What's that sound?

That would be me, hyperventilating. That stinking bird is really getting to me. I think I have the whole cooking thing down. Nana talked to me last night and walked me through the process. Like a good student, I diligently took notes. I'm going to cook the bird on my gas grill, thus freeing up space for my rolls, pie, and casseroles in the oven. So why am I hyperventilating?

The bird is still frozen. Sure parts of it feel thawed, but one big hunk feels frozen. I put it in the fridge on Wednesday. It only weighs 12 pounds. This page and this page say that it only needs 24 hours per 5 pounds, so it should be thawed by Saturday. But it isn't. My mom says to not worry about it. That once I take all the stuff out of the middle and give it the remaining 16 hours till I have to cook it, that it will be thawed enough. I do know that it can go into the grill a bit frozen, just takes longer. So I'm going to increase my cooking time and throw it on the grill at 6:30am instead of 7am. Family is supposed to be here at 11am and we are supposed to sit down and eat at 11:30. So, really I should be OK.

I need to remember to show Erich the video that shows how to carve the turkey. We are going to be all fancy pancy over here and carve at the table. Cool, eh? (But remember I won't be carving because that squicks me out.)

I'm getting ready to set the table now. My mom bought me a tablecloth that goes well with my dining room and will work for Christmas also. She scored a rocking deal as it was normally priced for $40 and it was 66% off. She bought it for $13 and change. I already pressed my napkins last night and they are already in the napkin rings. (I said we were going to be fancy pancy.) So I'll get the tablecloth on and then I will wash all the china and set it out. I'm going to get out the wine glasses, but we'll all be drinking water. I'm not offering anything else, to help smooth the bumps in the day. We'll have coffee and milk with desert.

So I should get going and set my table and wash dishes and stuff. Do you think I can convince Erich to take me out to Outback tonight to satisfy my hankering for a steak and some of those cheesy fries with ranch sauce? It'd be nice, because I don't want to touch anything so it's all ready to go in the morning, without having to wash dishes at 5am.

Tickers Pickers

I'm not incredibly fond of the two tickers on the page. Someone asked when I was going to put a pregnancy ticker up, and although I wanted to put one up immediately, I didn't just want to kick Magdalena's off, if you know what I mean.

I already had plans to get rid of Magdalena's ticker on her 2nd birthday. That seems a good place to stop the ticker madness so to speak. But I had a ticker for Magdalena's pregnancy, so it seems appropriate that this baby gets one to.

So until January, ya'll will just have to live with two tickers. Then it will be back to one ticker. ;) Can you guys handle that until January?

My Life In Bullet Points

• My house is a disaster and I don't want to clean it. I'm tired*. Damnit.
• Family is coming on Sunday and the house needs to be clean by then. Ugh. And they insisted on eating at 11:30am. That means I have to be up at 6am to start the grill and get the bird ready. Does anyone else see the problem with this besides me?
• Erich brought a fern plant in from outside to escape the cold. It smells funky and makes me want to hurl. Why am I the only one who smells this?
• Last night I broke a drinking glass. Of course, it was while I was in a hurry, but I was very careful and meticulous in picking it up and sweeping since we all walk barefoot.
  
• This afternoon while running through the kitchen I stepped on a piece of glass. When I went to dig it out, I realized it was very lodged without edges, making it almost impossible to pull out. Thoughts of taking a toddler to the ER drifted through my head, so I squeezed the darn thing (cutting myself even more) and "birthed" the very large piece of glass. So now I'm tired and my foot hurts.
• In an effort to make things go smoothly tonight, I remembered that all of the night time diapers were dirty. So at 2pm, I put the diapers in the washer and then proceeded to forget about them until about an hour ago. So now, they are doing their vinegar wash at which point they'll need another hour to dry. So Magdalena won't be in bed until 10pm. Have I mentioned that I'm tired?
• Erich has to back up 5 computers tonight after work because they are moving them to a new building in the morning. Since he doesn't get off of work until 10, he'll be gone a long long time tonight. And then tomorrow he must be up at the crack of dawn to finish the job.
  
• When I roll on to my tummy in my sleep now, it feels like I rolled over onto a ball.
  
• My insurance has decided that all the prenatal vitamins I have samples of are non formulary and I should pay 50% of them. I AM NOT paying $25 a month for prenatals when they should stinking pay for them. UGH.
• Imacmom, we talked about prenatals before. Can you drop me an email and tell me which ones you like?
• I'm tired. When is someone going to invent that self cleaning house?

*I'm not exactly complaining about my pregnancy. I know that someone is going to come out of the woodwork and tell me that since I wanted to be pregnant so bad, that I shouldn't complain. Obviously this person has never been pregnant and tired. So to clear it up, I'm thrilled to be pregnant. I'm thrilled to not be sick. I know that beggars can't be choosers. I'm just simply stating the fact that I am really really really tired. Okay?

The Ultrasound Where My Heart Stops

We had our last ultrasound on Monday with Dr.H. I've been released to my regular OBGYN with good wishes, promises to come back and show them a beautiful baby in June, and the promise to help me if I should ever want more help. It was bittersweet. The nurses came and hugged me and Magdalena waved "Bye!" and blew kisses.

The ultrasound was really cool except for the fact that my kid scared the LIVING CRAP OUT OF ME. Normally, when you have those vaginal ultrasounds as soon as the wand is, *ahem* placed you see baby. But that didn't happen. And as the wand was moved around all we kept seeing was this empty sac. This is where my heart starts to race and then just stops all together. Finally, in the most umcomfortable place, they find baby, perfectly happy, healthy heart, just hanging out avoiding us. Baby kept flipping not wanting us to see him (or her!) or let us measure or anything. But we finally did with the help of others and everything looks fantabulous. Baby is three times the size he was last week! Isn't that amazing and crazy all at the same time? Measuring a day ahead of all of our dates (measured 6/24), we saw a tiny umbilical cord and a strong strong heart. He was moving lots and just doing really well. We are thrilled.

I called my OB's office, where they congratulated me and scheduled my first OB appointment for 10/29 at which point I'll be 10w2d. Can you believe that? That is less than two weeks away! We are almost out of November! And in less than two weeks , I'll have finished 25% of this pregnancy. For trying so long, it seems it's just flying by.

I'm still not sick. I've had the occasional awful feelings and one night of not being able to get off the couch, but other than that, things have been great. I seem to have a lot more headaches this time around, but I've been treating those with rest, water, and small frequent doses of caffiene in the form of beverages.

This Sunday we are having Thanksgiving dinner here at our house for Erichs family. We're having turkey, green bean casserole, sour cream mashed potatoes, steamed carrots with butter, stuffing, and homemade rolls. For desert, a made from scratch apple crisp with homemade vanilla ice cream. Sounds yummy huh? I'm having a lot of anxiety over cooking this damn bird. I've never cooked a turkey and the thought of it kinda makes me queasy. I like turkey and I like chicken, but I have this quirk where I refuse to eat things off of bones. Seriously, it makes me ill. Anyway, my grandpa "Pa" wants me to cook the turkey on the grill. This sounds like fun and scary all at the same time. I had decided I should use one of those oven bags, but when I got them home there were only two bags in the box. No ties, no instructions, urgh! If I cook the bird in the bag, there is no basting right? And how do I season it? Just brush it with some olive oil and throw it in the bag? So many questions, such little time.

Other than that, not much going on around here. Erich is working like a madman. The crazy crazy rains came through yesterday. It was 65 degrees outside yesterday and overnight it dropped to below 30 degrees. They say it won't get above 40 today and there are lots of small little flurries outside. I think I'd be okay with a chilly day with some flurries on Sunday for Thanksgiving. I made a cup of hot chocolate with whipped cream and I'm about to sit and watch the first snowflakes of the season while Magdalena naps upstairs.