Long time not posting...

Alright, so I was slacking off here a bit. I've been busy with lots of dog training, working and general holiday preparation.

First of all looks like Foenix's training is put on hold for a while. We don't have the money to be paying our training dues at the club. I don't feel really bad about it at all, but Foenix is really bored lately. He tries to be so good in the house but his energy level just can't handle the down time for very long.

You wanna know what he did today? Do the math: One Under Exercised Dog + Heavily rained on back yard + too much time in back yard = dog that digs crater next to house and comes to the door the color of a Chocolate Labrador instead of a Black Sable GSD. LOL!!!! OY Vey. I marched him to his crate, and let him partially dry off before marching him into the bath tub. One thing about our puppy is he is a water baby from the word GO! He would stay in the bath for as long as I wanted him to just to jump back in after he is dried off. Bathing was no big deal to him and I'm just thankful that he is not a dog I have to wrestle around. I just could not do that right now.

That is how my day started. Dog bath, my bath afterwards and cleaning muddy paw prints off my carpet. Eric has a pinched nerve in his back and it's giving him so much pain, today was his worst day since Thanksgiving. He could not stand up straight again and so he took his full dose of pain meds tonight. He is going to have to see the Chiropractor tomorrow or Friday at the latest.

My alternator went our in my car on Saturday of last week. Eric ordered the part and was fixed yesterday. It felt awful to be trapped at the house but I dealt with it. Makes me very aware of how I take my car for granted, kinda like when the power is out and you go into a room and try to turn the lights on.

My next thing this week was the big storm we had. Lots of flooding and road damage all over our area. We had a huge sink-hole now next to our local bowling alley. While the storm was brewing and I was trapped at the house I asked my Father-in-law to come and take me to the store so I could deposit my paycheck, mail a letter and get some dry kindling for our fire. He was such a gem and came over without hesitation. Have I mentioned how great my In-Laws are? Well if I have not, I should have because they are a blessing to me in so many ways. Now that I am writing this I am realising that I don't pray for or about them enough and will have to make a more conscious effort to do so. I hope they know how much I appreciate them.

I was having some braxton-hicks contractions a couple weeks ago. They suddenly stopped. If you don't know what those are here's link to tell you : Braxton Hicks Information
They are not painful, but they are very noticeable and I would get them, for instance, if I was vacuuming or doing a lot of bending over while cleaning or whatever. They are a normal part of an average pregnancy and are nothing to worry about. But when my Father-in-law took me to the store three days ago I started having some different kinds of contractions. They felt totally different. My belly would get hard and then seemed to relax but the contraction feeling did not go away. In fact this would last for up to three minutes at a time and go on and off for an hour. It was not painful, but uncomfortable. I was not about to panic as I had a Doctor's appt. scheduled for today. But I did have them again yesterday, same thing. It feels like I did a bunch of crunches really fast, that's how it feels when this is going on. My abs were really fatigued feeling. I know fatigued abs too, I used to do 300 crunches every night!!

Today at the doctor I told her about this 'thing' with contractions (?) going on and asked her what she thought. She was slightly concerned about it and ordered an ultrasound to check my cervix to make sure they are not thinning and dilating already. She was not overly concerned as this could just be stronger braxton-hicks but she wants to make sure I am not going into pre-term labor. I'm 30 weeks along now so if I did go into labor early Hannah would very likely be fine and healthy though pretty small. In the end this is nothing to panic about, I do have an ultrasound scheduled for Tuesday and we will see what, if anything, it shows. Honestly it sounds worse than it really is...I didn't have any of these contractions today at all. Maybe I was just worried about having no car or something? I don't know but I don't feel like this is a big deal, but it will be nice to have it checked out.

I am very anxious to meet my baby. This is new for me, even though I've been excited about it for a long time. I had a very vivid dream a few nights ago about her and I woke up laughing at myself. I dreamt that she was born walking and eating regular food and that she could communicate her needs to me without guess work on my part. Oh what a dream that is. Also she was really cute and I had lots of fun with her. I can easily pick out my anxieties about becoming a Mother by this dream. I seem to be worried about meeting her needs, her development and if she will be cute or not. (that makes me sound so shallow doesn't it). I swear I don't really care what she looks like as long as she is healthy...but my subconscious says differently.

Since that dream I have been very excited about meeting her and seeing who she is. I think this is a gift from God telling me to be excited and look forward to being a Mom. Eric is also excited, but to a lesser degree. Naturally he does not have the same feelings about this as I do because he cant feel her move around constantly and doesn't have the dreams I've had. It will probably hit him hard about the time she is with us for the first 24 hours. It makes me all emotional to think of Eric as a father because of my own up bringing. Already our child is blessed beyond measure to have Eric as a Father and my wonderful In-Laws and family to be a part of.