Even though I'm taking care of a sickie today has been a good day.

Chad's friend and his wife, they have a 5 month old baby, have invited us to use their timeshare in NH with them for 4 days. We'll leave on April 1st and spend 3 nights. The guys will probably do some skiing and who knows what the girls will do. Kaelyn is excited since they have an indoor pool.

Also, I'm so happy for Rachel. Her DH has a new job and they'll be moving to Mass. They won't be very close to where we live but its close enough for a visit. We'll have to plan a little get together when the weather gets warmer.

My phone rang at 7am. It was my sister. My neice is sick with a fever and a cold. C had to work and was stuck so I told her to bring her over and I'd take care of her. I'm not so worried about her getting the rest of us sick since we're sick again anyway! She's just been lying on the couch, sleeping on and off. Poor little thing.

We just found out this morning that a Level 3 Sex Offender is living 3 houses up from my parents. My parents also live very close to an elementary school. I called the legal dept at the Sex Offender Registry and there is no law on the books stating that he has to live a certain distance from a school. How disturbing!

I'm happy to say that the evening has been the best part of my day so far. We brought Kaelyn outside so that she could take a look at Venus. She got so excited and she wanted to call everyone that we know. We got on the phone and called quite a few people and everyone was glad that she called to remind them. Now I've printed out a coloring page of the solar system. She's going to color it and bring it to school tomorrow to tell all of her classmates about it. I'm hoping that she's not the only one who had the opportunity to see it. If so, they'll all probably look at her like she has three heads.

My day started off bad. Chad and I had a big fight this morning before he left for work. Being the nagging bitch that I am I couldn't let it go. I called him on his cell phone and kept the fight going. The fight went in many directions but it started because I kept waking him for work and he wouldn't get out of bed. The alarm clock is on my side of the bed and starts beeping at 4:45am and I try to wake him and then hit snooze again. This vicious cycle happens every 7 minutes until about 5:15 when I can't take it anymore and I start yelling and threatening to push him out of bed. I say evil things and he says evil things back to me. Yes, I know, he should be responsible for his own alarm clock but believe me when I say that he doesn't hear the freaking thing. If I left it on his side of the bed I'd just be crawling over him to shut it off. My last words before I hung up on him were "You need to step up to the plate and be responsible for yourself, I'm not your mother." Now I feel incredibly guilty for saying that for a couple of reasons. He is a responsible person (for the most part) and his mother is dead.

Actually when things settle down I think that I'll try to convince him to call his doctor. I've tried in the past but he doesn't do it. I believe that he is actually tired all the time. Many times I blame it on his decisions to stay up late watching television but all last week he went to bed by 9pm and he still had trouble waking in the morning. He comes home from work and he's clearly exhausted, fighting to stay awake. He just had his thyroid checked and his medication is regulated so I don't think its that. I'm going to print some info on sleep apnea which I believe he may have. Maybe if I show him the info he'll be more likely to call the dr. and ask for help.

I also wonder if my bitchiness is coming from a surge of hormones. I've still been experiencing queasiness but hadn't actually vomited in awhile until yesterday morning.

I made an appt. to see the chiropractor on Wed. My sciatic nerve is starting to bother me. It's amazing how much weight gain can affect your body. When I had lost all that weight last year my back and my joints never ever hurt me. As soon as I gained some of it back I started feeling lousy.

I shouldn't be blogging right now I should be working. Kaelyn is sleeping on my office floor. I set up a little bed for her because I had to get some work done and Chad's favorite show, CSI, is on. Argh! He loves tv and it aggravates the hell out of me. We argue about it often, it doesn't help that he has a bigger than normal tv and DirectTV. With that many channels there is always something that he wants to watch. He's always bugging me to watch movies with him but I don't care to be involved in a movie for 2 or more hours. Plus, I like chic flics and he likes action and violence.

We ended up with about 5-6 inches of snow. Oddly enough, after Andrea called I got another phone call. It was my friend, who also happens to be my boss. He lives out of state but was coming in for a meeting. He was stuck for a ride from the airport and since he's self employed he's watching his wallet since we'll be in a slow sales time until summer. So Kaelyn and I made the trek from home to Providence to pick him up and then we delivered him to his meetings in Quincy. The roads weren't bad but we were driving for quite awhile. I was so happy with Kaelyn's behavior, she hates driving on the highway but she acted like an angel. I brought some toys and snacks and she kept busy most of the time. I really thought that she would fall asleep on the drive home but she didn't.

Looks like the weather is going to cooperate on Friday and we'll have a much better day and I won't worry about Andrea driving so far in the snow.

Damn snow! Andrea had planned to come visit tomorrow and the weatherman is calling for snow. The good news is we've rescheduled for Friday! I can't wait to meet her and her girls.

Bowling was so much fun. Even Chad who was reluctant to go had a good time. They put bumpers up on the lane so that we didn't have any gutter balls. We'll do it again soon.

Yesterday we all had the day off and we went to the zoo because the Toe Jam Puppet Band was having a show there. I got a family membership also since we'll need to find things to do to keep ourselves busy this summer. After the show we walked around the zoo and saw some of the animals. It was brisk but sunny.

When we came home I decided to clean Kaelyn's room. I packed up all of the clothes that she no longer fits in and we organized her toys.

We didn't have a sitter tonight so Chad and I went to dinner last night. I'm glad that we did because we haven't felt like leaving the house today. Chad's Uncle R called and had some bad news. Chad dad's and his uncle were brothers and very close. Uncle R is Chad's favorite uncle. Since his father's death we don't hear from his aunt and uncle as often but we still get together at Christmas, summer parties and birthdays. It's not uncommon to not hear from them for a month or two. Uncle R is self employed and he was leaving a job with his 20 yr old son and he hit a pot hole. His shoulder was in pain and he had no control over it. His son, J, drove him to the ER and they x-rayed and found that he broke his shoulder. They also found a tumor and it was cancerous. He had surgery last week in Boston to remove a portion of his shoulder and he starts radiation next week. Chad's very upset and I know that this brings back alot of bad memories of what he's been through with his parents, they both died from cancer at very young ages. \
The three of us are probably going for a walk at the beach and then we had promised Kaelyn that we would go bowling, small balls.

Valentine's Day is tomorrow and I have no ideas what to get for my husband. We always stick to sometime small, around the $15 range. I'm thinking a CD is a good choice but I have no idea what he wants and when I asked he shrugged his shoulders.

My suppertime goals were met this week. I cooked everything I said that I would but there was a problem. I couldn't eat the boiled dinner or the porcupine meatballs. As soon as the boiled dinner starting stinking up the house I had to leave because I kept gagging. I hung out at my parents for 3 hours and made sure Chad put the leftovers in the basement refridgerator and aired out the house before I came home. The porcupine meatballs smelled so good when I was making them but as soon as I tried to eat them it was a different story. Everyone else in my family loved them. I'm having a terrible time with meat, not all meat though.

My appt with my OB went well yesterday. We spoke again about my previous induction and c-section. She isn't so sure that I started with pre-eclamsia last time and she stated that many women have an elevated blood pressure during pregnancy because of increased blood flow, weight gain and stress on your body. She tends to believe that my blood pressure went so high because there was so much stress on my body due to the induction. Oops, forgot to mention that my blood pressure was slightly elevated at yesterdays appt. She doesn't want any quick judgements made this time around. She took some bloodwork and I'll do a 24 hr urine collection as a baseline for my chart. If my blood pressure continues to elevate we'll be able to do more bloodwork and urine to be sure that my kidneys are fine and I'm not headed in the wrong direction. I feel very comfortable with this plan of action. I'm almost positive if I was seeing my old OB he would have put me on blood pressure pills out of fear.

This interupted sleep is causing me to have odd dreams. The night before last I dreamt of Rachel's blog although I can't remember any of the details and last night I dreamt that Andrea's daughter met JayZ. I had never even heard of JayZ but I watched the grammy's last night and I must have heard his name there I guess. I felt so out of touch watching the grammys and not knowing alot of the groups. Outkast won best song or best album and I had never heard of them or the song they performed. This is depressing enough without realizing that I'll be 30 in less than three months.

Kaelyn slept a little better last night but I called the pediatrician this morning since she's really been fighting this for too long already and started complaining yesterday of a headache and sore throat. The office was packed and we saw the nurse practicioner who diagnosed her with a sinus infection. She's on a course of antibiotics which we usually refuse but this time I think that she really may need them.

I'm glad that I checked my comments before I left. I bought some of the vapor patches that Emily suggested. I've been giving her a vapor bath every chance I get and she doesn't mind since she loves baths and insists on staying in the water until she's wrinkled like a prune. Only problem is when she looked at the side of the box, it shows vapors coming from the child's chest where the patch is, she freaked a little saying that the box shows that it gets hot. I explained it to her the best I could and we'll see what happens when its time to put one on.

She also got a little aggravated with me this afternoon. I have a dr. appt on Tues and I scheduled it while she's in school. I really didn't give much thought to the fact that she may want to go with me. She noticed that I had written something on my calendar. She questioned me about what plans we had on Tues and I told her that I had a dr. appt. So, I've promised her that I would schedule the next appt at a time that doesn't interfere with school. She gave me the "mean eyebrow" look but got over it quickly.

I'm still here. I haven't posted because there isn't much to post about. We're all sick now with this viral thing going around. The days aren't so bad but Kaelyn is having a hard time sleeping at night. She only coughs when she's lying down. We've tried elevating the bed and running the humidifier 24 hours a day but nothing seems to help. When she starts with a coughing jag I sit her up in bed against me so that she can still rest. I think that I may try Dimetapp tonight before she goes down for bed. I'm hoping the antihistamine will clear up the post nasal drip. Also, I have plans to bring the carseat into our bedroom so that I can try to keep her elevated. I'm not sure how well that will work.

Even though we've been sick I've been better at preparing meals. Today we'll be having a New England Boiled Dinner and I also plan on making the porcupine recipe that Andrea posted in her blog. We'll have that tomorrow night. Then I plan on making a kale soup with the leftover broth from the boiled dinner and a split pea soup (for C and K) with any of the leftover ham.

What a beautiful day! Sunny and 42 degrees, it actually felt like spring. It's probably just a tease seeing that we due to get more nasty weather on Friday. Almost all of the dirty snow is gone from the torrential rains last night. I actually thought about taking a walk while K was at school but I opted for a nap instead. I slept for 2 1/2 hours and I felt worse when I woke up. I should know better. A 45 min nap would have made more sense.

I hadn't planned anything for supper so I threw together some nachos. I'm just having such a hard time getting motivated these days. I really need to get on a schedule. I'm always behind on cleaning and I don't even have all that much to clean since Chad helps alot. I'm thinking about starting a meal planner so that I'm not throwing something together at the last minute. Last but not least I need to find some friends. I need to find other SAHM with kids that have similar parenting styles.

Kaelyn's had a lingering cough for almost 3 weeks now. It's nothing bad and she has no other symptoms, its a pretty dry cough. I called the dr. just for reassurance and they did agree that these colds have been sticking around longer than normal but if she still has the cough by the end of the week to come in. Well this afternoon it seems like she's starting again with the runny nose and sneezing. I'm thinking that I'll call the chiropractor and we can both get adjustments tomorrow. We haven't been in quite a while because it used to be covered by our health insurance and now we each have a $15 copay. It will be worth the $30 if it helps prevent an ear infection.

Kaelyn got her 6 inches cut off of her hair yesterday. What a relief! Everyday she's been crying because she doesn't want me to brush it and it gets so tangled. So, she was quite happy this morning when it didn't hurt to have it brushed.

Chad took a personal day and went to the Patriots parade. He wanted me to go but I didn't care to. In 1996 BC (before child) when the Pats went to the SBowl I went with him to the rally and sure it was fun but I've turned into a wimp now. I hate being out in the cold and I hate crowds. He was going alone until his aunt decided to go with him. They had fun but he said that he was a bit uncomfortable there with his aunt because of all the girls flashing.

Was I the only one that didn't catch a glimpse of J@net's bre@st during the halftime show? Damn, I was watching honest. Now, I'm curious about what I've missed.

The Superbowl party went really well. I usually get really stressed when it comes to entertaining but I did well this time. I prepared as much as I could beforehand and we ate before the game started. Plus everyone brought something which made my life alot easier. On the menu was, shrimp mozambique (made by dad), jambalaya (made by mom), cocktail wieners and potato salad (made by my sister), crab delights, nachos, chicken salad sandwiches, spinach dip and buffalo wings. For dessert we had apple crisp, bread pudding and Carvel ice cream cake. It was a fun day.

Kaelyn was so happy to be having a party, she loves having company. She wore her hair in a ponytail and her Patriots hat and she looked so cute. Now, thinking back I wish that I had taken some pictures. Everyone headed back home at half time since the kids have school tomorrow and the parents have work. Kaelyn fell asleep on the couch and Chad and I finished watching the game. It was a nail biter!

Chad is going to take a personal day and go to the parade. I think that they're having it on Tuesday. I haven't decided if I'll tag along. I'll have to watch the weather first.

If I haven't mentioned already, I'm feeling alot better. I barely ever feel sick to my stomach anymore. Kaelyn is asking alot of questions and I'm having fun answering them. Really, the first time I was pregnant was a thrill but this time its different. I'm really enjoying being able to share this with Kaelyn.

I'm off to bed!