the dog to training, and after they had some time to settle into our family, a baby would be introduced to them along with the rest of the pack. This may seem like crazy logic, but we thought it would work out better than waiting 5 years and trying to add an adult dog into a family with 1-2 mobile screaming toddlers. And we've never intended to adopt a puppy.

So we put in our foster application, and since many MAGSR folks had read our tribute to Tosca, the approval came faster than we expected. At the time, they also had a litter of 3-4 puppies, and another litter of 6 (?) puppies that needed fosters and they asked us if we could take one. MAGSR has a very appropriate policy of not allowing puppies in a kennel situation due to the possible exposure to diseases without all the appropriate vaccines and boosters in place.

Well, we had our trip planned to SLC the following week and couldn't help them out in this particular situation. But as soon as we got back, we thought about scheduling a visit to the kennel to meet a possible adult foster, but decided to wait an additional week since we had a day trip planned to NJ to see Momlette and Bob, as well as GM & GP.

Of course, on the Thursday before the NJ trip I got an email with a photo of two new puppies being brought into the rescue. I only got this email since I'm on the volunteer email list and these puppies needed to be transported from Virginia. The email also mentioned the puppies still didn't have fosters and were coming in on Saturday.

I forwarded the email to Logan, somewhat jokingly, and told him we could still foster a puppy. To my great surprise, he didn't immediately shoot the idea down, and actually seemed open to it. We talked about it and liked the idea of having a fast foster- our previous fosters lasted 6+ months- and it was pretty certain the puppy would be adopted within a week.

And he was adopted with in a week: by us.

Moral of this story:

Don't give a pregnant woman a puppy.

I cried over the idea of keeping him. I also cried over the idea of giving him away. It was an emotionally exhausting couple of days but in the end, we decided we couldn't let him go and now we have an adorable, pee-ful, floppy puppy living in our house.

So that begs the next question: What is his name?

Well, either MAGSR or the shelter gave him the name Charlie and he had it for all of 2 days or 2 weeks. In other words, he has no idea what his name is. It also doesn't help that I am suffering from pregnancy brain and every time I tried to say "Charlie," I said "Buster" instead. It is so weird- I was really trying to say "Charlie."

So no, we are not renaming him "Buster."

But Logan and I do have a tradition of renaming all animals that join our household. Maybe it's a possession thing, maybe it's a branding thing, or maybe we're just weird, but we rename all our animals.

Logan and I have also developed a rather extensive naming system over the years that has three parts and merges traditions from both our families.

See, when growing up, many of Logan's pets were named (or had nicknames) related to food. There was Ribs (Spare Ribs, aka Tuna or Tuna Fish), Kibbie (short for Kibbles), and Sputnik (Spud or SpudMan). In my household, many of our animals were named after countries and locations: Fiji, Norway, and Mrs. Hampshire.

So now, animals adopted by Logan and Jody must have a name of a food, a name of a place, and a freebie name of our choice. In no particular order. So in case you are wondering, our animals with this naming convention include:

EnZed (New Zealand) Kiwi Fullstop

Hkops Ireland Firefly (the K is silent in Hkops)

Tosca Flan Namibia

Tophee (Toffee) Tasmania Non-Sequitur

(don't worry, I'm not forgetting about Izzy, she just follows a different naming convention of cat queen: name, title, place. Her full name is Isabelle la nina of Suomi (Isabelle the small of Finland) and is the successor to Catherine the Great of Norway)

In this case, though, we didn't have anything against the name Charlie, especially if you say it like this:

But we still had some work to do in order to decide on his complete new name and if we would keep Charlie as part of it.

Let me tell you, reviewing baby names with Logan has been a bit of an ordeal since he has trouble taking any names seriously and can only suggest joke names. With dogs, it is much easier since less serious names are practically expected.

So although we really do like this name, it was initially suggested since it is also kinda funny.

Like any good soldier, we intend to call him by his last name.

And in case you didn't catch the reference, when someone asks us what his name is we can say:

This is Sparta.

Or, more specifically:

This. Is. SPARTA.

Or, even more specifically:

THIS. IS. SPARTA.

Ah, hell, Leonidas says it best:

But since we have no intention of wanting our new puppy to grow into a fierce warrior, we decided on a middle name that probably portrays more of his actual personality:

Charles "Pie Dough" Sparta

Yep. An awesome name for an awesome dog. Now that's something I hope he'll grow into.

What were we thinking?!??

2011-08-19T09:40:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday Momlette!

2011-08-16T16:09:00.000-07:00

Happy 23rd Birthday!

Cooper Got Swallowed by the Couch Monster

2011-08-12T14:00:00.000-07:00

Cabin Glory: 2011 Edition

2011-08-11T14:37:00.000-07:00

I love vacations.

Too bad they always come to an end...

Well, we just got back from another Utah/Cabin/Family adventure. We only went to Utah but along with Utah family we also got to see Seattle family and Maryland Family! If only I would remember to use our nice camera to photograph everyone when we get together- alas...

... but I did remember to take photos of the cabin (as if we need more photos of THAT).

Although the cabin is more fun with every visit (and if anyone wants to visit, we promise we won't make you do any work!).

But since we had a couple days, and I can't leave well enough alone, I convinced Logan to take on a small project.

More specifically, a large project for the small outhouse....

That's right. We dug out a foundation, poured a small concrete foundation, and laid (2) layers of concrete block.

We still need one more row of block but this was all we could fit in our little rental car this time...

But we also found time for plenty of card games, a couple Disney movies (from the old VHS player) and of course, s'mores!

The weather was great for our visit: warm days and cool nights and we decided to take advantage of it with a hike of Bald Mountain.

We probably would have made it to the top...

...except we hit a wall of snow.

Oh, Utah...

Baby Echolocation- 8 weeks

2011-08-05T07:00:00.000-07:00

Don't worry, the tech assures us that the blob in the center is, in fact, a baby.

We even got to hear a heartbeat!

Llama

2011-07-31T10:00:00.000-07:00

No. Logan hasn't let me get a llama yet.

But I did make this:

And why would a 30 something year old women make a 20" crocheted stuffed animal llama?

Oh, and he comes with a hat.

Well, I peed on a stick and was approved!

Technically, we are still in the awkward "you're not supposed to tell anyone in case something bad happens" part of the pregnancy. But without going into my diatribe about how I think this is the worst best-intentioned advice doctors give women (because it causes an unnecessary association of shame with miscarriage, keeps other women from knowing how common it is, forces a young couple to mourn in solitude, etc, etc) but mostly, Logan and I are excited and we want to tell people.

And if something bad does happen, well, the people who read this blog are the people I would seek out for comfort anyway.

So yep! A baby Hauenstein is on the way! Due date will be in the middle of March, we should be getting our first ultrasound next week, and in case you're still wondering what this llama thing is all about- it will be the stuffed animal the kid gets photographed next to for monthly/yearly pictures until s/he is old enough to refuse because that's how I roll...

Oh, to have me and Logan as parents...

Poor kid...

My Cat Has A Gravity Problem...

2011-07-29T05:00:00.000-07:00

Firefly: Confidently Sightless

2011-07-24T08:00:00.000-07:00

Back in the middle of May, after her surgery, we got the news that Firefly had lost her sight.

Although I wouldn't go so far as to say she has gained any sight back, we currently think she only lost most her sight, instead of all of it.

Shortly after her surgery, we realized Firefly would dart for the outside (our porch or our garden) whenever we opened the door. She also had no trouble finding her way back inside. In a follow-up visit with the vet, he confirmed her eyes were dilating and she could likely see some light. This explained how she could see the bright opening that led outside, as well as the dark opening that led back inside.

However, we also know Firefly still depends greatly on memory and other senses to navigate throughout the house. This was confirmed the other week when we moved our furniture to clean the carpets. Firefly not happy. She went into our basement and howled.

Once the furniture was put back and the shampoo smell started to fade, Firefly was happily navigating again.

But Firefly has always been our most playful (and destructive) cat so without her sight, playing with string and spring-y toys or wrestling with Toph became more difficult. We've worried that Firefly might be bored.

But as time has gone on, we think she is better able to decipher what little she does see, and combined with her sense of hearing and smell, she is making the best of it. Although this video might convince you she has all her sight, watch for the moments where she is pawing at thin air or when she thinks the dark accent tiles are her toys... it's adorable.

The Princess and the Pea

2011-07-22T05:00:00.000-07:00

Cooper's favorite place to sleep is wedged between two cushions,

on top of a cushion,

which is on top of the couch.

A real princess, indeed.

Whoever said it's impolite to drink from the tap?

2011-07-15T05:00:00.000-07:00

House Projects: July 2011

2011-07-10T15:03:00.000-07:00

Another weekend, another house project!

So while I whittled away two (yes 2!) weekends on projects where you wouldn't even know I did a project

example 1:

example 2:

Logan, in contrast, was actually very productive and made a vast improvement to the house.

(Ok, if you want to know, in the first picture I took off rotten trim, replaced it, caulked it, painted it, and attempted to fix the sagging door and ill-fitting screen door but forgot to take 'before' pictures...

and in the second picture, Firefly is posing on the newly cleaned carpet- see how clean it is! I wish Rug Doctors weren't so tiring...)

But getting back to Logan, who spent a majority of Sunday like this:

But it was totally worth it because our kitchen went from looking like this:

to this!:

I almost love our kitchen! Or at least, I don't currently hate it.

In other house project news, we cleaned out our unfinished half bath downstairs, and then hired the same guy who did our deck railings to "rough in" the new plumbing. One of these next weekends we will be installing the light/fan combo, the shower down light, then we'll move onto drywall, tiling, and hopefully one day we'll have a new downstairs bath!

As if we don't have enough going on, I am also currently trying to convince Logan this would be a good idea. Of course, I would also be content with this, or this.

But between a blind cat, a geriatric dog, an older cat, a scared-y dog, and the most ornery cat the world has ever known, I'm not holding my breath...

...but it's fun to look...

I can has that?

2011-07-08T05:00:00.000-07:00

Ongoing Crazies: July 2011

2011-07-02T11:42:00.000-07:00

So this was meant to be a birthday present to Logan and Toph, but I finished it one week late (I swear it wasn't my fault that I ran out of thread!)

In case you couldn't tell, it's a dog hammock for Logan's car (to keep the pet hair off the back seats).

It also has "wings" to keep the pet hair and dirt from sneaking in at the door openings, has a "secret pocket," and is color matched to his car.

And no one has to know that I started this project a little over a year ago when he first purchased the car. oops.

Another crazy complete!

Kids, Grandparents, and Grand-kids

2011-07-01T05:00:00.000-07:00

Iz in a Box

2011-06-29T09:43:00.000-07:00

So it all started when I got this box...

It is an ordinary box....

Like any ordinary box you'd get in the mail....

I had no intentions of keeping it...

And I just left it unattended for a minute...

You know, to deal with the item that had originally been shipped in the box...

But now I can't get rid of it...

Because there is always a CAT IN IT!

Way to be adorable, Iz.

Another Birthday Family Photo!

2011-06-25T08:39:00.000-07:00

Also featured in the photo is our present to Toph and Logan. Man- I have the most talented friends. Ever.

Thanks Tera! We LOVE (love!) LOVE it!

In fact, we love it so much that everyone should be warned this project has inspired my Christmas card design for the year!

Cat in a Box

2011-06-24T05:00:00.000-07:00

Cooper Has a Birthday!

2011-06-18T13:56:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, June 15th, Cooper turned 17 years old!

She and I have spent the past 12 years together, and the past 7 with Logan.

So you'd think she'd be a little less confused with our once-a-year-antics that result in her getting a hamburger of her own...

... but she has more sense than us and takes caution around a bonfire of candles.

At least she enjoyed the hamburger.

Cooper: The Punk Rock Years

2011-06-17T07:00:00.000-07:00

What do we like?

2011-06-14T18:36:00.000-07:00

Thanks Steve and Thelxi!

One Crazy Complete!

2011-06-12T07:12:00.000-07:00

I was really close to finishing this project when I did my crazies update a few weeks back, so I didn't mention it at the time.

Although many of my friends and family are much better seamstresses than I ever will be, I'm still proud of this:

Yep. It's a sweatshirt blanket. With flannel backing. I would have done the edging differently if I had thought the whole process though a bit more but by the time I got around to really thinking about it, there wasn't much left I could do. But in the end it turned out alright and I'm pretty happy with it.

Also, Cooper has been overloading us with cuteness recently. I'd like to share her cuteness with everyone but I'm afraid my Friday Photo just doesn't happen enough to post her cuteness in all its glory- so here is a bonus photo...

I'd like to figure out how to have weekends all the time. Cooper obviously knows how to do it!

Birthday Family Photo

2011-06-10T07:00:00.000-07:00

A Rant About HOAs

2011-06-08T09:00:00.000-07:00

Some of the nice things about owning your own home include: remodeling and painting however you want, having as many pets as you decide is appropriate and not having to pay pet rent, and having your own garden (although I know this is available for some house rentals- but it wasn't an option in our apartment).

One of the main drawbacks for the ownership of our town home, however, is the HOA.

Although I like the idea of a Home Owners Association being able to keep up the general appearance and caliber of a neighborhood, in this case it is glorified neighborly obnoxiousness that we have to pay for.

Despite not being able to address what I would consider to be important issues (like evicting tenants with a penchant for molotov cocktails), they are very good at writing citations. Every year. For the same things. Even though it was addressed last year. And nothing has changed.

So even though our front door color has always been an approved color, our white slider is, in fact, compliant, and we keep our yard in very good condition, we still get citations.

This year, the citation included our shrubs not being adequately pruned.

Okay, I admit it. I like my shrubs to be bushy and not rectangular. In fact, I'm very proud that our bushes have started to look like bushes rather than sticks with a buzz cut.

But since I hate the implication that we don't take care of our yard, I went out to address the issue.

Once I started pruning and found these little guys

I suddenly felt vindicated in the health and pruning of our shrubs despite what the HOA has to say.

Needless to say, I didn't do much pruning.

Memorial Day Weekend House Project

2011-06-04T06:23:00.000-07:00

Before:

After:

Yes- Something did change.

Yes- It took me (3) 16 hour days to complete this project.

Yes- When you put all the furniture back you wouldn't even know the project was done.

Worth it? Totally. (but probably not)

Zonked Out

2011-06-03T09:21:00.000-07:00

Check out her expression in the window....

Firefly May Not Be Able to See Him...

2011-05-27T06:22:00.000-07:00

... but he is still the love of her life.

Don't Worry, Jody's Crazies are Alive and Well

2011-05-21T05:46:00.000-07:00

First, it's been a week since Firefly had her surgery and she hasn't yet gained back any sight. Chances are she won't at this point.

But, every day her tail has gotten higher (and more poofy) and she is starting to get back into the spirit of her chirping (she never really did meow). We're trying to re-teach her how to find the litter box, but every day has been an improvement. On the super-plus side, Firefly never liked me petting her before, only Logan would do, and now she can't tell us apart so I've had more chances to pet her in the past few days than I had in our past 5 years together- Love it!

However, I know you are all really wondering about the status of my crazies, so let me update you!

Although not a project-oriented-crazy, I did try to participate in our community yard sale this morning. The organizers set the time for 8am-11am, which I thought was slightly odd since what little knowledge I have on the subject suggests starting these things WAY earlier- like 6 am. So I started setting up around 7:30, got 6-7 stoppers right off the bat, and then by the time 8 am rolled around- nothing... Then at 8:45, apparently unknown to the yard sale organizers, the road was shut down for a 5k race. I left at that point and now have a hefty donation for goodwill. At least it will be out of this house!

crap! crap! and more crap!

As for my numerous project-crazies, I've taken on several larger projects recently, and although I'm making progress on them, I haven't been able to complete any of them as of yet.

For example, when I cleaned out my closet earlier this year, for some unknown reason I had kept 5 pairs of jeans that were unwearable. Not unwearable in that they didn't fit, but that I had worn them out. As in, they had giant gaping holes, mostly in the buttal region. I think I kept them because they couldn't be donated in their condition, but I felt bad throwing them away. So, to solve this conundrum, enter crazy Jody project #1:

First, cut the jeans into 5" wide panels:

Then cut those into 1/4" - 3/16" strips:

Then latch-hook them into a latch-hook grid and you have a super awesome denim rug:

Latch-hook grids come with this convenient grid on them (hence the name) with the intent that you can easily calculate the amount of material you need to fill them. Well, I thought 5 pairs of jeans would be more than enough to finish a 3 x 5 rug...

... turns out 5 jeans is enough for something 1/5 the size I hoped.

Guess I know what I'm doing with all future jeans I wear out! Maybe I'll complete this project when I'm 80.

Of course, a material I have much more of is t-shirt yarn. And while I'm keeping the long continuous t-shirt yarn for an unknown future project, all the little scraps are going into a similar t-shirt yarn latch-hook rug:

I also purchased a quilters square and have been making progress preparing the squares for my t-shirt quilt:

I'm also attempting a striped patchwork quilt with other old clothes that are worn out or damaged enough that donating wouldn't be a good idea. This is also a practice run for making a similar quilt out of my mom's old clothes that, sentimentally, I have a hard time getting rid of. They are currently stored in rubbermaid cedar storage boxes at our cabin, but hopefully one day, they too will be a quilt.

But it was knitting and crocheting that set the tone for my recent crazies, and I have many on-going projects in these mediums. Probably the most crazy is actually my very first crochet project- literally, my very first. When I was 14, I asked for, and got, a crochet afghan kit. I started it but had a lot of trouble figuring out how to do the stitches since this was before the internet made all research easy. I decided to pick up this project again in the hopes that one day I might finish it (I'm currently going on 16 years of working on it!). But the thing is, when I was 14, I was going through a Native American phase- I don't know how else to describe it. I had Native American quotes hung on my wall, I made bows and arrows out of branches in my back yard, I was reading Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (among others), and my favorite hobby was beading (with a beading loom I still have). So, naturally, I picked an afghan kit that featured a Native American pattern and colors. It's definitely pretty, but it's not something I would pick out now. I also had to undo all the work I had done previously because I was doing the stitches wrong. I'm just to the point where I have crocheted more than the work I had to undo.

Here's hoping the project doesn't take another 16 years to complete!

Why look at the camera?

2011-05-20T07:00:00.000-07:00

...when you can look at Logan?

Quick Firefly Update

2011-05-16T06:24:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update- Firefly hasn't regained any sight (as far as we can tell) however she is doing better with the adjustment (I think). Instead of sitting and howling, or running full tilt into things, she is now walking around cautiously and when something gets in her way she growls at it. It's actually very cute. But still pretty sad. Logan also has her eating again and she's getting sub q's to make sure she's getting enough liquid.

2011: Not a Great Year for our Animals

2011-05-14T07:12:00.000-07:00

In preparation for going to Juniper Moon Farm's Shearing Day, I left work early yesterday to come home and bake some pies for their pie contest. And also to make a quiche to participate in their potluck. And stop by the bank since they'll have vendors I can't wait to see. And call the pet sitter since we'll be gone all day and the dogs will need a bathroom break.

Logan was also coming home early because Firefly had gone into the vet to have her teeth cleaned (or pulled, more like).

This procedure for Firefly had been planned for some time. See, shortly after welcoming Firefly into our family, we were notified she has feline stomatitis; a painful autoimmune disease that attacks her teeth. Although not immediately life threatening, it was recommended to us to have all her teeth removed during her younger years, which could potentially add years to her life later. On top of that, when we were waiting for Firefly to be weaned and before she came home with us, we were notified that her sister had died as a kitten due to a genetic heart condition and Firefly had every test possible to make sure she wasn't at risk as well. There may have been a heart murmur when she was young, but it was unfindable now, and we had the recommended pre-op blood work done that also showed no signs of trouble.

So, with Firefly having just turned 5 years old, we scheduled the procedure to have all her teeth removed. Logan got calls during, following, and as she woke up from the procedure and everything looked like it had gone very well.

It was because of this good news that I decided to come home and prepare for our day trip tomorrow.

In the middle of (2) pies and (2) quiches, Logan walked into the kitchen with Firefly making the most pitiful of sounds. I said something stupid about how painful it would be to have all your teeth removed when Logan said something very unexpected:

"So Firefly might be blind."

What.

Yep.

Although Firefly did well throughout the procedure, when Logan went to pick her up, the vet took him into the exam room and told him Firefly woke up blind.

Although pretty rare, the most common (and generally considered safest) anesthesia can have ill effects on some cats including sudden blindness, sudden deafness, or even sudden death. Especially in cats with heart conditions. The suspected culprit is that, even with oxygen and fluids, the heart can't move enough oxygen around and hypoxia occurs- most often effecting the portion of the brain with sight and hearing.

Our vet has never experienced this side effect before.

It sounds like many cats do regain some of or all of their sight over the course of a few days, few weeks, and sometimes a few months. However, some never regain it.

Firefly is very unhappy with this change in her lifestyle. I can't even imagine how terrifying it would be to have your mouth hurting and your eyes not working. She alternates between sitting still and howling, or running full tilt into something. It is heartbreaking to watch.

Since she still shows some residual signs of the anesthesia and muscle relaxant, I'm still hopeful that she will recover her sight with time. Of course, we also know blind cats can function very well, but this adjustment period is excruciating to watch.

On top of this, Izzy has decided she doesn't like what we've done to Firefly and has stopped eating as a form of protest. She is also hissing at everyone and everything.

Toph desperately wants to nibble Firefly the way she used to.

And Zed has no idea how to comfort his Princess.

Good thing I made those pies. Turns out there are an excellent comfort food.

Our Poofy Princess

2011-05-13T15:41:00.000-07:00

Too Much to Talk About...

2011-05-08T08:49:00.001-07:00

First and Foremost:

Happy Mother's Day!

Hope all the wonderful moms in this family have an excellent and wonderful day!

Perhaps because it is mother's day weekend, there was no shortage of weekend activities here in Maryland, even though the activities had nothing specifically to do with mother's day.

Logan and I woke up very early yesterday morning and headed out to Frederick to participate in my 2nd year of running the Frederick Half Marathon, and Logan's 4th year of running it. The weather was MUCH better than last year, and generally the race went pretty well. You can search for our results here, if you really want to. No photos have been posted yet but both Logan and I thought we would have done better since the weather was so much nicer. In my case, I was actually doing better than I expected until mile 10 happpened. And you know what happens after mile 10? Miles 11, 12, & 13. But I still managed to beat my time from last year by about 5 minutes, and Logan came very close to his PR...

Like most races, there was an after party with free beer, food for purchase, and a running expo to look at, but Logan and I had someplace else to be: The Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival!

The festival was filled with sheep of all kinds, for sale and for show. There was also no end of options for yarn handicrafts (weavings, knitted items, lace), yarn, yarn making supplies (spinning wheels, drop spindles, drum carders), and of course, fleeces. Many of the vendors had fleece labeled by the individual sheep's name, and since I'm so new to breeds of sheep, I had a hard time telling what was a breed, and what was a name.

They even had a stall dedicated to the rescue of border collies, and a herding show to demonstrate what these dogs are capable of:

We spent several hours at the festival, but eventually I hit sensory overload and we had to head home. But I did learn several important things:

Alpacas make the softest of yarns
Bluefaced Leicesters are my favorite kind of sheep.
Sheep can throw temper tantrums just like dogs (We saw one being walked on a lead, and when the sheep objected, he put on all brakes, then fell over and laid on his back as a form of protest).
Greece still has the best gyros I have ever tasted.
No fair is complete until you find the fried oreos (unfortunately, this fair was lacking)
And most importantly:

Nothing has (yet) dissuaded me from wanting to be a shepherd...

...not even the smell.

What do you mean? This IS me smiling.

2011-05-06T15:37:00.000-07:00

Snow and Rain and Doughnuts! Oh My!

2011-05-04T17:59:00.000-07:00

We are back from our epic vacation filled with all kinds of weather, a wedding, and also doughnuts!

First, we made a stop in Utah for visiting with family and also a trip to the cabin. During an early April visit last year, we were snowed on at the cabin, so I thought we had been smart by putting off our visit until the end of April this year... nope. Tons of snow still covered the ground AND we got snowed on again.

We also didn't think ahead to bring snow shoes, so we had to brave waist deep snow to get to our cabin...

We also didn't think ahead to bring a shovel and unfortunately (fortunately?) our new roof works so well that our main entrance was more than a little difficult to access...

(view of the door from the inside)

I guess it's a good thing we never installed that porch! Our "door to nowhere" that was previously about 4' above the ground was a very convenient winter access since the snow lead right up to it.

We then found the snow shoes we keep at the cabin, brought our supplies in, and roughed out 2 days in a snowed in cabin with no water.

We did get to spend some time snow-shoeing, but mostly we relaxed, which is rare for our style of vacationing, and ever rarer when we are visiting the cabin.

(Our cabin is that way!)

Despite listening to the weather, we got no warning when a snowstorm rolled in overnight. We got about 6-8" of fresh powder, and left later that morning worried that it would take us all day to get out on the snow covered dirt roads. It all went well, though, and we were back in SLC in no time!

Of course, then is snowed another 6-8" the following night in Salt Lake City.

But since we were in Salt Lake- why not go see our awesome niece play some basketball!?!! So that's what we did. Apparently Brianna tried out for, and got into, a pretty intense basketball league and had several games back to back on Saturday.

These girls are WAY good. We had to leave before she finished all her games, though, and we never learned the full outcome of the tournament.

We had good reason for leaving, though. We were heading to Seattle to hang with all these awesome people:

Apparently, I was photgraphed-out at this point and didn't even manage to get a photo of the bride and groom. I'm pretty sure Adam and Maria had enough photographers at the event, though.

And just for good measure; Logan, Duncan, Betsy, & I ran a 5k race on Sunday and got free doughnuts for doing so!

It was a good vacation.

What's that you say?

2011-04-29T05:00:00.000-07:00

Hammock: Repurposed

2011-04-27T07:00:00.000-07:00

Late fall of last year, I went out on our porch to enjoy my coffee on our hammock. I sat down, heard an odd crackling sound, and while I was looking for the source of the noise, the hammock tore and fell out from underneath me. And I spilled my coffee.

Well, the hammock was folded up and left on our porch, ignored for the winter. With our porch remodel this spring, I investigated the torn hammock and realized I could not repair that type of fabric with my little sewing machine, and since it was a very cheap hammock to begin with, finding a repair place wasn't really something we wanted to bother with. But I still felt bad throwing the whole thing away.

Then I remembered finding something similar to these last year and thought maybe the hammock material would be perfect for my own potato bags!!! So I made some!

First, I cut the hammock in half

Then I stapled each half into a cylinder, and then stapled up the bottom.

As I unroll it, it will allow plenty of room for potatoes to form and make "hilling" easy.

And then I (finally!) planted my potatoes!

And I only stabbed myself twice with the construction staples!!! Horray!

My Most Secret of Secrets...

2011-04-23T05:05:00.000-07:00

... ok, not really...

...but kinda...

As a rule, I try not to put anything out into the world that I wouldn't want getting back to me. Professionally, this has served me well since I can't even count how many times I've wanted to send an accusatory, snide email to a third party (but haven't) only to have my email immediately forwarded to the party I wanted to be snide and accusatory to. I also "practiced" blogging for about 6 months before I was willing to share my blog with anyone, including Logan, simply because I wanted to figure out the ropes without inadvertently offending a friend or loved one. I actually deleted several posts before I made the blog public, not because the posts were mean or critical, but because I was afraid of subtle undertones and offhand remarks that may have been taken the wrong way. Even with these precautions, I suspect I still make comments that inadvertently offend (which is never my intent), and so I try to minimize the damage by not friending many of my coworkers on facebook, and by trying to keep this blog as private as possible in a futile attempt to keep private life private, and professional life professional. And although I wouldn't necessarily seek to share this information with my current employer, I am okay with sending this information out into the world to see what might come of it. So what's this big secret, then? It is this:

I have no idea what I want to be when I grow up.

Yes, I'm 30. Yes, I have a degree, a career, a profession, a license, qualifications and experience. But...

I have no idea what I want to be when I grow up.

It's not even that I dislike my chosen field- sure it has its moments, both good and bad- it's just my profession feels more like what I'm doing and not what I'm being.

But after 12 years of doing, I would be okay with a new course of being- only problem is: what would I be?

For much of my childhood, my answer to this question was always, "I want to work with animals." I was, of course, encouraged by all the adults in my life to follow this path. At first, I wanted to be a zoologist, but after a "junior zookeeper" experience at Hogle Zoo, I quickly came to the conclusion that zookeeping is less about working with animals and more about cleaning up after them.

As I entered high school, and became more involved with the day to day care of my dog, Tessy, I thought I wanted to become a vet. Again, I was encouraged by all the adults in my life to follow this path, but one day as I paid a standard vet bill for Tessy's yearly vaccinations, I was made to stand next to a vain-looking older woman who was trying to convince our vet it was a good idea to put her (very healthy looking) older dog to sleep because he had become incontinent. The woman wasn't very interested in medical treatment options, and I was able to leave before the vet submitted to her request. Although I don't know the whole story behind the health of this particular dog, and euthanasia could very well have been the right course of action, I knew then and there I could never be a vet. Euthanasia is a very difficult decision for even the worst of pet owners and I didn't want my profession and income to be tied to those decisions, right or wrong.

Then I stumbled into architecture, it seemed like a good enough fit, and a series of escalating commitments got me to where I am today.

Even so, over the years I have continued to come back to this idea of "working with animals." I have flirted with the idea of becoming a pet sitter, or maybe a dog walker, but after some experiences with fostering and simply meeting more animals, I came to a very odd conclusion: I don't like animals.

Yes. This is Jody speaking.

I know teachers who have said they love teaching because they love children. Well, I hate children. Seriously, kids are scary. But I also know I will love the crap out of my children, just like I love the children of people I love. But random people's kids who will sneeze on you or wipe a booger on your pants because it's convenient- I definitely don't care for them.

The same holds true for pets. Until fostering, I would have sworn I loved all dogs. Turns out, there are definitely dogs I don't like. Not bad dogs, but dogs with personalities that I sincerely don't care for. Fostering cats taught me the same thing. For all these years I thought I loved animals when, really, I just loved my animals (and some of the animals of those closest to me).

Armed with this new knowledge, pet sitting and dog walking held less appeal because I would be spending most of my time with other people's pets, and chances are, I wouldn't like many of them. Especially poodles. Man do I hate poodles.

But my desire to "work with animals" is still there.

Recently, I have been following a couple of blogs and my initial interest in them is quickly spiraling into an obsession.

Of course, it doesn't help that it is lambing season and they post a ton of photos as cute as this:

In my life, I never considered being a farmer as a means to "work with animals." This was mostly because my idea of farms were either plant related or ranchers who sold their animals for slaughter, and I suspect I'm not the only one who was utterly unfamiliar with the idea of a fiber farm.

Although I know I'm prone to flights of fancy and crazy whims (Logan will attest to this), that won't stop me from dragging Logan to the Sheep and Wool festival in a few weeks. After that, I may convince him to drive out to Virginia for a sheep shearing day.

I'm not about to quit my day job, and we'll see how far I get before reality bursts this bubble, but I can't help thinking maybe all these years I've been a shepherd looking for her flock.

Not just any flock.

My flock.

Couch Buddies

2011-04-22T05:34:00.000-07:00

10Ks and Birthdays

2011-04-17T08:00:00.000-07:00

Today was the second of our spring races with the Clydes 10k! Hooray!

My unofficial running goal for this year has been to improve my speed since I don't have an absurd distance to train for. Although I didn't live up to this goal at the Cherry Blossom (I was 4 minutes slower than last year), I was able to score a PR at Clydes with a finishing time of 58:58 and a pace of approx 9:30 min/mile- finishing below my average 10 min/mile pace as well as breaking the hour mark!!! Running goal for the season is now complete.

Guess we'll have to see if I can continue this progress at the Frederick Half Marathon in a few weeks- as long as a heat wave doesn't roll through like it did last year, I think I'll do OK.

Of course, Logan improved his time for the 5th year in a row. Has he really been running for 5 years now?!?? Where did that time go?

Maybe I should ask Firefly because (OMG) she turns 5 years old today!

Firefly isn't much of an eater, and she also doesn't like being the center of attention so a party for her is a tad difficult. But she is currently going crazy over her catnip mouse so I think she's having a pretty good day regardless...

Turn that Smile Up-Side-Down...

2011-04-15T15:51:00.000-07:00

.. and it is still a smile.

Excuse me, I was reading that...

2011-04-08T07:00:00.001-07:00

New Month, New Goal!

2011-04-02T09:16:00.000-07:00

Well... 3 months into the new year and I think I had my first unsuccessful monthly goal. Which is really too bad because I'm supposed to run a 10-miler tomorrow and I'm pretty sure it's going to suck. Big time.

March's goal was a fitness challenge and detox. Logan set his own goal of running every single day for the month of March and succeeded. I, on the other hand, set the lesser goal of running 5 days a week (which is an increase for me since I average 3-4 times a week) and I succeeded 3 weeks out of 5. Is 60% passing? Guess I'll just have to hope for a curve...

I was also hoping to cut down on alcohol and caffeine since I find it embarrassing to go to my doctor for yearly check-ups only to have him do a standard intake form that asks how many drinks I have per week. This only bothers me because my number has gone up every year I've seen him. I would say I made progress with this goal this month, but I'm also cutting myself some slack since Tosca was such an emotional roller coaster. As part of that, we weren't sleeping well as we worried about her, which made me want more coffee; and we were so stressed about decision making, that I wanted to unwind with wine. Oh, well...

Of course, I'm not sure how many more of these monthly goals I can take, because although they are monthly goals, they seem to be extending beyond the one month I have them as a goal: I'm still sorting through different closet items from the January goal, we're still working on house projects from February's goal, and since I'm already signed up for a half marathon in May, I'll be continuing March's running goal through April.

In the hopes of having a goal that isn't habit related or a never ending project; this month I'm hoping to finally get several items out of the house!

This is a hard goal to explain since I think I'm one of very few people who has this problem... See, although I cleaned out my closet a couple months ago, many items went into our spare room for "processing." Of course, more than just closet items require "processing" if you're me. "Processing," to me, is storing items until I have enough to make a trip worth-while, or storing them until I find the appropriate method of disposal. So, right now I have a pile for Goodwill, another for a consignment shop, a box of shoes for Soles for Souls, a box of old CD-ROMS for greendisk, a box of books currently listed on Paperbackswap, a box of DVDs to go to a second hand book/music/DVD store, paint cans that need to go to the recycling center (which is only open seasonally), wood scrapes that need to go to yard waste, items to be sold on ebay or a yard sale, etc etc.

Needless to say, the room looks like a mess.

So this month I hope to actually mail, drop off, or trade all the items I currently have stored for "processing." If I do this right, it won't carry over to another month of work.

However, keeping up with February's Goal of home improvement, we just had our new deck installed:

before:

after:

I am officially no longer scared to use our deck- Hooray!

Jodissimo

Zeddy turns 18!

Blogging Goals for 2012

How Many Animals can Fit on Our Couch?

Pregnancy, Week 35; Fat, Fatty, Fat, Fat

In Our Ongoing Quest to Make Our House Browner- 2012, Part 2

In Our Ongoing Quest to Make Our House Browner- 2012, Part 1

How Cooper Does Walks...

Babies and Gifts

That's My Boy

Oops! I did it again.

"Finished!"*

Jody Crazies! Letter Edition Update!

Zzzzz....

Annie Comes to Visit!

This is for you, Sean!

Week 31 in Captivity

A Day at the Office...

Jody Crazies! Letter Edition!

Jody Crazies! Cloth Baby Wipe Edition

Zed Pants: Update

Just Relaxin'

Sir Zed Pants

2011- Monthly Resolution Review

JANUARY MONTHLY GOAL:

FEBRUARY MONTHLY GOAL:

MARCH MONTHLY GOAL:

APRIL MONTHLY GOAL:

MAY MONTHLY GOAL:

JUNE MONTHLY GOAL:

JULY MONTHLY GOAL:

AUGUST MONTHLY GOAL:

SEPTEMBER MONTHLY GOAL:

OCTOBER MONTHLY GOAL:

NOVEMBER MONTHLY GOAL:

DECEMBER MONTHLY GOAL:

Happy New Year!!!

"Can I Sit on the Couch with You?"

3...4...5...

Animal Couch

Symphony of Lights

Happy Christmas! (or You're-Welcomes-Giving)

Partners in Crime

Shepherding Camp

Cooper Hibernating for the Winter

Situation Normal: Baby, 25 Weeks

Can't Leave Well Enough Alone

Typical Jody and Sparta

...and I'm Done

Dog About Town

Another Year! Hooray!

I Don't Even Know How Cooper Does This...

Super Secret Project Success!

Sonic Baby ~19 weeks

Babies and Half Marathons

No, I am not Sitting on Toph

Our Little Parasite

Logan Eating Breakfast

And to Think This Dog Needs Fixin'!

How in the World Did I Manage to do This?

Baby Pumpkin!

Many Things A'happening

Charlie's Favorite Place to Sleep

Learning to Love Water

Ultrasound SmackDown- 13 week edition

Labor Day Weekend Project #2, #3, #4...

Labor Day Weekend Project #1

Sparta's first visit to the field...

We Went for a Walk in the Hurricane- Sat 9pm

Earth Quake Damage!

Our Newest Addition

What were we thinking?!??

Happy Birthday Momlette!

Cooper Got Swallowed by the Couch Monster

Cabin Glory: 2011 Edition

Baby Echolocation- 8 weeks

Llama

My Cat Has A Gravity Problem...

Firefly: Confidently Sightless

The Princess and the Pea