Progress Continues

I got a pleasant surprise this week:

Our contractor came back after his bout with bronchitis that turned to pneumonia (poor guy!), and finished our cabinets! They look AWESOME! It's amazing what trim and toe kicks can do for the looks of cabinetry! We're waiting on one last check from the insurance company for some incidentals, and then we will be able to buy and install the moldings for the rest of the house.

Brett's brother came over diligently this week and painted the ENTIRE house with our chosen color Mexican Sand. It's a nice medium tan/taupe color, but is also somewhat warm and really did wonders to make the house feel more homey and less airy. Amazing what paint can do. The only thing he did not do was trim up to the ceiling. I can't say I blame him, with Brett being an anal-retentive asshole when it comes to painting and "perfect" lines. He was right to just let Brett climb the ladder and let him do it himself. I would have done the same thing! :)

An unexpected surprise greeting me Thursday afternoon upon returning home: Brett has hired a landscaper to clean up our yard, remove the moss from the grass, and lay beauty bark in our flower beds. Those of you who know our lost battles with the yard over the years, or have seen the enormity of the yard we purchased with our home know that, other than my little garden I placed in one of the flowerbeds last year and the one bed we turned back into grass, we haven't had much success with making the backyard look great. Brett worked SO hard last year thatching, aerating and re-seeding the grass. We winterized it, only to see even MORE moss come back this year. We also have very sad palm trees staring at us, asking for help (which we don't know how to give, because we didn't grow up in Hawaii like the folks who owned the house before us). Luckily, the fellows that will be maintaining the lawn for the next several months are from, shall we say, much warmer climates, where palm trees/bushes are much more prevalent. I'm sure our sad little trees will be much happier within the next few weeks.

I've had that nasty little cold that's been going around for the last few days, and yesterday I went back to work after taking 1 1/2 days off to recuperate. I noticed some cramps that felt more like sharp, stabbing pains, but figured they were probably just aches and pains from being sick. It wasn't until later in the afternoon that I realized these "cramps" were coming and going, and had some sort of rhythm to them...I'd have one about every 5-15 minutes, and they only lasted about 10-20 seconds. They got more and more painful as the day wore on, and I thought to myself, "hmm...I don't think they're contractions, they don't feel like them, but this definitely is NOT normal." So, I called my nurse line, which suggested a trip to the urgent care. At the Urgent Care I was told they weren't equipped to deal with preggo's, so Labor and Delivery at our local hospital was waiting for me. WHAT?! Suddenly, my mind was thrust into "wonder what THIS is all about" mode to "oh my God, they think I'm in pre-term labor!" Quick arrangements were made for Bryce, Brett got a friend to drive me to the ER (thanks Dan!) and I was whisked away to L&D, where monitors were hooked up to me to check fetal heartbeat and contractions. And guess what? After a solid 2 hours of either being hooked up to the monitors, having blood drawn, or having a full-blown ultrasound, I was told that I was FINE, and Abbie was FINE too (THANK THE LORD!). They couldn't tell me what the stabbing pains were, but they knew they were definitely NOT contractions, so they sent me on my merry way. At midnight.

Brett and I were trying to trouble shoot on my way home, while wolfing down some Wendy's (we didn't eat dinner). All of a sudden, my pains became really severe, and it occurred to me....now...how to phrase this politely....that, well, I hadn't had a BM in a couple of days. How embarrassing to realize you just spent 3-4 hours at the ER/L&D because you have bad gas. Even better, realize how much money you just spent when you could've made a quick trip to Safeway for prune juice and baked beans. Dear Lord. Well, at least with my various ailments since the first of this year, we've already paid our 100% maximum out of pocket expenses for the ENTIRE family (between Bryce's broken leg and all my diagnostic testing for dizziness/pregnancy issues), so this trip should be mostly if not entirely free.

Today, I was still a bit crampy, but had myself a white chocolate mocha and a fanTAStic McDonald's breakfast on our way out to see Brett play softball. Let's just say that I'm not crampy anymore.

I'm just glad that everyone's okay. Better to be safe than sorry, right?