1 month to go...

Granted, as of today, it's the month of February (not on a leap year). I can't believe it's gone this quickly and, somewhat surprisingly, I'm in no hurry for it to end any time soon. Yes, I am excited to meet BabyD and learn about him/her but right now Matt is in California for a Brass Workshop--or I have been calling it: band camp. He has been gone since Monday night and will not return until next Sunday (for a total of 12 days), which has been a cause for a little anxiety for both of us. Of course, I do get tickled when he asks me how the baby's doing every time he calls. In my head I'm thinking, "wiggling around, right where you left him/her." I still enjoy knowing that my baby is tucked safely away and I really don't feel that greedy about keeping all that kicking, turning and wiggling to myself...at least not yet.

Sydne is doing better. Her knee is healing really well and the fur is starting to grow back, but the shaved leg is still quite obvious. We are still having to limit her activities, so she's been trapped in the "den" of our house, especially since she believes herself to be back to full capacity. As a result, Matt and I have been sleeping downstairs. In the past week, I have been alternating between the floor and the couch (depending on thunderstorms) so that she won't try to venture up the stairs and so she doesn't have to sleep in her crate.

Today I am having a surprise wedding shower for two of our friends who are getting married in Hawaii. Casey, Matt's buddy, and I are collaborating on it. He's in charge of the grill and I'm doing everything else, which is perfectly fine with me. Of course, I'm not currently on schedule because I only did the grocery shopping yesterday and didn't clean anything in the house that I wanted to. Instead, I spent several hours trying to convince myself that I wanted to cook, clean, shop, etc. And, of course, now I'm writing rather than doing any of those things. Still, I have about 4-5 hours, so I should be fine. The house isn't a complete mess and the things I have to do won't take that long.

IC is slowly coming back following the flood. The clean-up is obvious everywhere but no one is sure which businesses will be coming back and which have been close indefinitely. The School of Music is closed for the year, the Art Museum is going to move to a new location, and the entire arts campus will be spread across the whole of the city: arts studios at the old Menards, music classes in every church in the city, and lessons in professors' homes. It will definitely be an interesting year.

oh my, to catch up...

So many things have happened and I have so much to share...
I am now up to week 33, which is pretty darn good and, yes, I'm getting big. As the floating baby (which totally freaks Megs out--teehee) shows, I have less than 50 days to go until the kiddo gets here and I keep getting bigger. This is probably one of the few times in my life in which I won't complain about an expanding waistline.

Two weeks ago, IC was hit with horrible, horrible rain and flooding. As a result, I spent that Monday moving musical instruments from the MT "closet" to the offices of Drs. A & G. The ironic part of it is that we were told it would most likely not be necessary to do only to be notified 3 days later that everything in the music building needed to be moved due to fear of 4.5 feet of water on the first floor, 4.5 FEET! So it was another time in my life that I'm glad I didn't listen to someone who was in charge because they would have been very wrong and it would have been a very expensive "learning experience" (as Dr A calls them). So we moved almost every single musical instrument out of that closet (except a few plastic things that would not be affected by water and could be cleaned with clorox) on a giant percussion cart, in about 5 loads via the freight elevator. We did sacrifice one guitar to the River Gods, but only because it was really broken and needed lots of work.

Thursday of that week I trekked down to Charleston, SC for a girls' weekend we had planned for months. The timing was just amazing. I left Thursday (they closed the interstate on Friday) and got to spend some great quality time with Bev and Amy. Friday we slept late, ate at IHOP, got massages and facials (oh, the happy memory), went on a Ghost Tour of the Charleston jail on Friday, the 13th mind you and ate yummy, yummy food. Saturday we went to see Sex and the City: The Movie. Though I never watched the show, I did enjoy the movie. Of course, it could have partly been the hormones, but I kinda wept through the second half of the movie. This is where the plans changed...

Instead of coming back to IC on Sunday and spending Saturday afternoon at the beach, I was stuck in the South for a bit longer. (Now, that's not such a bad thing and AirTran was super-fantastic about helping me get my tickets rearranged.) Because of the flooding, the interstate from the airport to IC was closed, which meant that I could either fly home on Sunday at my designated time and spend who knows how many days in a hotel until the road was opened or change my ticket. So after explaining the situation to the airline associate and stating I'd have to charter a boat to get home from the airport the same day as my arrival, my flight was changed to the following Saturday and I had to figure out what to do for the next 6 or so days. Luckily, Amy still lives in our hometown so after the movie, and a bit of shopping, we hopped in the car and headed to her in-laws home in Holden Beach to meet up with her cutie-patootie husband and little boy. We headed out of Holden at 3 a.m. for the drive home and 5 hours later rolled into town with a very unhappy 13-month old (he was ready to be out of the car). From there on, it was a week of quality time with Mom, Dad & Jo, Marc, Challen and Maddox, and other friends from home I have missed dearly.

Meanwhile, on the homefront, the flooding continuously got worse. My beloved IC and C'ville strip became a river, destroying many businesses that may not come back and university buildings that will needs months to be repaired. The pictures I was able to find online paled in comparison to the reality my friends back here were experiencing. I know that I will never truly understand how completely horrific it was because I was in NC and only had the "virtual" experience. In addition, my sweet, sweet Sydne tore her doggie ACL and had to have surgery to repair the damage, which sent pangs of guilt through my heart because I was so far away and unable, once again, to do anything.

This past Saturday, I finally got home. It has been surreal to see all the various businesses closed and muddied, to try to traverse the roads to work, to get everything else caught up, and take care of my husband and puppy. Syd-dog is slowly getting better. She has more energy, which means we have to encourage her to lay down and stay calm. Ice cream has been a good incentive. Dad and Jo are coming in for a baby shower this weekend so they'll get to see some of the remnants first-hand. It should be a good time especially when they haven't been here since 2006.

We also started our MT sessions with the kiddos at the Speech and Hearing Center today, which was fantastic! I love working with them and seeing all the progress they make over the course of 6 weeks working with us and the SLP students. It's a busy, busy time and I'm loving every minute.

Back home

Momma D was discharged this morning. Fully dressed in sweats with fun slippers, no more IVs, no more JP drains and just antibiotics to take, she is glad to be home. Sydne was more than thrilled to have her Grandma D back.

Now she's content and has a belly full of treats thanks to Grandpa Pat...

Happy Birthday * 2

Matt turned 31, Sydne turned 5 (or 35 in dog years). I'd say they both enjoyed it.

Holy Halloween, Batman!

Batman's probably the only character that didn't knock on our door tonight (except I live with him so no problem), but I did have Nemo, Squirt, Jeff Gordon and Dog the Bounty Hunter. There's something to be said for the creativity in this neighborhood. :-) Poor Syd-dog did not get a good costume this year like 2 years ago, but I don't think she minded too much.
And I am definitely glad that the day is winding down. I went through a roller coaster ride of cortisol today. I had a presentation to give to at The Nest to prenatal and postnatal mothers (and fathers) and was given the age range of 15-30 for the parents. Yesterday, LJ was really helpful as I pulled the curtains away from my eyes and talked to people I knew were moms, including my own mom (duh! Why didn't I do that a month ago?!). Work also had a few additional stresses, with the deadline for the call for papers looming over our heads (it's tomorrow). We have 5 studies to submit and don't have all of our analyses completed, including mine, and no time to collaborate to make sure my submission is coherent. But, hey, as long as my p-values are less than .0001, I'm golden. We also have fewer patients right now and amazingly all of our current projects are up to date with a few new ones started. The databases have been scoured for inaccuracies and corrected and I am literally creating tasks and asking team members for questions they have in search of new projects.
Matt & Syd-dog's bdays are Friday, his parents are coming into town Friday night and his recital is Monday night. While I realize that sounds stressing, I'm actually excited for it and I think I represented Music Therapy pretty well today, which also relaxed the heck out of me.
On the NC Homefront, my sweet Sis-in-law (i.e. Preggers) is now in her 37th week and 1-1/2 cm dilated and 50% effaced. Something tells me I might not have to drive home while in Louisville (week before Turkey-day) because Maddox will already be here. Otherwise, I will be making a trip during conference to home to meet my nephew.
Lots of excitement, lots of fun.

goofy post

I love the FURminator! No, it's not an animal version of Arnold Schwarzenegger's character, it's an amazing tool. I saw an infomercial for it and thought, "hmmm, if it actually works, that would be cool." Last night Matt and I went to Yo-Mama's for supper and wandered into the pet store next door when we were sufficiently sushi-ed. After playing with a very cute Golden Retriever puppy (with a pointy dome on her head), we started to leave, but knew I would need a peace offering so that Sydne wouldn't disown me. Matt started looking at random treats to get her and I happened to notice a TV monitor with an advertisement for the FURminator. So I asked the girl behind the counter whether they sold them there or just advertised/teased their customers. "No," she replied," we have them over here. Now there is a bit of sticker shock, but my parents bought one for their three cats and they love it." Well, Matt and I discussed the purchase of one because, yes, they are a little more expensive than one might want to pay for a brush/comb, BUT considering I am having to run a Swiffer across my floor every day to pick up enough fur to make a small dog, we decided it was worth it. (I bought a smaller, blue one since Sydne loves to be brushed anyway)
Once home, Sydne would not stop sniffing me, clearly pissed that I smell like another dog. So we took her out to the back yard, taking a bag with us (we were told to have bags--multiple--ready for the fur we would remove). We gave Sydne her newest pig ear and I began to brush. HOLY COW!! There was seriously a significant amount of fur coming off and Sydne, well she looked like she was stoned; eyes half-opened, gazing across the year with a pig ear hanging out of her mouth. I truly wished I had a camera for that image. We managed to fill up one bag before Matt recognized my OCD monster beginning to emerge and made me stop before I got too carried away. (I still kept going for about 20 minutes after that) But I have to admit, anyone with a dog or cat that sheds NEEDS to get one of these. In fact, I'm going to go use Synde's again--small doses may be better for me than one big event. Plus, it will save on Swiffers.

Sydne made a friend

My puppy has officially made a new friend in the neighborhood. We took Sydne outside for some play time (ie, fetch) and while she was taking a break between runs, we heard a wimper across the street. I looked over and there was this pretty little black dog just crying in our direction. Sydne noticed and ran as far as her leash would let her; then they both stopped and stared for what felt like 3 minutes. The staring was followed by numerous play-bows and barking. She had a little girl with her (little = 10 or so) who decided to take her for a walk. Meanwhile the dogs are still eyeing each other and continuing to wimper the "I wanna play with you wimper" I've heard so many times from my little girl. So I called out, "You can bring her over if she's nice." So here comes this dog, dragging her little girl behind her. Tails are wagging feverishly; lots of sniffing to be done; followed by chasing.
Maddy is a beautiful black Border Collie who is so sweet and so soft. She and Sydne made an instant connection. They started running around the yard (with Syd's 25 foot tether) playing chase as much as they could. It was really a happy sight for Syd-dog; like ebony and ivory (let the music begin. Thank you, Paul McCartney). Plus, we found out the previous owners of this house? Not so nice. They actually fussed at kids for playing in their yard the day they moved in! Now I can understand the build up over time if kids are messing up the yard, being too loud, etc., but considering the reports are that the people never used their yard or their porch? That's just mean! Maybe that's the Southern in me...At least our neighbors should like us better.
Happy thoughts for a happy puppy!