Poke the baby!
Little Lauren was VERY active last night -- Marc was actually able to feel her doing somersalts for a while! I'm starting to feel her kicking and movement every day now, which is good -- because I'm right about at the time when I should be!
I have a follow-up sonogram next week to see if I need to be put on bed rest. *sigh* I may be changing my birthing facility anyway, cuz Reston won't allow water, which means I need an IV -- which I associate with trauma (my dehydration and my kidney infection).
What a weekend!
Hurricane Ivan made its way to Virginia and Pennsylvania the night we were heading up to Penn State for the football game. Tornado warnings popped up all over the place, and one even popped up close to the airport -- about 5 miles from where we live. So after that fiasco ended (the warning finally ended at 8:15pm), we managed to gather up Marc's brother and head out at around 9:30.
Little did we know that the torrential downpours and nasty winds would follow us for the entire trip. Marc drove about halfway, but we switched off at some point and I drove the rest of the way. At some point on the highway when we were almost at Breezewood on I-70, I saw a car way ahead of me put its flashers on. I was distracted, slowed down, and was wondering if he had stopped or just slowed down. Then I saw the brown area on the road, but I didn't have time to stop. SPLASH! We hit some pretty deep water. I was able to still move, but then a truck came speeding by in the left lane and threw water over the top of us. We were all pretty freaked out, and I wasn't sure the car would still run. I slowly inched the car out of the water, and the car was still running fine -- no sputtering or anything.
Then we hit (not literally) traffic at a complete standstill. We sat there for at least 15 minutes before we started moving. Apparently, a tree had come across the highway, and they needed to cut it up to remove it. As we passed the people cleaning up the debris, we also noticed some snow plows -- hopefully to clear the road of water!
So we stopped in Breezewood to add gas (just in case), stretch, and get a snack. The woman I spoke with at the counter said our trip to Altoona would be worse, based on reports from other travelers. So we headed out again, got on I-99, and it was smooth sailing (well, except for the rain) from there. We got to Altoona at about 1:30 AM, got our hotel, and crashed for the night.
The next morning at around 9, we got a phone call from Marc's parents telling us that the highway was closed due to an accident caused by flooding. So... even though they left around 6AM, they wouldn't get to State College until at least noon.
We managed to get to State College in about an hour, only delayed by football traffic. As we drove up Rt. 220, we saw pretty much nothing but swamp and river on either side of us. We were amazed that none of it was on the road!
So, we got to State College in one piece and made it to our original meeting place on time. We had an early lunch and headed off to the stadium. It turned out to be a beautiful day with no rain. Although it was a little chilly, we all got some sunburn.
Penn State beat UCF 37-13! We still looked like crap, but at least we beat a team that we SHOULD have beat!
After the game, we headed back to our cars and had a dinner tailgate... then had to head back home. I feel like we spent most of our weekend driving. The trip up was probably the most stressful that we've ever driven in, even compared to snow. I'm just thankful we're all still alive!
Self-hypnosis is cool!
I attended my first hypnobirthing class this Tuesday, and I've slept better over the past 2 nights than I have been over the past 2 or 3 months! It was very relaxing, and I was relieved to hear that actually MOST of my instructor's "patients" were first-time moms. We had heard that it's more common for 2nd babies, but apparently that's not necessarily true. *shrug*
This past weekend
So Palm Bay gets hammered with Hurricane Frances, and it's all over the news. Not Melbourne, Palm Bay. Fortunately, Uncle Johnny and Aunt Yvonne had enough sense to get the heck out of town, but they decided to go to Tampa -- which also got pummeled by tropical storm-force winds. Neighbors say that there wasn't a lot of damage to their neighborhood; let's hope it's really the case.
I had my sonogram and learned that it's a GIRL!!!
Woo hoo! Penn State!
Wow, Penn State actually looked GOOD today! 48 to 10. Wow. Granted, it was Akron, but we still looked better than we did last year. Here's hoping for a good year!
It's FRIDAY!
I am so thankful that it's Friday. I mean, work hasn't exactly been stressful, but it's been a long week (even though I had 2 days of vacation). And thank goodness for 3-day weekends. I really needed this.
Marc has a football game tonight (he's in the Redskins Marching Band), so a friend's coming over so we can have a vent session about our weeks.
I hope I hear about the class that may or may not be cancelled so I don't end up there next Wednesday and discover it was cancelled. That would kinda suck! I guess we'll see.
Almost time to go home. *yawn* Long day.
This week, starting VA Beach
I thought vacations were supposed to be relaxing and stress-free. Well, not this week.
Saturday
We got up a little later than we wanted to and got a late start for our drive to
VA Beach. Traffic was awful, and we didn't get to our resort until 8pm. At least the service we got at
Lone Star was good. We managed to pick up some milk for the next day at Sunsations.
Sunday
We got up and went to have breakfast -- we poured milk on our cereal and discovered that it was rotten! The date was still several days away, so my hubby went back down to demand a refund. Sunsations said they would only offer an exchange, even though it wasn't the first milk that had been returned. We ended up getting a different grade of milk that was ok, but I certainly wasn't happy.
Never, ever buy anything from Sunsations that you want to be able to return if it's defective -- ESPECIALLY milk at $3 for a half gallon!!
The rest of the day was relatively eventless, except I didn't have anything to read on the beach. So I went trekking for a bookstore on the boardwalk (which I didn't find), my feet were sore, and my back was killing me.
Monday
The rains and wind from Tropical Storm Gaston came inland, so we spent most of our afternoon looking for a used bookstore that had one of the books that I was looking for. No luck. So we went to the mall, and I found a
Barnes and Noble. It was pouring, so I was trying to juggle my umbrella with closing the door and
slammed my finger into the door! I screamed, opened the door, and looked at my finger and watched as the purple started to move down my finger. I rushed inside directly to
Starbucks. The women behind the counter were nice enough to give me a cup of ice. So here I am in Barnes and Noble, cup of ice with my finger in one hand, trying to look for a book. I finally find a book that I was looking for (full price, but I really needed something to read) and checked out. I got to the car, showed my hubby my finger, and asked him to drive.
We got back to our room, gathered up pool stuff (games, towels, etc), and drove down to a participating resort with an indoor pool.
The pool was closed. It was still raining, so the beach was not an option, and our resort only had 2 outdoor pools. *sigh* So we stayed in for the night.
Tuesday
This was our last day in VA Beach, but we were able to take advantage of the sun by going for a bike ride. Then we decided that we wanted ice cream. We stopped at
Dairy Queen -- no chocolate ice cream. Stopped further down at
Ben & Jerry's -- they were closed. Stopped in the mini-mall to get a bottle of water from the vending machines. The first machine claimed that it had water (I pushed the button and it still said $1), but it wouldn't take our dollar bill. We tried the other vending machine, it was out of water. We got change from another vendor so we could try the first machine -- it was out of water.
Frustrated and parched, we rode back to our resort, and I decided to try
Häagen Dazs, since they hadn't steered me wrong the last 2 times I stopped in.
I walked up to the counter and was completely ignored! The woman noticed that I was there, but continued playing with her fingernails. Then she turned around and started doing something with the stock. My mouth dropped and I stormed out. My hubby looked confused (I didn't have my ice cream), and when I told him what happened, he went inside and asked for the manager so he could complain. I just couldn't believe the day I was having!
We left town after 6 and arrived home around 11:30pm.
Wednesday
That was just yesterday. *sheesh* We got up to have my first sonogram. We got there, and they told me I was supposed to have a "full bladder." Well, nobody told me, and nobody called me. Besides, I really had to pee so I must have had a full bladder! We got back there and the tech told me that my bladder was practically empty. Then she told me that she had some difficulty seeing everything she needed to see for a complete sonogram and accurate measurement of the baby's age. So now I have to go to their offices in out-of-the-way Alexandria and take MORE time off work.
After the sonogram, we picked up our dog from
Club Pet. She reaked of something, but we weren't quite sure yet. She was supposed to have been bathed the night before, but it's possible that she got dirty again since then. We got home after work and she reaked of pee. She must have laid down in it the night before. We had to bathe her (we got home about 11pm), and we will probably have to bathe her again tonight. We haven't had this problem before with Club Pet, it just added to my week.
And that's not all! I was already upset last week because one of the classes that I would have been able to take this semester for the program I'm enrolled in would not qualify for the program... now they might even cancel the ONLY class that I'm able to register for this semester because they only have 5 people (1 less than their "required" 6 to hold a class).
I'm just waiting for something else to go wrong; I just don't know what. It's been a helluva week, and it's not even over.
Welcome to my Blog
I've been thinking about creating a blog for some time now, but I haven't had the time to do it on my own site. Heard about this, and thought I'd check it out. :) This will be my place to vent, share news (good or bad), and whatever else it is that bloggers do.
