I've had a hard time not mentioning this, but I am pregnant again, 12 weeks along, due October 6th. I was planning to wait until April 1 to make a general announcement, since that is when I pass the first trimester mark, but on Thursday, when I went to the OB, Arabella and I heard the baby's heartbeat (or, as Arabella calls is, heartbeep), and I felt like everything would be fine. Next week I go in for genetic counseling. Aside from my age, we are not particularly high risk, but I would rather do this than have a surprise at the hospital. I have been losing weight due to morning sickness (about 5 pounds), but oddly my belly has been swelling even with the weight loss. I have told the Art Center I will not be teaching in the fall, or only a short workshop class instead of a full 15-week course. I have been tired, and short of breath, and my ears started popping about 3 weeks ago, my usual pregnancy symptom. Arabella is a bit sad, because she wants a baby in her tummy too, and I told her she's just not old enough yet. If we let her be present at the birth, she may decide she will never be old enough.
Yesterday, among our many errands, Arabella and I got our hair cut. A picture will follow soon.
On Tuesday, Arabella's school hosted the fire department to talk to the children about fire safety. They brought two rescue dogs, which was very popular. The teacher told me about this when I came to pick up Arabella, and suggested we talk about fire safety at home. SO as we were leaving I was asking her about the visit, and about fire safety. I said, "What did the firemen tell you to do if there is a fire?" and Arabella replied: "SCREEEAAM!"
Well, yeah, I guess that works, too.
The weather is warm, warmer than I have ever known it this time of year in Indiana (in other words, about as warm as SoCal, but with more rain), and it has me thinking of planting things a full month earlier than I have ever considered before. My plans: a new peony bush for the front yard to replace the ones the roofers trampled last year (and before anyone suggests it can come back if it was established, it won't, it wasn't), and sunflowers (not near the fence this time, but somewhere the squirrels won't find it so easy to knock down), and tomatoes. And, before planting, I want to do the retaining wall in the front yard, to slow down the lawn erosion. Apparently gigantic maple tree + lawn = lots of ungreen dirt. Oh, and some Irises, to span the period between tulips and daylilies.
On knitting, I ripped back and restarted Arabella's hot pink piggle hat (the white one wasn't what she had in mind) on circular needles instead of double-points. I did start it in New York, but even with the marathon line wait at the airport I didn't work on it much. I really believe the airport security might have gotten antsy about a tense and unhappily stranded person with four pointy shiny metal things. And they had really big guns. Like Rambo would have thought they were too big. Just as well, the hat wasn't going well on double-points (the stitches kept falling off, and I kept getting them twisted when I put them back on) and I was tense enough without fighting a hot pink octopus.
So on Sunday the 11th of March I was barfing my guts up ... from stomach flu. That was exciting. Again. And on Tuesday I flew to NYC to work at the National Art Educators Conference. It meant I had to miss NCECA, the annual ceramics conference, when it was only a two hour drive from my home, but I decided a paid trip to NY was better than an expensive trip to Louisville.
It was crazy busy at the conference, and at the end each day I was exhausted. I did manage to meet up with Holly, my god-daughter, who I hadn't seen since she went off to college 5 years ago. And on Friday I had an odd incident, I went up to my room after a long day in the exhibitor hall, and found ... a pair of underwear in the bathroom that I had never seen before. It took talking to several people, but the hotel comped the rom for the night and I think was suitably embarrassed. I would have rather they sent me a masseuse. I think the maids accidently picked up a pair of drawers from someones bathroom floor (they were white) and when they discovered them in the hall, they randomly picked a room hoping they got it right.
I was supposed to fly back on Saturday, but my flight was cancelled, and the soonest I could get a flight was MONDAY NIGHT. Yes, that is more than 48 hours behind, and I heard of one woman who waited 4 hours in that awful line and was told they wouldn't comp a hotel because it was weather. When Diana's Sunday morning flight was cancelled, we decided to drive back to Indy. We had good weather, and got into Indy at 10 pm, at least 25 hours sooner than if the airlines had had their way with us.
While I was gone Michael and Arabella has the stomach flu too. What a fun week.
On Friday Arabella and I took the car to the shop to get fixed. We are fortunate in two things: the "village" where we live has a mechanic only two blocks away, and the truck was (apparently, hopefully) fixed with a new battery and a new fuel filter. The auto shop is also a barber shop (kinda weird, but I guess you might as well get a haircut while you get your oil changed or your tires rotated, right?) and the mechanic seemed shocked when he said it appeared from the tag on the battery that it was 7 YEARS OLD! OMG! I was not as surprised, since I had already figured that out -- I last bought a battery in 2000, just as we were moving into the house in Vista.
As for the house in Vista, it is now up for sale, and from the pictures looks lovely. So if anyone has a spare $100K down and $2500 a month to spend on a house out in the countryside, its available. ($550K). Dad seemed genuinely surprised and disappointed that the house went on the market 5 days ago and so far no one has shown up to look at it. I wouldn't be surprised if he thought he'd have an offer in under a week. Hey, pop, it's the job of real estate agents to give you the good news, and make everything seem all hunky-dory.
It has snowed two nights in a row and I'm getting tired of it. I want to do some gardening already. How early can I start tomatoes in the house?
