Slippery

"I fell down"

"Did you hurt yourself?"

"Nope"

"Only your pride?"

"Nope"

"It's already beaten down huh?"

"Yep, this is just kicking it when it's down."

Snow

Finally some real snow and it doesn't look like it plans on stopping anytime soon. Oli is now driving his truck to work, 4 wheel drive, oh yeah. Did I mention we live on top of a hill (just like every one else in this town), a steep hill. Dieter, well Dieter's car busticated today. Broke down between Pullman and Moscow, so Oli drove out around 2:30 to pick him up and then they figured out what was wrong and fixed it enough to drive it home (when I say they I mean Oli mostly). So the boys had fun, got to mess around with the car, in the snow even, and then come home and have a beer, literally.
Unfortunately they had so much fun that Oli apparently forgot I would be needing a ride home from school around 5:00 (2.5 hrs after the car broke down) and that we had Bradley classes this evening. So I ended up getting a ride home from Liz and Mark, who are very nice, at about 6:30, when our class starts. Not that we would have gone to class anyway because it is just a bit snowy to drive to Moscow when you don't have to. The whole time I am getting a bit concerned because Oli knows that I need to picked up and he knows we have class tonight. So all the reasons my mind, made slightly more paranoid by pregnancy, could come up with for not being about to find him involved something happening to him, or Dieter, or one of our cars. Sorry if I sound bitter, it is probably just sleep deprivation and hunger talking. Speaking of hunger, I will go eat my (hopefully) cooled off soup.

1+3=4

4, that is how many hours of sleep I got last night. Why? I don't know. I went to bed at 11:00 finally got to sleep sometime after 12:00. Woke up at 1:30. Why? I don't know but I was suddenly very hungry. Ate a couple satsumas, still hungry. Tried to sleep anyway, couldn't. Finally gave in and got up to find more food (little sausages, peas, carrots, crackers), still hungry. Sometime after 4:30 am I finally fell asleep. 7:20 am, alarm goes off, hungry. Decide to skip first class in hopes of sleep. No sleep. Give up again at 8:50, get up, shower, eat a bagel. Eat 2 pieces of toast with peanut butter, finally not hungry. Catch the bus at 9:20 (already too late to go to class). Now I am in my office trying to decide what to do. I should study, but my head feels like it is stuffed with cotton so I am not sure how effective that would be. I want to just go home and lie around all day forcing myself to sleep however much I can manage, but I can't. Today I have a lab. You can't miss labs.
On the bright side, it snowed. Not much and it will probably melt but that is something. The meteorologists posted a "winter storm warning", though I will point out that that is the national people, a local weather man said he doubted we would get more than an inch. He was right. I like him.

It's 7:00 and alls well

Well, we had our doctors appt and everything is going well. The head is down and all that good stuff. I do get a lot of wierd looks though when I tell people I would prefer to be a bit late. I explain I have finals and they look at me a bit less wierd but I am sure they are still thinking I am crazy on the inside. Got my Christmas presents wrapped this evening. Now all we need to do is get a tree and we are ready. Except of course the people we haven't found gifts for yet.

Sweetie

My husband is such a sweetie. Don't you wish you had an Oli. Well too bad, he's mine.

Meteorologists

I will never again place my trust in the meteorologist he has let me down too many times. We had a "heavy snow warning" from 6 pm last night to 10 am this morning, and is there a single flake of snow on the ground? NO. Not only that it is actually sunny outside. Sunny! can you believe the nerve? Yet they persist in predicting snow. There were even kids yelling when I woke up this morning I mean afternoon, further raising my hopes.

Withdrawal

Went to bed, couldn't sleep. So now I am up watching Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (the good one). I think I need some new reading material. I haven't read much lately and I think I am going through withdrawal. The books I have that I haven't read recently are mostly around the junior high reading level and don't keep me entertained very long.
They told me there would be snow this evening. There is no snow, yet, anyway. Sad.

It's 3:00 do you know where your title is?

We sold the Tercel today, thank goodness. Don't have to think about that anymore. One of Oli's coworkers bought it for her son to drive, she actually likes that it is the gutless wonder. Unfortunately she lives in Idaho, which means I will have to get the special replacement title that costs $30 and takes 6-8 weeks to get. Let this be a lesson to you, don't lose your title, it is a pain in the arse.
Dieter's family was here for Thanksgiving. So I didn't have to drive anywhere, yet I also did not have to cook anything. Good deal. The house was a bit full though, seven people and I was the shortest at 5'8". Oh and Koira, can't forget the dog. We had the added excitement of waking up to a power outage this morning. Sometime about 8:20 am someone ran their car into a pole and knocked out the power. At least they didn't do it yesterday. The Olsons headed back home a bit ago and now the house is very quiet, perhaps too quiet... nope just a nice quiet.
I am all by myself now since Oli is at work and Dieter has left to do homework. They currently have Oli scheduled to work from 3 pm to 2 am and then again Saturday at 7 am. I'm not even sure that is legal, but we figure that they just didn't notice when they scheduled him and he is going to ask to have that 7 am moved back to at least 10 am.
I don't know what I will do now. Maybe get some exercise and take a walk up to the park. Feed the ducks some. I think with all this cold weather they are feeling a bit neglected. They don't wait for you to reach the pond any more. As soon as you enter their line of site they are out of the water and mobbing you. Aunt Karla and I took Koira for a walk yesterday and fed them the nasty, cheap, off brand cheerios I had bought. Aunt Karla argues that you have to get the name brand cheerios, but I think the middle priced ones are good too, just not bottom of the line. This led Uncle Dave to comment that he would like to tour some of those food factories, giving Aunt Karla visions of a retirement spent touring places like General Mills and Heinz.

Poker

So it turns out I am not very good at poker. Not surprising since tonight was pretty much the first time I have played it for real. It was still fun playing. It with Mark and Liz though because they've never really played it before either. I don't think I will ever play it with Dieter. Because he is good, quite good, and will not hesitate to inform me that I am bad, quite bad. What he doesn't understand is that I don't care. We aren't playing for money and I don't expect to be good. I'm OK with that, he isn't.
It's Thanksgiving break and I am very happy. A week of sleeping in, no homework, no grading, nothing I need to do except work on my thesis. Which means I will actually get something done on it, which will make me happy. Well I also need to finish getting ready for Layden but I don't think I have too much left to do in that department, except prepare mentally. Only 2 more weeks, plus or minus a week or more. So pretty much anytime now. I am starting to get really excited. Just think in less than a month I will be a mom. Scares you all doesn't it?

How my husband knows he's married

"you should bring the computer in here to work"

"no you'll get sleepy, then fall asleep and when I try to sneak out you'll latch on, whine, stop me from leaving and then snore"

Vocabulary

"Its because I have a large... you know the thing that means all the words you know..."

"vocabulary?"

"yeah that"

Tis the Season

Apparently it tis the season to get married. We have recieved another wedding invitation for December (the 12th) to add to the weddings on the 10th and the 17th. This one is extra special though, it is in New Dehli. Definitely won't be making that one. Though India would probably be the most exciting of the three places to go in December, and the competition is quite stiff (Port Orchard and Goldendale). At least it would be warm, though there is always the risk of catching TB or some other disease that we are lucky enough not to have to worry about in the US.

Squirrels

Maybe some of you noticed that I changed how my weblog looks. Is it good? Is it bad? Is it ugly?

You may remember a previous blog concerning a letter to the editor warning about the organization of the squirrels in the area. Then one morning a bit ago we left to go on a walk and we came upon a strange congregation of squirrels which dispersed with our arrival to climb trees, dash accross the road, pilfer trash and other normal squirrel activities. This morning we had another interesting encounter with a squirrel. First the little guy would walk right up to the sliding glass door and peek in at us, even when we stood right in front of the door. Then he would scratch at the screen door. When Oli opened the door to go outside the squirrel ran right up to him, sniffed his shoe and then ran off, only to return and peer in through the still open door. We suspect this squirrel was a scout assigned to determine the layout of our house and possible modes of entry, luring us into a false sense of security with his cute antics and fearless nature. However, the true nature of the squirrels is revealed in this series of photos. Note the glowing red eyes and the swift attack.

Good/sad news

I got some exciting news. The last of my close friends from high school is getting married. Lindsey Riggs will be marrying Adam Riggs (no relation, I hope) on December 17th in Port Orchard. The sad side of this news is I probably won't be able to go and I really want to. But the pass has been having rockslide and snow issues and I will have an approximately 12 day old baby, bad combination. The only consolation is that by the 17th I most likely won't mind too much. I will be fully content/frazzled spending my time with Layden. But, until then, it makes me sad.
Speaking of frazzled... I have been told that once Layden is born I will be insanely busy, to the point where I don't even have time to shower. I find this difficult to believe, but I am guessing I am just being naive and overly optimistic. Please say it ain't so. Really, lie to me if you must, but say it ain't so. There is no way to prepare for that kind of busy so I might as well enjoy my delusion while it lasts.

Baby Sling

I finished making my prototype baby sling. The site where I got directions predicted it would take less than one hour, even for a beginner. It was wrong. It took me more than an hour just to do the sewing and there is only one seam and two edges to hem. Nor did taking an extra hour or two produce straight seams. Well, it isn't terribly impressive or pretty but it still hasn't been shown to be non-functional so that is something. I just need to get a hold of something relatively baby shaped with a decent amount of weight to test it before I will trust it with Layden.

Overwhelmed

I just have too much to do right now. I have tests, homework, papers, grading, and office hours, which isn't bad and definitely handleable. But over these minor considerations looms my honors thesis project and the birth of my son. I have next to nothing done on my thesis, which eventually must somehow morph into a 20 page paper and a 15+ min presentation and, sadly, they won't give me a diploma unless I do a thesis project. I do have until the seventh week of next semester to finish (so early march sometime) but between now and then Layden will arrive. From what I hear that will effectively cut my productivity by an order of magnitude or so. I also have a serious case of senioritis. I am about 4 weeks away from being done with a bachelors (minus diploma til I do my thesis) after over 16 years of school. I am ready to be done, yesterday.
Well I guess that is enough complaining. I could go on but I will spare you. And I am afraid if I go on too long some of you might catch on to the fact that I am spending far too much time writing a blog when I could be decreasing the list of things I have to do. Though I actually can't do anymore on my thesis til I talk with my advisor, which is basically what is holding me up (not procrastination or laziness or anything like that).

Baby stuff

Busy weekend. Our friends from Oli's program in Yakima visited this weekend. We were up really late last night so I am pretty beat. Luckily I don't have class til 2:00 on monday so I will be able to sleep in.
We got a lot of baby stuff today from the Dahl's. They have 1 year old and 4 year old girls so they have passed on their baby stuff. We have a lot more diapers, diaper covers (glad I hadn't bought those yet), clothes and toys. Now Layden will actually have something to play with. Oli wasn't too impressed with some of the noisier ones and had some trouble figure out the point of others (difficult because there is no point). I guess he will just have to get used to it that is how toys are, especially the noisy part.
We are watching "The Doors", one of Oli's cousins (not first cousin, something else) was the drummer for The Doors. Dieter had the movie so we figured we might as well figure out something about them. I should be grading but I just feel like relaxing right now.

Avoiding work

I'm slacking now. There are any number of things I should be doing right now but I have decided not to. My grading is done, thank goodness, I still need to study and do homework and such but I am just not in the mood. Then of course there are the ever present dishes and such but I am letting that go, I just don't have the energy to care anymore.
Only about 4 more weeks, assuming Layden arrives in a timely manner anyways. I am starting to get impatient. I never have been much good at waiting. Nine months is a long time. We've started making a "Birth Plan" basically a sheet of paper that says what sort of medical procedures and such that you would/would not like to have.
Everyone always wants to know if I can feel him kicking, so I don't know if this is just me or not but he isn't much of a kicker. He is a wiggler. That or he just changes positions so that he is permanently pressing agaist some spot or another.
We have a carseat for him now, though if he is pretty small it will be too big. Dieter is excited because it has the dial on the side for tightening. We will have to keep him away from it when the baby is in it.
In other news, unfortunately we were mistaken and Oli will be working nights :(. Not til December though.

See WSU colors on the space needle

http://www.spaceneedle.com/events/special/tackling_hurricane_relief.asp

Excuses

Too much homework, too much grading, too little sleep.