Keeping my Sanity on Ice Day

Whoa Nelly......and we thought Thursday night was bad! 

On Friday morning, we woke up to the not so subtle sound of sleet making it's presence known against our windows. I immediately jumped up to look outside to see the damage, but my vision was completely obstructed by all the sheet of ice covering the window screen. 

Downstairs, the picture was clear. EVERYTHING was covered in a thick sheet of solid ice, almost in disguise as snow, but proved it's true colors when it remained unscathed after being walked on.

We were lucky enough to still have power, but with the weight of the sleet and frozen rain weighing down the power lines, breaking tree limbs in two like they were made of fragile old glass, and even powerful enough to collaspe awnings down on top of cars, I tried not to take our initial accommodations for granted and made sure I had plenty of projects to work on and enough food to eat that didn't require cooking in case we eventually lost power like the quarter of a million others in the area already had. 

Even with enough to do, though, there's nothing to make me feel extremely trapped like knowing I'm stuck in the house for an unknown amount of time.......but I've never seen my asparagus fern look so pretty (don't worry, all my other plants were happily incubating indoors)! 

This all really put a dent in my plans of getting my half marathon bib, making Christmas candy, and having dinner at a friend's house, but I was determined to somehow be productive. 

The chilly temps called for insulated puppies, which then led to a very adorable photo shoot. 

A little bribery goes a long way. 

Nana got these little doggy long john's last year on the clearance rack and we've been waiting all year for just the right time to show them off!

"Waiting for Santa."

Cold weather and window watching makes these two cutie pie's frisky!

And speaking of puppy dogs, my mom sent me this picture of my dad at the deer lease looking like a dog eared eskimo! 

If I wasn't already entertained, this was enough to keep me laughing for a solid hour. 

Robbed!!! (Kinda, but not literally.....)

It would only make sense, knowing us, that after taking over 2 hours to travel a mere 30 miles, we'd drive up to the parking attendant of How the Edge Stole Christmas in a mad hurry, and realize between the two of us, were were short $4 for parking!! Thankfully, the sweet lady kept Patrick's drivers license and let us park anyway, trusting she had enough collateral on him to expect a return after he hit up an ATM.

The streak continued when I found our seats while Patrick went back to tie his loose ends. We wouldn't see each other for another 30 minutes, due to me being in the right seat and the right row of the wrong section, and Patrick not having his phone to find me!

(I swear this is a fantastic picture on my computer, and Blogger has been doing this really weird thing where it chooses random images to lift the saturation and contrast out of!!)

Saying I was disappointed to miss Panic at the Disco sing "Miss Jackson" and see Capitol cities do a little jig while singing one of their catchy tunes would be underly adequate, but a glimmer of excitement hung tight, knowing we'd arrived together (finally) in the actual correct seats, just in time to see Blue October. 

30 Second to Mars was an extremely pleasant surprise. As it turns out, Jared Leto's not just all stunning blue eyes with a chiseled jaw line and good hair; he has the chops to sing anything acoustic (the ultimate talent test), including a Rihanna cover, and has a sense of humor to match.

With a charming knack for getting the crowd hyped and engaged, the energy was infectious, especially when he had the crowd raise their lit phones up high, brightening the entire venue like a glow worm while he sang "City of Angels". My favorite part was an intimate moment when the entire crowd sang "The Kill" with just Jared and his guitar. Beautiful.

Nostalgia set in when Stone Temple Pilots hit the stage. Playing all my old favorite rock songs I remember listening to with my parents growing up, I felt sorry for all the really young kids who bailed early, going home without being able to appreciate a part of Alternative Rock's history. 

I was intrigued to witness how well Chester Bennington meshed with the band as the new lead singer. At times he sounded exactly like Scott Weiland, making it easy to pretend it was the complete original band, and then other times he sounded like the lead singer of another band singing another band's song (duh.....completely expected since he IS the lead singer for Linkin Park, after all). 

If I held them to a snobby state of criticism, I'd say they harmonized well and overall sounded fantastic, but was the most believable when performing their new songs......and I really, REALLY wanted to hear Chester belt it out with his signature scream, like I know he can, regardless of whether or not it fit in with a STP song. 

And then there was the ice storm that took the forever underprepared DFW roads hostage.........

I hate being robbed of time and money, but such is this funny, funny life. 

How'd I Get So Lucky?: Weeks 12-13

It's a good thing I never throw away my fat pants. Between those, and my new Bellaband, it's the only way I can get away with not buying maternity clothes yet (seeing as how I'm still in that awkward stage), while also avoiding looking like I only own pajamas or scrubs. I'm scared most people will just think I'm not afraid to hide my beer gut, so I'm still hiding behind baggy shirts and layers, but thought I'd show it off for the picture for documentation purposes (along with my 3 day old hair....then I immediately changed right back into my pj's).

My tailbone has been aching a lot, which I've read is normal......even though no one has EVER mentioned it to me before. 

Really, though, my butt pain is absolutely no match for this sinus infection I've been battling (probably pay back for not canceling Thanksgiving to help my parents move). My teeth, neck and head felt like a ticking time bomb for so long, I finally gave it to Patrick (who has it even worse than me now and is keeping me awake at night with his awful snoring......poor thing), followed him to his doctor where I got advice to call my OB, who phoned in a prescription for me, which wasn't ready until the next day because CVS is the slowest pharmacy in the world and I have no idea why we still go to them besides the fact that we're lazy and it's just down the road.
Can you tell my coping mechanisms are running thin?

Fortunately I've had two really sweet puppies to cuddle with me while I sleep all day and pretend to watch movies......and a husband who despite being sick, himself, still tries his hardest to take care of me. 

How'd I ever get so lucky?
P.S. Before I got sick and turned into a complete helpless baby about it, I went to a Yoga class and LOVED it. It did feel kinda weird, though, having a bit of a stomach I couldn't suck in to bend into certain poses. I'm now researching prenatal yoga classes; I think it could really help keep me motivated in the gym. 

The Best Way to Celebrate

On Thanksgiving night, cousin Allison and I made a complete spontaneous trip to the theater to see Catching Fire (I think my first trip to the movies since the first Hunger Games movie debuted.). We were both like "Oooooo" and "Aaaaahhhhh" and "Ommigosh! I forgot that happened until now!" Better than the first movie, definitely. Then we headed back to Nana's for some quiet time and cookies. 

I'm pretty sure this is universal, but I believe the best way to celebrate any occasion is with good food! It's probably why we battle obesity here in the south. 

We had quite a large lunch spread for such a small group of people, but when it comes to Thanksgiving, all the regular casseroles are a must. 

Patrick deep fried a turkey to perfection.

My favorite quote of the day with from Patrick's dad, "Thanksgiving is probably the only meal that I don't go back for seconds."

 (Let's not dwell on the fact that his plate was completely covered from edge to edge and four inches high with layers of extra servings! Classic.) All of which was followed by watching football and a snapping a quick family photo.

The down side: My parents had officially started moving into their newly built house and although we were headed to help the next morning and bringing a fresh home-cooked breakfast with us, I've never felt so guilty for celebrating a holiday. Not that anyone would let me do anything, because apparently being pregnant means you can't pick up boxes or reach your arms above your head (wives tails I'm still trying to prove untrue to firm believers......but until then, I guess I'll take it as my easy way out token). 

Milestone of Relief: 11.4 Weeks

The hustle bustle of Thanksgiving week pushed up my 12 week ultrasound by a couple of days, but who was I to complain? 

Up until this point, I'd still been feeling pretty sickly, blessed with enough miserable symptoms to help mute my fears. Excitement was actually starting to supersede my ultrasound anxiety; after all, this was the big scary milestone point for us. The whole family was waiting on pins and needles for good news to follow the NT scan, which measures a particular space on the back of the baby's neck to rule out a few different forms of Trisomy. Patrick made a groaning sound when he saw our ultrasound tech was the exact same lady, leading us head first into deja vu, into the exact same room for the exact same test. But oddly enough, I turned and gave him a reassuring smile this time, feeling like everything would be okay. 

It's a fun reality check of how big your baby is getting when they can finally do an ultrasound without requiring you to drop your pants first!

At first glance, we got to hear a doppler of little Cotton's heart beating at a steady 154 BPM and see his/her little movements while nesting in a cozy corner, but the baby's position was inhibiting the tech from getting all her measurements, so she had me cough and change positions. After several attempts at projecting my lungs across the room, we were successful, and Cotton put on a show by doing some acrobatic tricks, moving faster than the camera could focus. It's crazy to see the baby move so much and not be able to feel it; at 3 inches long from head to toe and measuring 2 days ahead of schedule, it just still isn't strong enough yet to make it's presence known in that way.

"Best looking Carruth baby I've seen all day," Dr. B said as he walked into the room.

"Is it the only Carruth baby you've seen all day?" I asked. 

"Well I wasn't going to mention that part. But really, he/she looks perfect. You're glowing, by the way."

"Eh. You said that last time. I think it's just the light in here."

"No, really. Pregnancy looks really good on you. I don't say that to everyone."

So with a good bill of health, we were sent on our way, not to return this time for 4 more weeks. And Dr. B, the man who is so big on nutrition he mentions it every time I see him, gave me permission to eat whatever I wanted over the holidays.
A few days later, I received a phone call from the office saying all my blood work for the screening was completely normal. *Sigh of relief.*

Now we're on the subject of whether or not to find out Cotton's gender before delivery, currently leaning towards waiting for a big finale surprise.........but I'm letting this one ultimately be Patrick's decision.

Wanna Know How to Annoy Me?

A really generous higher up that Patrick works with gave us lower level tickets to see the Mav's play the night before Thanksgiving, which turned out to be the perfect excuse to take the train downtown and stay out late enough for all the holiday traffic to die down before we made our quest to Waco.

At only a few rows from the floor (and we didn't even have to lie, steal, or cheat to get there), our seats were amazing compared to anything we're used to (you bet I'll be baking that guy some fresh cookies soon, in hopes for more donations); it's so nice to actually be able to gage how tall the players really are.

We scarfed our Philly Cheesecake's down as neatly as possible (because it would only figure that at the very moment our faces got nonchalantly covered in gooey melted cheese, the fan cam would unmistakably thrive on our embarrassment, like the older couple who got caught making-out later in the night), then devoted our complete focus to the game. 

Of course, this would be the night that a complete a-hole with a nasally voice that projected like he was yelling into a megaphone sat directly behind us and didn't stop talking long enough to even take a breath for the entire 2.5 hours. He had no idea what was happening around him (a very suspenseful game), especially the part where the girl in the aztec sweater sitting in front of him was literally seconds away from turning around and ripping his face off (because there was no way duct tape was going to do the trick for this guy). Even the woman sitting next to me (whom I bonded with after we both almost got clobbered in the head by a thrown t-shirt ball) had a shocked look of disbelief when she realized the same guy was still going strong after her and her man came back from the half time break. I'll give him this much: the man had endurance.

Have you ever had an extremely annoying person by you at an event? Did you tolerate it or resort to intervention?

Eight People Slept in Our House!

Since Patrick's highlight of the week is going to see one of his favorite teams beat the crap out of another team, he likes to make sure and keep his style super trendy. It's prudent to feel good and look good in a new outfit, but all the mirrors were being used so we resorted to staged life like situational phone photography as a substitute. (Yeah.....this didn't look awkward at all....)

Decked out in game day appropriate gear and ready to cheer, we packed the whole family into the big bertha mobile and headed to Jerry's place.

This place is seriously so big, you can be a mile from it and think it's just a block away. Mind blown......

After our walk across the metroplex (I may be exaggerating a tad, but barely....those bike and carriage guys made a killing off of the swarms of people who didn't want to walk...), we only had a few minutes to spare for hitting up the Vaherencamp tailgate.

For some reason, we can never figure out how to arrive in time for a more decent amount of pre-game celebrations.

I know what you're thinking.....best looking windblown couple in Arlington, right? It turned out to be a really crummy day for flowing locks of hair. Mine was so tangled when we got home, I almost just took out the scissors and went back to my old pixie days.

Let me just say, Patrick was very lucky to make it into the game alive. I was so close to forming a angry mob to take him out during our 45 minutes in line just to get into the doors of the stadium. I'm sure he just thought he was being comical, but my hormones had a tendency to disagree. 

Despite having a great time, I think we can all agree our seats were just ridiculously high....about 9 rows from the tip top, to be exact. The only time I actually spent watching the field instead of the big screen was during Baylor's impressive half-time show, a tribute to all the armed forces with very creative formations to represent each one. 

But let me be completely honest here.....I didn't stay awake for the longest football game in the history of college football. I can barely stay awake for any extensive amount of time these days, no matter what's going on. Some people think this is funny.....

The more I look at this picture, the more I'm embarrassed that this isn't exactly the most flattering pose for me.......but hey, I am who I am!

The sad part about the night is I'm a little slow and wasn't very keen on how to use my new self timer yet, thought I took a great group photo of the entire family with the beautiful shiny empty stadium in the background and then had a lady take our picture also, just in case......to find out once home, that none of those pictures were actually taken!!! Bummer. 

Good thing we paused for a microscopic family picture in the sky mirror before heading to IHOP for dinner because it was basically the only thing left open, and then back to the kpLOVE residence for a gigantic slumber party (a record for us).

What's the most amount of people that's ever slept in your house/apartment/townhome/tailer/car/hotel at one time?

Because I'll Want to Remember: Week 10

1. My body refuses to sleep between the hours of 4-7am. Refuses. No matter what time I go to sleep. And Patrick hates it when I get out of bed, since I'm already absent from bed at least 3 nights out of the week, therefore my tablet's Netflix app is getting it's fair share of use!! I hope, in some magical telepathic way, that guy who accidentally helped me win it knows how much it's saved my life!

2. My nausea has subdued to a constant feeling of overly queasy, and I'll take any kind of improvement in that department that I can get!

3. Although still exhausted, I've actually been quite productive this week, considering. I partook in cleaning house for the first time in weeks, and even cooked a few things (Like these muffin sized breakfast casserole things. I altered the recipe a bit by using tater crowns instead of regular tots, used fresh chopped spinach as my only veggie, used spicy sausage and bacon for the meat, added some garlic powder, onion powder, and pepper to my eggs, and sprinkled mozzerella cheese on top instead of  cheddar.).

4. I'm feeling what they call "round ligament stretching" cramps......or so I hope that's what all the aches and pains are about. I "popped" in the middle of the night at work.......just enough so that anyone who didn't know me would think I have a beer gut. A couple of people mentioned it, so I looked in the mirror and was like, "Holy crap! Where'd that come from?" I read my uterus is still fairly low, but now the size of a grapefruit, so this "pop" is a result of my intestines being pushed out of the way.....TMI? I told a friend I was going to make a saying button reading, "This isn't what you think it is," to pin on the abdomen area of my shirts.

5. A little fun tid-bit, all my chin zits moved to my forehead this week.
6. Banana's and strawberries! I was craving banana pudding so badly for the last two weeks, so my very sweet mother-in-law brought me some......and it tasted AMAZING. I didn't really want to share. 
7. Anything pumpkin is totally grossing me out. I can't even look at pumpkin recipes or pictures on Pinterest.
8. Still hating water and sweet flavored drinks, but soooooo thirsty I dream of being thirsty. Basically unsweeten tea is all I ever want, which is very very strange. 

Seeing Stars

What I'd wish someone had mentioned to me before attending a hockey game, was how cold the venue is kept in order to maintain the ice! I obviously should have known, but wasn't exactly putting two and two together, considering I'd been to the American Airlines Center a million times (It's incredible how fast that place can be made over into something entirely different; just the very night before that floor was a basketball court!) and always find it fairly warm inside. Needless to say I found myself extremely jealous of the girls sitting in front of me wearing mittens and jackets. 

I've been to a ton of DFW sporting events, but never a Stars hockey game, so when we got the invitation from Patrick's friend, Seth, we of course jumped at going. (Not to mention, I'm always looking for excuses to be near Victory Park so I can eat at Naga or Neo's.)

The only thing I knew about hockey was what The Mighty Ducks taught me, so to put it mildly......I had a lot to learn. Seth and Patrick were very patient with me as I asked more questions then a 5 year old, and then I found this handy dandy tip sheet in the program to teach me more in depth about all the penalties I wouldn't be paying attention to.......I was too preoccupied with how many sticks were broken and left on the ice during the game.

In the mean time, my hero Patrick, went on a search to find me some hot chocolate to keep me from feeling like Miley Cryus at a Late Night Show (Freezing......in case you didn't get it......because she doesn't wear clothes these days and always talks about how cold the sets are.)

I wonder how many people around us were wondering why me and that guy in the plaid shirt were yelling, "Pick 'em up! Put 'em down!"? (Too bad for them, they never went to that Allen hockey game with us a few years ago when we got to be on the Kiss Cam and made up hilariously ridiculous things to yell at the players while drinking a little too much.)

Thanks, Seth, for dinner and a game. We owe you one, buddy.

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

Casino night is a fantastic part of the year when the Pediatrix group of doctors that collaboratively work with our local NICU's throw a big party to show their gratitude.

Last year it was extra special because it was on my birthday, and this year it was super special because it was Ale's and Zach's very first night out since becoming new parents.

Besides, anytime there's a free dinner involved with dancing and potential take home prizes, I'm totally game.

Latricia managed to take a break in all her hardcore travel nursing in perfect timing for the event, and was sure not to forget her photo albums for bragging rights to make me jealous.

With so many fun things to do, it didn't take long for everyone to split up and cover some ground. I planned on taking advantage of a free night of gambling and headed straight for the Craps table, hoping someone would have mercy on me and teach a sober girl new tricks. As it turns out, I'm a pretty lucky dice roller. I had so much fun betting all my chips like a high roller, I actually stayed at the same table until last call. 

When I got back to the table to retrieve Patrick's gambling ticket he never used so I could add it to my raffle stash, I learned he was having a little too much fun out on the dance floor entertaining all my coworkers. So much fun that he'd lost his ticket; probably danced it right out of his pocket. Tsk, tsk.

That boy loves a crowd. 

To my surprise, someone overheard my gentle confrontation with him about the issue (I was serious about winning something from this raffle), and as a result, donated his tickets to me. Seriously. I tried briefly explaining to him that he could drop those very tickets into prize bags for a drawing to win something cool, but he insisted. So I took them a ran. 

And then I danced the rest of the evening away with my girls. It's so weird dancing while completely sustaining from alcohol; I don't think I've ever done both at the same time before. 

I bet that guy was kicking himself in the butt when he saw me jump up from the table and cheer for myself excessively after they called my number as the winner of a Samsung Galaxy Mini Tablet!!! I offered to cut it in half and split it with him, but he graciously denied as a gentleman should, and then looked really scared when his girlfriend asked him what the heck I was talking about. Oops. 

When the party was over, Ale and Zach still had some left over babysitter time they wanted to utilize, so we headed to the shops to try out a new upscale Mexican joint. Even with that obscenely unfocused iphone picture, you can tell just how beautiful it is over there during the holiday season........which is the only thing I miss about our old apartment living (besides being walking distance from my favorite Sushi place).

We all  know appearances aren't everything, and this place was lacking in everything but that. After being completely disappointed that they would no longer serve chips and salsa, and a million minutes after everyone placed their drink order (they couldn't even make me a virgin ANYTHING), the drinks rolled out from behind the bar and straight onto Patrick's shirt (not only did the manager already have to apologize for their extreme tardiness when the place was practically empty, but had to come back and pay for the entire table's order since they ruined Patrick's shirt with sangria).

It's a good thing we all know how to laugh off a horrible restaurant decision!  

One shirt down, one tablet gained. Patrick is so jealous, he's now calling me Mrs. Technology. 

What's the best thing you've ever won?