Ultrasound hell

I have such a headache, and I'm so frustrated that I'm crying. Hormones I guess. I just feel like these receptionists think I'm stupid, and whiny. Here's the thing. I haven't had an ultrasound yet. They are typically given at 18 weeks, but I'm now 25 weeks. What happened was that my family practioner handed over my treatment to an ob/gyn so I could get one at around 22 weeks. Since the ob/gyn never saw me, they did the typical workup to make sure that I'm on schedule. I got the sonogram to hear the heartbeat, got my uterus measured, and checked my pee for protein and sugar irregularities. Normal stuff. I assumed they would set me up for an ultrasound and that's where I went wrong. I should never assume. Anyway, when I figured out that it was bad of me to assume things, I called the clinics receptionist, Iris, and asked her about the ultrasound. Tristan was really clingy that day and was mad that I was on the phone. He kept crying and trying to grab for the phone and I kept having to scold him and put him in time out until I told her that I would just call her back. I called back, but I was flustered and embarrassed about Tristan. Tristan's doctor in Wisconsin was Dr. Jenkins, so I associate the name Dr. Jenkins with America and with babies. Iris aked if I had asked Dr Jenkins if I was going to get an ultrasound. I was confused and explained to her that I haven't seen Dr. Jenkins since my first month so why would she order an ultrasound. See, I was confusing the new ob/gyn Dr. Jenkins with my old one from Bellingham in the states. I've seen 3 doctors already and really didn't get to know my first doctor. I haven't seen the Canadian Dr. Jenkins because she was on call the day I visited the clinic, so I had no idea that my new doctor was named Jenkins too. Anyway, we talked in circles with me getting frustrated that Iris wanted my old doctor from the United States to order an ultrasound, when she was talking about the Canadian doctor. ugh. Once I realized what was going on, we worked it out and she told me to talk to the Canadian Jenkins at my next appointment. I was embarrassed so I agreed to that.

Ben wasn't too happy with that response, and he was right not to be. He told me that Iris is the billing lady and she probably didn't know what the hell. He told me to call the doctors office and speak to someone else. I did that today. First, I left a message asking when I'd get an ultrasound, and guess who called me back - Iris. grrr. She's nice, but I didn't want to start at square one again. Iris went through the same thing about how I needed to talk to Canadian Jenkins at my appointment. I told Iris that I wanted to see if Jenkins had set up an appointment for an ultrasound. That's all. It seems simple to me to check the chart and see if I have an appointment with the ultrasound people or not. If I wasn't set up for an appointment, I wanted her to set one up for me. Big deal. Well, apparently it is. Iris told me to call the oncall pager since Jenkins was on call. I called that number which said "FOR EMERGENCIES ONLY" This is not an emergency. grr. The lady on that line acted annoyed that I called the emergency number for an appointment issue, and transferred me to the ultrasound office. The ultrasound people told me that I need to talk to the doctor, and that they are booked out for another three weeks. I was suppose to have my ultrasound at 18 weeks. If I wait another 3 weeks I'll be 30 weeks preggers. GRRR!! The whole time this is going on Tristan is screaming at me, "
I GOTTA GO POOP!!!!!"

I hang up, change Tristan, and call Iris again, because I was peeved that 3 weeks ago I called Iris about getting Jenkins to set up an appointment and now I have to wait another 3 weeks. Iris told me to call the oncall pager. Tristan starts screaming, "I GO POOP, AGAIN!!!" over and over and Bob pukes up an Easter egg right in front of me. Tristan then gets curious and goes over to the puke. I have to yell again, and pull tristan and Bob away from the puke, and start bawling on the phone that I just want to know if my baby is normal or has two heads with horns. I just want an ultrasound. Iris must think I'm mental. She took my name and told me that she will have Canadian Jenkins call me. This is all I wanted in the first place. I just want to know if I have an appointment or not, and if I don't, I want them to set one up. Now, I have a major headache.

Surly Little Bunny

Despite worrying about having guests coming tomorrow, today was great. Normally, when I have guests coming, I go nuts with making sure everything is spic and span. I really didn't have much time today which was stressing me out a bit. Tristan was not feeling himself this morning, so I did a lot of cuddling. I gave Tristan a bath and he wasn't too happy with that, so we had to do some more cuddling. Finally, it was nap time, so I went to get some dishes, and cleaning done. I really wanted to wash the floors, but Jack showed up.

Jack is the adorable, six year-old that lives next door. He wants to be a fix-it man when he grows up because of all the work his parents did on their house, his grandmas house, and now he has a 'job' as a foreman for my neighbor Barbara who is building her dream house two lots down. He came over with his tool belt on and offered to fix our rotten stairs. It couldn't hold my fat preggers self, and I busted through it the other day. He had his tool box with a hammer and nails, and his little saw. It was pretty cute. I told him that we didn't have the lumber and he'd have to come back to help Ben later. He looked sad, so I told him that he could help put the rock garden back togethe, since Tristan took it apart yesterday hunting for worms and bugs.

Jack's mom Suzanne stopped by and told me about a Easter Egg Hunt at Light House Park. I really wanted to go, but I had a lot of housework to do, and Tristan was still sleeping. Then I had the idea to have Jack vacuum while I got some of my other chores done. I gave him a couple of toonies since he also helped a lot with the trees. We got everything done, and Jack's dad came to pick up Jack to head out to the Easter Egg Hunt. I decided that I'd go since it would be nice for Tristan.

I had to quick get out of my nasty housecleaning clothes and dress like a normal person, then got Tristan out of bed to head and changed to head to Light House Park. Tristan didn't want to go, and was crying because he wanted to hunt for worms instead. I had to force him in the car. I told him that it would be fun and that we'd see kids, and he just yelled "NO KIDS!" He's definitely going through a "no' phase.

Anyway, I rushed so fast that I forgot his Easter basket, and he was the only kid with a shopping bag to find eggs. Poor ghetto kid. ;) He was still surly when we got to the park and only wanted to play with the big kids. He wanted to climb up the ladder to go on the slide, but it was full of older kids who were rough housing like older kids do. I didn't want him to get hurt, so I made him come down and play with the toddlers. He got upset and had the biggest pout on his face. Don was trying to take pictures for the newspaper, and tried to get a shot of Tristan, but he just sat there like a bump on the log pouting, because his mom is a mean old nazi who won't let him hang with the big kids.

Then, Tristan decided he was too good for the little kids and wanted to go to the beach instead. I told him that we couldn't go to the beach and that we had to find eggs. He yelled, "NO EGGS! GO TO BEASCH! (beach)" I made him stay again by holding him until the egg hunt started. Suzanne yelled, "Go!" and all the kids ran for the eggs, and I dragged Tristan in there. He started poking around and picked up a few rocks. Then he got excited because he found a pine cone. I kept asking him if he wanted any eggs and he kept saying, NO EGGS! Then, he saw how excited all the other kids were to get eggs and he reluctantly picked up a few. Finally, he got a bit excited about the eggs, but by the time he got into it, most of the eggs were gone. He was really excited when he found out that there was candy inside.

We went back to the park and he ran around with the kids a bit. He climbed the slide which was kind of high, so I was a bit nervous. There were other little kids on the slide so I let him, and guarded the areas where he might fall. He had a blast once he finally got to go way up high like a big boy. He was squealing and peaking over the railing at the other kids below him like an alpha male baby. He went down the slide a few times while the nice guy who owns the dump read off the names of who won the contest.
Lots of names were called: Georgia, Eli, MyKala, ect. Most kids got a prize. Finally, they yelled out Tristan's name. Tristan was way up on the slide and I called up to him that he had to come down because he won a prize. He didn't want to come down, so he yelled, "NO PRIZE!!!" They called his name again wondering if he was still there. Finally, I gave up and yelled, "HE'S HERE, BUT HE WON'T COME DOWN FROM THE SLIDE!" Jack went up to retrieve the prize for Tristan. Turns out that the prize was the grand prize and I think it was a little anti-climatic for them to not have the actual child go down and get the grand prize. Tristan spoiled another photo-op. heh.

That's a stubborn two-year old for you. He's usually not this bad, but as I said earlier, he wasn't himself all day. He's been having stomach issues, and nose issues. The day ended with him handing me something. "Here bum," he said. I opened my hand and he drops something in it. I ask what it is and he got all excited and told me that it was a booger, and then tried to get another one. Yuck. Two-year olds are gross.

Lucy and Nathaniel

I need to start thinking of what we are going to name this child. Ben and I were throwing names out months ago on a drive to Bellingham, but that was without any reference books. For some reason the name Lucy was brought up for a girls name. I liked it at the time, but I'm not so sure now. I don't know how many LUCY???!!! responses I've had and references to the Peanuts Gang. I was thinking that this kid wouldn't know anything about the Peanuts since I barely know anything about Elmer the Elephant, Howdy Doody, and other shows my parents grew up on. Nathaniel was brought up for a boy, but Ben doesn't like the name Nathan and is afraid kids would call Nathaniel, Nathan. I think we got the name Nathaniel from Six Feet Under.

The name Lucy has been coming up in a lot of bad ways lately. In this cop drama, Lucy was the 18 year old knocked up girl on crack. In this other show Lucy was the mom who 'abandonned her child'. I don't want to give my child a name of the stereotypical knocked up crack whore on tv. How horrible would that be. Isn't Lucy the vampire in a couple of vampire flicks too? Well, that's not as bad as a crack whore, but still. Plus, the name Lucy is a nickname. I HATE the name Lucille. Reminds me of that country song my dad used to listen to. "You took a fine time to leave me, LUCILLE." It also is a bit grandma-y. Lucilynn sounds kind of cute, but a little country too in that Billy Bob, Jimmy John, Loretta Lynn way. :/ Lucienne is a bit too French, but I kind of like it. Lucianne just doesn't look right. Hmmm. Maybe we should scrap the name Lucy. It's just odd how it keeps sticking like this child wants to be called Lucy. My mom already started saying "Little Lucy" It sounds kind of cute with Tristan too in that British way and I'd like to use the nickname Lulu since I love the 20s. Naming kids is too much stress.

The names are kind of boring for us. I'm kind of sick of all the crazy ass names out there, but then again with the response people have to the name Lucy, maybe we are the craziest assholes out there. Maybe people will say "Lucy? That's just mean. Why would they name their kid Lucy?"

Pause, Fast Forward and Rewind.

I wish we had more time this weekend. We did have a nice time in Steveston before it rained, but it was brief. I took Ben to PaJo's. It's that fish and chips shop floating on the water that I showed pictures of before. Tristan loves Steveston. I think we might take Amy there this weekend if we have time since it's free, and fun at the same time. There's so much to do around Vancouver that is free. I love it.

It rained a lot this weekend, so we didn't do too much. The fence blew down twice because of the strong gusts coming from the ocean. Ben fixed that and cemented the floor in the bathroom so it's level enough to put a toilet in there. He did a lot of fix-it jobs this weekend which seemed to take up all the time. There's always something. heh. Today, the step in the backyard broke so we'll have to repair that too. We knew that it was rotten, but I was hoping it would last until summer.

We cleaned up the mess from the apple tree pruning job. It looks so much better now. Ben also got the old boards out from under the deck so it doesn't look like we have a bunch of garbage under there anymore. Today, I weeded some gardens and picked up poop. Wee! Tristan found worms, and bugs and chased the neighbor dog around before falling into the pond. This is the second time he's jumped in the pond, so I had to take him into the house as punishment. Hopefully, he'll learn.

I can't wait until Ben's crunch is over. He's going to take a vacation in April and we have to decide where to go. I was thinking that maybe we should check out the San Juans since Ben has been begging to go all year. It's up to Ben though. He's the one working so hard, and I could be happy anywhere from going to the islands, to renting a cottage in the mountains. We need this time off together. Everything feels like it's on fast forward lately.

Crying Over Bad Chinese Food

Tristan and I were sick all day. Tristan had stomach problems and a runny nose, and I had a huge headache, stuffy nose, cough and general fatigue. It sucks being sick when you're pregnant because you have to just tough it out. They don't sell the anti-histamine that I can safely take when preggers. I've been a big ball of emotion because of it, and because Tristan was within five inches of me all day. I got NO space, and no time to unwind a bit. I did manage to get him to take a nap with me, but he spent the first hour trying to pick my nose and wiggling around since he wasn't as tired as I was.

I asked Ben to get me some Chinese food because I've been craving Cashew Chicken. I haven't had Chinese food in more than a year because Ben doesn't like exotic foods, so I was very happy to hear that I would be getting some. The restaurant didn't have Cashew Chicken, so I ordered Lemon Chicken. They also didn't have Chicken Fried Rice listed on their take-out menu which is about the only thing Ben likes, but he went with the chow mein. It took awhile to get the food, and then when Ben finally came home with it, they forgot my appetizer, and the Lemon chicken was just chicken. I almost started to cry. It was ridiculous. I was going to cry over bad Chinese food. Surely, it was the emotions of being pregnant and sick.

We live next to a huge Chinese community, and surely this is real Chinese food and not the Americanized version I'm used to in the states. Maybe Lemon chicken is suppose to be just regular chicken with lemons on top. The hell if I know. I know if they ate the Lemon Chicken dish with rice and yummy sauce that I'm used to they'd all weigh 900 pounds. I just REALLY wanted the Chinese food I was used to. I wanted Cashew chicken, or at the very least Lemon Chicken.

I didn't eat any of it. It was like chicken nuggets with sliced lemon. Bland-o-rama. Ben's chow mein looked too much like the worms, and with all the worm and bug hunting Tristan has me do, I couldn't bring myself to eat it. All I could picture was Tristan's fist full of twisting, wiggling worms. It was kind of like that moment in Lost Boys when the rice looks like maggots. Tell me Michael, how could a billion Chinese people be wrong?

I had to get out of there, and headed to the grocery store for the other items I was craving, caramel and Fruity Pebbles. All day, I had been thinking of Fruity Pebbles. I tried real fruit figuring that cravings are your body's way of telling you what nutrients you are missing. Well, that didn't work. I think that theory is bunk anyway, unless there is some crazy nutrient that's in Fruity Pebbles that I'm not aware of. My body sure doesn't need the sugar that is in Fruity Pebbles and caramel. I did pick up some other odd items in my hunger. I picked up Sparkling cider, root beer, and strawberry quik. Weird. The root beer wasn't exactly what I wanted either, and I almost started to cry again, because I wanted Sprecher root beer. Man, my hormones must be out of whack.

Oprah, Tivo and the Apocalypse

I've been having very vivid dreams lately. They are so vivid that I want to keep "watching" so I'll make up excuses to stay in bed. Yesterday, I told Ben that it was my turn to sleep in. Every weekend I get a turn on Saturday to sleep in, and he sleeps in Sunday or vise versa. I turned Wednesday into Saturday just to continue my apocolypse dream with Oprah Winfrey in it because it was my subconcious mind found it that exciting. Ben was confused as to why I was demanding that it was my day to sleep in, but I think he understands now that I'm just wacky in the mornings.

I don't remember what was so good about the Oprah/apocalypse dream. I don't even remember the apocalypse stuff except that it was very Sodom and Gomorrah because I spent the day arguing with Dixie Pixie online about her reference to Sodom being destroyed because of the gays, which isn't very honest in my opinion. http://www.livejournal.com/community/right_left08/78417.html?thread=1369169#t1369169 . Anyway, this is where the biblical apocalypse stuff came in. I'm just saying the source, so you guys don't think I have psychic dreams or visions like Nostrodamus or some shit.

I do remember a few things from the apocolypse dream. We were the first people on the Point to get a Tivo machine that would rewind our lives. We were using our Tivo machine to go to Vancouver island for a night out without having to stay away from Tristan so long. The babysitter was shocked when we got back 20 minutes later, because you can't get to Vancouver Island that fast. The tivo machine was like a rocket ship and ran like one of those cars kids have that you pull back a few times and that revs up some motor that makes the car go by itself. Yeah... I didn't explain that very well. I'm not sure what those cars are called.

Oprah came into the picture because she was telling everyone about her Tivo life machine and how it was one of her favorite things. She had one that could tivo your life back 5 days, while ours only worked for a few hours. I was jealous of the audience that all recieved the 5 day tivo life machine. Stupid Oprah. Then, we all blew up for some reason, but I survived to see and somehow live in an apocolyptic wasteland.

Last night, I had another not terribly exciting dream about shopping and deconstructed clothing. I had loads of cash and there were such pretty things, but I was too pregnant to fit into anything, so I ended up buying Tristan some Hotwheel cities. Exciting stuff.

Cement Pig Legacy

The cement pig arrived! The mailman almost had a hernia bringing it to my door and it cost $25 bucks to ship it, but it's here in one piece. This is the first time the pig left Wisconsin. Oh, I guess I should explain about the pig. My grandpa used to make cement molds for his garden by taking plastic lawn ornaments and filling them with cement. He made the pig out of a piggy bank. There were two pigs made, and in the eighties someone stole one of them off my grandma's porch. She filed a complaint with the police and was embarrassed when the newspaper came out the next day and the police blotter listed her name and address and how her pink cement pig was reported stolen at such and such a time. We had no leads, and the pig was never seen again.

When my grandma died, my family was pretty shook up. She was the matriarch of our family and we had a lot of great memories of her house, my grandpa's pranks, and my grandma's generosity. Family life revolved around my grandmas house, and we didn't want to let anything of that house go. Every little thing went to someone and was treasured. My grandma wasn't wealthy, so she didn't have diamonds, bonds, or expensive antiques to fight over. The valuable stuff she had was the stuff that held memories. The cement pig was one of those items because of the laughs it brought us over the years. Nobody wanted to claim the pig as there own. Maybe because it's a pink cement pig and nobody wanted to be tied down with it for the rest of their lives, but I doubt it. Everyone is excited every year when they open the mysterious extra present at Christmas. It's either the pink pig or the block of coal. This year I was the first grandchild to get the mysterious packaged marked To Jenny, Love Santa. I wasn't expecting it because the grandchildren never get the pig. Only the uncles, and my mom get the pig. They wanted me to take it to Canada and take pictures of it's journey. I can't wait. hehe. It'll be like a garden gnome voyage, only garden gnomes are a tad bit lighter than a heavy cement pig. ;)

I'm so glad I grew up with the family I did. It might sound hokey, but when I hear about wills and inheritances destroying family relationships and how some families just squabble over the possessions of their recently departed loved ones, I get very sad. I shouldn't get sad. I should feel blessed that my family was so worried about offending people and hogging a family relic that we pass around a crazy cement pig every Christmas. I think I'll make a new tradition and take pictures of the pig in my garden, and maybe photoshop the pig into my Vancouver and Whistler pics to show what we did that year. I'll make a little album and encourage other pig recipients to do the same with the year they get the pig. Next year, I think I'll pass it to my cousin Dan. He's getting married and surely they will need a cement pig the first year of their marraige to remind them to laugh every once in awhile.

Womping Willows and Rocking Toilets

I just spent the last hour in a half sawing on the apple tree out front. This is the apple tree that the arborist told me to just cut down because it was so neglected and badly pruned. Ben's a tree lover and can't bear to cut down any tree, so I'm trying to thin it out. It does bear decent fruit, but the fruit gets spots and sores because the tree is so overgrown that the fruit gets damaged. At first I thought it was apple scab because I don't know jack shit about apple trees so any spot must be apple scab.

Anyway, I named part of this post "Whomping Willows" because the apple trees around here look like the whomping willow they had in the Harry Potter films. They are so wacky looking. My grandma never pruned her apple tree, but I'm guessing that the Wisconsin frost prevented it from growing out of control like they do around here. I'm imitating the job the arborist did on the back tree so all the tall branches are coming off and I'm taking out all the extra branches. There should only be one coming off each major branch. Yeah, that doesn't make sense. I should have listened better in botany to describe what I'm doing with the branches on my apple tree. I hope the thing doesn't die because of my major hack job on it, but then again it was already badly pruned and we were told to cut it down anyways.

Ben and I got in another fight last night. We just can get along when there are household projects we need to do. Ben put in the toilet all by himself the other day, and I was so proud of him. He scored major penis points for that one. He was pretty proud of himself too, but then the next day the toilet started to rock like a rocking chair. I told him about it and talked to my dad about what could be causing it. We both kind of knew it was because the previous owner of our house didn't install the floor properly under the toilet. The bathroom floor is this beautiful black granite slab, but Paul (previous owner) sloppily left a huge portion of the floor out under the toilet figuring that the nasty toilet he pulled from the trash would be covering it anyway. Well, the new toilet, doesn't have the same shape that the nasty 80's toilet has, so Paul's half-assed job is biting us in the butt. I told Ben to go to the hardware store and ask if they had any cement, or compound that we can put in the hole to level it out, but he decided last night that he'd pull a hack job too. He took the decorative tile sample we got for our kitchen and smashed it up and then puttied it together making a shim to keep the toilet from wobbling. He called me in there asking what I thought about how he fixed the toilet. I wiggled it and immediately it started rocking back and forth again. I looked at his fix and saw the tiles sticking out under the toilet and told him that he will need to go to the hardware store because that wouldn't do it. I guess I could have been more sensitive. He really thought he was clever with his tile idea, and I just got transported back to all the half-assed, hack jobs Ben has pulled over the years to fix things around the house. He's a software designer, not a carpenter. He got a little huffy and was mad that he'd have to take the toilet out. I took his anger as directed to me, like I was just a picky little bitch about every home project because I want it done right. (Common theme in our household). He kept trying to justify his logic, and I was getting madder and madder until I just left the room in frustration.

I don't know why we can't do house projects together. Every house project is a huge ordeal and fight because I AM picky and want it to be level, even, and done right, and Ben is more of a "good enough" type guy. I'm so much like my mom and Ben is so much like my dad. They squabble every time they do a job too. My dad will just lean trim against the wall for five years instead of nailing it, and that annoys the crap out of my mom. Ben reminds me of my dad in situations like that which I think magnifies my annoyance level and makes me all the more pissy because I hated the arguments between my mom and dad over household jobs and how my dad would never finish anything right.

So, now we have the kitchen floor to do. I know deep down that it would be wise to just do it ourselves and save a load of cash ($1,400) that it would cost us to get the floor guy on the Point to do it. It's not technically our money since it was from an insurance claim, but with the septic system's drainfield partially failing due to over saturation, and the $1,200 we have to give the Vancouver hospital for doctor bills, it would be prudent to just do it ourselves. I just HATE working with Ben. I know the tiles won't be evenly spaced or cut correctly, and I'll want him to redo it and he'll get mad because I'm too picky, and I'll get mad because he's not picky enough, and we'll have another war on our hand. Of course, it's not going to end up in divorce court or anything, but it will be a major headache. grr.

Yeah, I shouldn't be posting my arguments. I should censor that out, so every thinks Ben and I never fight. Fights are personal, but it's life. We made up. We're happy now, and I'm just examining on what went wrong, and if I just want to have the guy do it or suck it up and work with Ben.

Donuts and Dirt

Tristan got me up at 6:30 am on a Saturday morning. grrr. We read the paper together while I drank some mint green tea and ate marmalade toast. I love sitting in front of that window reading the paper. Lots of sail boats were out on the Strait today, so it was amazing sitting there watching the boats from my dining room.

I woke Ben up at 9:00 and he decided he wanted coffee and donuts. He wanted me to join his weekend tradition with Tristan. I'm glad I did. Usually, I sleep in one day, and Ben sleeps in the next day on the weekend. On my day sleeping in, Ben usually takes Tristan to get a cup of coffee and a donut and then drives to the beach. We all got in the car and headed across the border to go to Canada to get a donut at Tim Hortons. Tim's was way too busy. Canadians are addicted to donuts or somthing. They are crazy about them. Do you know that Canadians have the most donut stores per capita? Crazy Canadians. ;) Since, Tim's was busy, we decided to just go to Safeway and get some Starbucks and grocery store donuts. Then, we drove back cross country. I was a bit concerned that the border patrol would confiscate our donuts. We all know how much cops like donuts. Border guards are sort of like cops, so I joked around that they would try to confiscate them. "Sorry m'am those donuts have egg products in them. We'll have to take those." They didn't take our donuts though, and we went to Lighthouse park and ate them while sitting on a huge peice of driftwood.

After the donuts, we went to the park there, and saw some very wealthy Indian family set up these massive brand new tents for their daughter's 15th birthday party. She's coming of age. It kind of reminded me of that god awful show on MTV called "My Sweet Sixteen". Crap. Did I just admit that I watched that show. I only saw 15 minutes of it. I swear. I really don't watch that crap. ;P They kind of looked concerned that we were going to crash the party, so we headed to the beach again, and found a nice sunny spot. We hunted for trabs (crabs), and then saw Buffy, Amy, and Branden walking with their friend who had her daughter Charisma with. Charisma is two, so Tristan was all excited to have another toddler around. He started showing off by showing Charisma how high he can jump, and showing her his trabs. She wasn't too impressed with the crabs. haha.

We decided to join them for lunch at the marina. I never ate there before. The food was pretty cheap and good. The kids played ring around the rosie on the dance floor area while we finished our food. Tristan yelled Asses Asses FALL DOWN! He meant ashes ashes, we all fall down, but yeah, he's just learning. They took off and we walked around the marina a bit, then went home to work on the front yard septic problem. Neilsen's Hardward dropped off another load of sand and we spread it out over the area. Then they came back an hour later with the top soil. We spent most of the day leveling it out and packing it down. Ben went to the store to buy some stakes and they didn't have any. While he was cutting stakes of his own out of some board, the neighbor dog Buster came over and stole the tape we were using for the makeshift fence (stakes and tape). Jack and Tessa were chasing this dog around trying to get the tape back. Buster thought it was the best thing in the world to have all these people chasing him. Jack finally got the tape, but Buster made it into a game of tug of war. We finally got the tape from Buster and Ben started putting up the fence. He put his staple gun down, and Buster ran up and grabbed it. Tessa and Jack started chasing after the dog again, but we had to stop them because it's kind of dangerous playing tug of war with a dog holding a staple gun.

So, we had a fun day. Ben has to work tonight because he has some major bug that he has to fix. He gets to work from home though which isn't as bad. Maybe I'll rent a suspense movie. Ben hates suspense murder movies.

Tina's Coma and Trabs.

This week has been trying to get me down, but so far I'm still pretty happy. Tristan and I spent a lot of time at the beach searching for trabs (crabs). He loves turning over the rocks to see what he will find. We went with Brandon Tuesday and they found tons of crabs because the tide was going out. Of course, we only find the itty bitty crabs and hermit crabs (so cute) and not the huge crabs you cook on the grill. I was helping brandon pick up a rock to find some crabs and Tristan somehow found a pretty good sized crab about the size of his hand. That kid has no fear. He didn't get pinched or anything, but he scared the heck out of me. Brandon and Tristan were upset when I said that we had to put the crabs back because we had to head home. Tristan was bawling that he didn't want to put his crabs back until I suggested we make the crabs a nice house out of rocks. They got all excited and we made a little mound of rocks with a little cave and put the crabs in there. I was so proud of the way I handled the situation and thought I pulled one over on them. I didn't realize that Tristan had pulled one over on me. We got home and all of a sudden there was a crab running across the floor. Tristan is yelling TRABS, TRABS!!! and laughing like crazy. I thought it must have stuck to someone's pants, but we figured out that Tristan put some crabs in his pants pocket. Crazy kid. Now I have to check his pockets for crabs, worms, bugs and grubs. He's almost cartoonish at times.

Wednesday, we headed to Burlington to get the car fixed. I stopped at Crispy Creme because I'm craving pastry like crazy lately. Mmmm. Apple fritters and coffee are glorious together. I drank my allotted coffee consumption for the day in a park with Tristan. We got there kind of early and the men were on lunch, so I drove around a bit. I discovered a neighborhood development on a bluff with the worst name ever. It was called Tina's Coma. I was sure it had to be a typo, but it wasn't. Why the hell would you name an expensive housing development after a vegetative state due to head trauma. Odd. I'm sure it means something wonderful like Tina's Little Piece of Heaven, or Tina's Nirvana, but this is 'merca. In 'merca a coma is caused by a blow to the head.

Anyway, the fix-it guys finally came back from lunch, and Tristan and I sat in the waiting area reading Hot Rod magazines. Tristan had all of them out yelling, "Bum, look at this car." Oh bum, awesome." I tried to read People's best and worst dressed because I'm not really into Hot Rods, and Tristan got really annoyed with me and forced me to read Hot Rod. hah. We waited until they came back to tell us that they didn't have the part on hand and would have to order it, so we have to go back sometime next week.

I decided to spend the rest of the day at the mall in Bellingham. I got a magazine at Target and some Easter stuff. Tristan played in the Playland while I sat with my cart like a bag lady reading my magazine. It was fun. I felt social for once even though I didn't talk to any of the other parents. Just being out was nice.

I have been a bit more social this week. Buffy and I got together a few times to let the boys play. She watched Tristan while I went grocery shopping, and I watched Brandon while she worked late. It was nice. Tristan saw Brandon's bunny and then saw Buffy's neighbor land his helicopter in the backyard. Crazy. We call him Magnum P.I. We also got to see the other neighbors pet raccoons. He's the flooring guy that's going to do our tile work, and turns out he raised these raccoons since they were babies. He has a zoo quality pen for them, and is crazy about his raccoons. His wife let us come in to see the male raccoon, since the females were a little crabby because of Raccoon PMS. They let this raccoon sleep right on their bed like a dog. It was pretty cool. The point is such a quirky place sometimes.

So, even though our septic system is kaput and we might have to spend $5,000 on a new system, if this tempory fix we're trying doesn't work. The septic guy says that we might not need a new system if we put sand around the drain field that is over-saturated, and fix our toilet, and cut back on water usuage. We'll try installing a toilet this weekend and hopefully that will work. I really don't want to pay $5000 on a new septic system. ugh. I'm pretty okay about it though, considering the stress. The insurance company isn't going to cancel us anymore because we made such a stink. The hospital let us work it out with a decent payment plan and the insurance might work with us on paying our bill ahead of time, so it's looking good about giving birth in Vancouver. So, maybe this will work out too. Let's hope.

My frickin' pelvis is going to separate

Ben and I got in another tiff on the phone again. He's really worried about the insurance company screwing us on the bill in Canada, even though it's approved already. I assumed from the start that we'd have to pay for the delivery upfront. We've been paying for the doctor's bills up front from the start and we have so many calls to this Denise lady at Regency that she must know our case by heart.

Anyway, Ben's been complaining left and right about how many hours he's been on the phone with these guys. He's only on the phone so much because he freaks out about every little thing. We already have it tape recorded that they will pay the bill. He called today on the way to work and brings up that maybe we should give birth in Bellingham again. I lost it. I'm scared to death about giving birth in Bellingham, plus if I switch now I'll have seen 4 doctors. I need to stay put and actually get to know the person who will be inches from my cooch during birth.
Giving birth in Bellingham would mean driving a half hour to the mainland on Canadian highways, two international borders and taking a highway for another hour to Bellingham. No frickin' way. I'm scared to death that I'll end up giving birth at customs or on the side of the highway. There aren't a whole lot of exits to take in parts of that highway, and I just want the safety of being surrounded by city, and having a couple local hospitals nearby like Ladner, or Richmond just in case we don't make it to Vancouver. Ben apparently didn't understand how freaked out I am about giving birth in Bellingham. He sees it as an hour trip instead of a 40 minute trip. He always underestimates how far it is to Bellingham. It's at least an hour in a half trip to the hospital. That's assuming that the Nexus lane is open and we can bypass the line to get into the country. Birth doesn't happen on a time clock. I can't just assume I'll be giving birth during Nexus hours.

Ben apologized, but I'm still worked up. I'm still a little scared of birth even though I did it once before. I have no one to watch Tristan, although I'm sure our neighbors would help out. I'll have to wait until Ben gets home from Vancouver after I call him if he's at work. What if we hit rush hour? ugh. I remember thinking Meriter was going to be a trip from the west side. I WISH I had that trip now.

When I told Caroline about my worries, she told me this crazy story about how her friend rode herself 5 miles to the hospital during labor on her bike. Her friend got to the hospital, and they told her that she wasn't in heavy labor, so she should go home and relax a bit. So, she drove her bike home, but ended up giving birth on the way. They didn't know she drove there on a bike. Obviously, I don't have the balls this lady does. Maybe I complain too much though. Maybe I'm just a big worry wart. I should repeat the mantra - Birth is natural. Birth is not a disease. Birth can be easy. AahHH!!!! MY frickin' pelvis is going to separate! I just want to be in a comfy bed when it does.


P.S. Note to all you vagina nazis, there are no midwives here. Midwives are at the hospital, and they will be helping me out.

well, here's my first post on the new blog.

Ben and I had a great weekend after a not so great week. We got in a huge fight because he worked until 2 am one night on the game. I'm so sick of gaming crunch times. I just can't handle it anymore. We fought and fought, and I felt all pissy because we moved cross country to get away from these crazy hours. 5 monts of crunch is TOO much. Anyway, we hashed it out. Ben understands my point of view more, and I get his a bit better. All is well again, but I swear if he works another night like that I will march into his producer's office and scream my head off.

We got a babysitter Saturday, and went for some brunch and ran some errands. It was really nice doing errands without Tristan. Maybe we should do that more often. We ate at cute little cafe called Petra's which reminded me of Madison. Then we ventured over to three different hardware stores to find the one item that we needed - pond sealant.

Once we got home we worked a lot on the yard. I sawed down the diseased branches of the apple tree and discovered what was making it so sick. Someone had tied a wire around the trunk. Poor tree. I also trimmed up the weeping mulberries and the pear tree, but accidentally stepped on my croucoses. Poor little flowers. I still have a lot to do, but the yard is looking better.

Sunday, we ventured down to Blaine, so we wouldn't have to pay the levy on the CDRs we needed to buy for Phil and Mike's cds. Blaine isn't half bad of a drive, and at least they have Rite Aid and Costco, so we can get diapers and other things that are super expensive in our area. We decided to check out Birch Bay and just do a small day adventure with no concrete plans. I used to love just driving to some random town and checking it out. We found a public beach that was full of oyster shells, and watched an eagle hunt over the bay. It was so fun.

After Birch Bay, we decided to get Mexican food, since Vancouver is seriously lacking in good Mexican food. The place in Blaine looked like a dive, but it was pretty good. Ben ate enough to feed a small army, and I think he was feeling it for the rest of the night. We stopped at Rite Aid and picked up some flowers that they had on sale. I got a bunch of primroses that look like cartoon flowers and some pansies. We spent the rest of the night outside planting flowers in the planters and clearing out some weeds. It was productive, but fun.