It's raining miscellaneous thoughts

It's raining outside today. And it rained yesterday.
And it will rain tomorrow. The dogs are not happy about it, and neither are we, since we have to take them out in the rain and wipe them off when they come back in. I know, having been in a drought for the last many, many months has spoiled us from having to deal with it being wet outside.

I think Oreos should definitely be named a necessary food group.

Sam is watching U-571 across the room.

I just discovered that there was a spaghetti sauce splatter on the 'o' and the '.' on my keyboard. While I wiped it off, it said ooooooooooooooooooooo........................

We used coupons for a free bagel at Einstein Bro's again today; yay for free delicious breakfast!

We're trying to teach Lady not to bother us at the table while we're eating (or doing anything else for that matter). It's a battle of our wills and our patience.

You're probably going to think I'm really dumb after reading my random thoughts.

Sam just called Lady, so she jumped over the back of the couch because it was easier to go over it than to go around it, apparently. We laugh at her too often when we need to correct her. She's hilarious and cute, even when she's less than obedient. We'll be hopeless when we have a little girl. Sam especially.

I was really good yesterday and had a great workout, but I had slept funny on my right arm or shoulder, and the exercise must have aggravated it. I'm feeling it today.

Home group tonight... We've been given the homework of reading Ecclesiastes and talking about it tonight. It may have been sort of an odd choice, but I think it's pretty good for a group of young adults (we're mainly in the 20-40 range, so I guess now we're just adults?) to read and look at the wisdom in it. And sort out what is "meaningless".

Now Lady is fixated on a squirrel on the back deck. She and Max are stalking it through the window. I swear they were separated at birth - either this cat it part greyhound, or this dog is part Siamese.

I've spent far too much time on the computer the last few days so I need to find something else to do when I'm trying to take it easy. Sitting doesn't help my fat ankles or my back.

Next week my mom and I are going to tackle the front yard, and plant some low-maintenance plants to sort of beautify the front of the house. Since I can't bring flowers into the house without their being chewed up and regurgitated by our favorite cats, I want to try to have flowers outside where I can see them when I go out the front door. We'll see if I actually get around to planting them and if they survive very long. But hey, it's a nice thought.

Feeling Artistic

New Prego Pics

Here are some fun pictures that I took yesterday....

30 weeks!

Coffee Time :)

Well, it's not morning anymore, but coffee sure would be nice around now. I'm drinking lemonade (the mix kind, though), so if you'd like some of that, I can mix up some for you, too. While you're here, take a gander at the booty I brought home the other day for my baby's room (the post below).

It's quite calm here this afternoon. Sam is napping, the old dog is also napping, and the young dog won't nap, so she is rearranging the back yard, disassembling the stack of firewood, piece by piece, from the back porch into the lawn. I think she believes it's her current mission. There are worse things she could be doing, so we don't see it as a real problem. All dogs need a job, right? This is hers. The cats are alternately napping and exploring quietly.

The first day of spring is actually very much like spring. It's probably close to 70 F out there, and sunny, and there's a nice little breeze coming through. We took Lady for a walk before lunch, which we all needed. Sam needed some physical exercise to help him get back to his workout routine after over a week of being sick. I needed to get my circulation going, so maybe my foot won't swell so badly today. Lady needed to expend some energy somewhere.

The rest of the afternoon I plan to get a little bit of housework accomplished (not much, just enough to keep me slightly ahead of the game), then mix up some cupcakes for home group tonight.

I'm excited to be going to home group again; we'd taken a hiatus back before Christmas, and it took our group a while to reconvene. This is the first night we'll be getting together formally, and we have no plan as of yet, but that's fine, because the Holy Spirit has a plan.

Tomorrow I'm off to a baby shower for a friend's baby girl, who is due about 3 weeks before I am. I picked up a pack of diapers and a couple of onsies for her - one says "Does this diaper make my butt look big?" and I couldn't resist buying it! I need to wrap all that stuff up today so I don't make us late in the morning. It's going to be about an hour's drive to get there, so I'm not excited about the distance, but I am looking forward to the company on the drive.

I'm getting hungry again; I think it's time to make cupcakes.... The sooner I make them, the sooner I can sneak one. :)

Baby Stuff

Look at all the cool things we got at a consignment sale a few weeks ago! I know, it's rather old news, but I am so thrilled by the deals we got that even if it's a little late in coming, I'm still excited about it.
The picture below shows what we bought for a grand total of $108!

The most expensive thing we purchased was the toddler-sized set of yellow loveseat and chair. They were a whole $25. Sam saw them immediately after we made our initial ($42) purchase and were loading up the car. He said, "Hey, you have to see these cute little chairs...." The next thing we knew, we had another $66 worth of stuff and went through the checkout line again!
We could barely fit all this loot into the back seat and trunk of my car - and my car has a lot of space! It took Sam and I and a guy who worked there to engineer it into allowing the doors to close.

We brought home:
A loveseat/chair set (fairly good condition - I might try to find a way to clean it, or cover it again with additional fabric. The cats love it, though.)
A Boppy pillow
A bouncy seat (with vibration and music, and it works!)
A bath tub and little hammock to fit in it - but the hammock wasn't made for that tub, so I picked up a different one at another sale the following weekend.
A mirror to see a rear-facing carseat from the front seat.
A "mail cart" push toy/walker for when she's older. Steph's boy loves his, so I was happy to find one for just a couple of dollars.
A shopping-cart cover (that colorful thing in the middle)
An exersaucer
A Baby Bjorn (for only $4!)
A Snuggli (picked up a 2nd carrier for another prego friend)
A (working!) swing
A lamp (works!)
5 books (2 for me, 3 for baby)
9 onsies
8 hats (Sam went crazy picking out hats; he has a very low resistance to cute)
2 sizes of neck wings (for neck support in car seat, swing, etc.)

Last weekend I hit another sale, where I spent only $32, and bought 24 items - basically as much as I could physically carry, because I forgot to bring a laundry basket or a bag or anything to tote my loot along with me. Half of it was maternity clothing for me, and the other half was clothing for her. I picked up a couple baggies of toys, and a couple of books as well. The most expensive thing I bought was a little blue dress for her, for a whopping $2.50!

At first we were not going to buy any baby things until after the shower, but we realized that it will be better to purchase some things inexpensively, to be able to take the less urgent or less important things off our registry, so that it may be more likely for people to go together on our big items (car seat and stroller, and play pen/bassinette especially).

Earlier this week I washed all the baby clothes that I'd bought and been given so far - it took me 3 loads (one was purely pink) to wash them all! I also washed everything removable from the seats, swings, etc., that could be washed. Now they are all put away, sorted into sizes in my little Ikea boxes.

And I still have 2 weeks 'till my shower!

The 5-minute update

Happy Saturday!

Today is going to be pretty full; here is the run-down:

It is raining, and looks like it will be raining most of the day.
Sam has gone to the monthly men's breakfast.
I've already done breakfast, coffee, and my Bible study homework/quiet time.
Once I make sure the dogs are settled and I have woken up sufficiently, I'm off to another consignment sale.
Sam will need to be back here by 11 for the guy to come and fix our treadmill (for the 3rd time).
We're going to a birthday party for one of our friends' one-year-old at 2. At least I am; Sam has had some kind of virus since Monday and still sounds like he's hacking up a lung when he coughs.
I'm listening to Fernando Ortega on Pandora Radio.
Little Girl is kicking, and it's rather hilarious.
Hopefully we'll head to Costco this evening and pick up some random necessities, like a new dog bed and some orange juice.
Lady is whining; I think it's time for her to go outside.
I am now 29 weeks pregnant. Down to 11 weeks to go - that is, if she doesn't make an early appearance. It's going well and I'm fairly comfortable.
My glucose test from Tuesday came back completely normal, thank the Lord!
Wade & Christina are having a little girl, like we are!
Lady has learned to recognize the dog park when we arrive.
That has been the 5-minute news update from Cindy.

Mylo/Lady

We have a new family member as of Sunday!

Saturday afternoon Sam and I hit Petsmart to see who was available for adoption and ran into a couple who was trying to adopt out their greyhound mix. We were immediately drawn to this dog, and after talking with the couple and hanging out with the dog for a bit, we got their phone number, talked about it, and arranged to adopt this pretty little lady.

She has been fitting in perfectly with the household - she is gentle with Jessa (who needs gentleness, since she apparently pulled a muscle this weekend and is moving very slowly), and she just wants to be friends with the cats. Her energy level is pretty low, until she gets outside, when she loves to run and chase and scout for squirrels.

The couple who had her before did all the hard work of training her, so we are enjoying simply having to enforce our rules, such as "off" the couch and chairs and bed, and no licking the dishes in the dishwasher, etc.

We keep being amazed at how well she is fitting in, and are constantly saying to each other how cute and how elegant she is. We never imagined that we'd be so impressed by a greyhound, but she is great!

Playing Catch-up

Apparently I have sort of forgotten I have a blog. Life has been busy and full lately, in a good way, so I'm fine with skipping around every so often.

This afternoon I will go to my parents' house to visit and help my mom get the house back to order after being gone for 6 weeks. They're also expecting company tomorrow evening, so there's actually a deadline to get things accomplished and presentable. They have been in California since mid-January working to empty my grandma's house to get it ready for a renter. It has taken literally all 5 weeks they were not on the road, and it's still not completely done. I am kind of looking forward to hearing all the gory details of their adventures in Grandma's basement. I've seen some pictures that have been posted on my brother's Facebook, but there will be much more to see.

We had birthdays last week. In my family "birthdays" means 3/5ths of the family had birthdays within a 3-day spread. I'm now officially only 2 years from 30, which doesn't actually bother me. Maybe it's the fact that I'm starting the parenting thing now, so at least one kid may be out of the house before I'm 50. My dad is 2 years from being 60. My next younger brother is 25. We threw him a birthday party of sorts, and that was a lot of fun. We invited pretty much everyone in our age bracket from church (at least those who are his friends) and had 21 adults and 5 children in our house at one point. It was so much fun, and I know it blessed him that we did something for him, especially while my parents were out of town. It also blessed us to have so many friends in our home. And to have a clean house, which we are still reaping the benefits of this week. It is sliding a little bit, but at least we had a good starting point.

The weather last weekend was pretty crazy; we had snow. We hadn't had snow at all this winter, except some of those big, lame flakes that you can't really tell whether they're snow or big rain drops.

And now I'm wearing shorts and we have the windows open because it is so beautiful outside. If time permits, I may just plant those annuals that I'd had stolen out of my front yard and returned a few weeks ago.

Sunday night we started the "new and improved" version of the Beth Moore Bible study, "A Woman's Heart, God's Dwelling Place", which is a study of the Tabernacle. The women had done this study about 10 or 11 years ago, but I had not done it with them, so I am excited to get to go through it with them. In fact, when I couldn't sleep this morning between 4-6, I got up and did my homework for the day. I hope that I can get out of it what I need to, and that I don't just "do the homework" and at the end have nothing to show for it in my heart. I suppose that since I want to grow through it, God will be able to do whatever work He needs to.
Interestingly it is a 10 week study, which works out to 12 weeks total (including intro and conclusion meetings), and I have only 12 weeks now left of my pregnancy!

In mid-April our church is having a women's retreat, and I'm heading up the registration part of it. The theme is "Love Remains" and the theme verse is 1 John 4:16. I'm looking forward to being involved and just being a participant. Our last retreat, I was playing for worship each session (except for one), and also had one of the primary speaking slots. It was wonderful to be so involved last time, and I learned so much about God's faithfulness and I'm so grateful that He gave me something to share, but I'm glad there is not that much responsibility in my hands this time, aside from some behind the scenes stuff that is mostly preparation beforehand.
Interestingly, I will be 8-1/2 months pregnant at that point, so hopefully everything will be going smoothly still and I won't have any trouble being there for that weekend.

Yesterday I splurged on buying $61 worth of maternity (and large non-maternity) clothes for myself at Old Navy. They were mostly on sale and mostly clearance, so I actually walked out of there with 6 things! I'm pretty excited about having some more options, and having some options that weren't already worn by one of my friends (though thank God for having friends who are about the same size and willing to share their clothes!).

Since it's getting close to noon, and I haven't really done much of anything, I think it's about time to get up from the computer and get moving. I think I'll eat again and go for a walk when Sam comes home, then go from there....