catandmuse.com

Tired, busy, tending to obligations, waiting for my husband to get here…

Seriously, I have a writer’s block or my mind is just very distracted. 

I have been working this week and enjoying it.  It wears me out though.  It is because of the little parasite, not because of the work.

I am enjoying my pregnancy, my belly is bigger and apparently my uterus is the size of a basketball…that is according to the pregnancy bible, “What to Expect When You’re Expecting”.

I have no room for food, it must be the ginormous uterus

If my husband were here, I would nom him…nom-nom-nom-nom.

I really miss him and although I only have another 7 days or so until he gets here and I am keeping quite busy, time seems to be going very slow.

Not that kind of working girl…duh.

I mean I am employed again.  With my former employer Beck/Allen Cabinetry that I had to leave when we left the U.S. for Hong Kong.  It was very sad to leave and is giving me both something to do and a warm, fuzzy feeling to be brought back on their staff so quickly.  I am quite pleased.

That is my relatively exciting news.  You see, it was probably anti-climatic for you who are reading this, but for me it is quite exciting.  For the time being, the hours are extremely flexible so that I can do my doctor appointments, not go into the office if I am having an unpleasant pregnancy day, and eventually leave to go give birth.  They don’t want me to do that in the office, I am certain it goes without saying.

Yay, me!

I have to say that I am surprised to be back on board so quickly, given the current state of the economy in the U.S…not that I am complaining!  I find that I don’t have as much to do here during the day in the U.S. as I did in Hong Kong, likely because I am living in someone else’s house.  That does make a difference.  I do stuff, but it isn’t the same as having your own living space…for instance, I doubt that Cybr’s mom would appreciate if I rearranged the furniture.  You know what I mean…maybe…

I have been making the rounds non-stop since my return to the U.S., visiting with family and calling friends.  I feel like that is really all I have accomplished, other than trying to acclimate our dogs to their new environments, yet I have not yet completed the task…

I still have not seen my grandma on my mother’s side, nor have I seen my mom but for a day and a night which is really bothering her.  I haven’t seen my most lovely nieces Kasey and Alyssa (but they read this site from time to time, so you really are my favorites!) or an aunt & uncle who live nearby my grandma and are eagerly awaiting the birth of our child.  They had given up completely on me ever having children and are quite pleased to hear otherwise.

So, tonight I set out to complete this task.  It is Alyssa’s birthday and I will be meeting up with her family and a friend or two for and exciting night at Incredible Pizza Co. here in St. Louis.  Then, in the morning I will head south for about two hours and see everyone else.  I am taking the fuzzy kids (dogs only, remember my cats are still in St. Joseph, MO with my dad) with me, they will enjoy the freedom of running crazy thru the fields at my moms.  Where I am headed is quite rural, which they will enjoy.

I won’t be back until Monday, but I do have some relatively exciting news in the meanwhile which I will schedule to post tomorrow…so you will have to check back for the news.  Although, I should warn you that it isn’t crazy-exciting, just exciting for me.  Meh, you may find yourself slightly disappointed, but don’t let that stop you for making another pit stop here tomorrow.

Oh, yeah, and I want to plug cybrhub’s comic site A Little Scary to check out the funny Anniversary strip from yesterday.  He is so romantical in his own special way and he is probably lucky that I am not so much of the hopeful(or less) romantic myself.  I appreciate his weird way.

And, if you haven’t already, don’t forget to stop by Baby Barie for pregnancy updates. 

I will take that as a good sign.  Two years of marriage under our belts and we are still friends…that has to be a good thing. 

So, my dearest cybrhubby, Happy Anniversary…even though it loses a bit of significance when we are half way around the world from each other (the event, not the significance of our marriage…just thought I should clarify).   There really isn’t a lot of celebration to be had when we talk on the phone for 15 minutes as say, “Happy Anniversary!” and “Yeah, Happy Anniversary to you too!” but that is how it is.

This is all from my perspective…you are still planning on returning to the U.S., right?  hehe, just kidding.  I don’t want to give you any ideas…

P.S.  Cybr, your kid is trying to kick my belly button outward.  It is not working, but it doesn’t feel so good.  Thought you should know.

So, it has been busy the past week for me, which I believe I mentioned in my the previous post…

Okay, so here is more of what has been happening:

My grandma (dad’s mom) fell and was sent to hospital right about the same time I left Hong Kong and I knew that I should see her as soon as humanly possible once I made it the U.S.  It was not looking really good for her to return to her assisted living apartment, but rather likely that she be sent to a nursing home. 

Well, I learned shortly after my arrival that she had been returned to her home and not a nursing home, which seemed good at the time.  However, less than a week later she had yet another mild stroke and fell again.  This fall was a bad one.  She had a bump on her head nearly the size of my fist and bruising all down her head, neck and shoulders…

If only that was the worst of it.

She had no idea who anyone was, not even her daughter who cares for her regularly.  She was not functioning in present time, but rather about 30 years or so ago.  The worst part was that in her altered state she was also extremely frightened and paranoid, not seeming to understand what was happening to her and thinking the hospital staff were trying to poison her and rape her.

Getting old sucks.  My grandma is 91 years old. 

Anyway, there is good news.  At least relatively good news.  My dad and I drove to Fredericktown, MO to visit her this past Sunday and she had made about an 80% improvement not long before we arrived.  This spared us seeing her at her worst, which I am grateful for.  She knew us all when we walked in, even my aunt was astounded by how alert and “herself” that she was.  She even remembered that I was pregnant and my due date, which just pleased her all over.  She got to rub my belly for luck, it was cute.

I am not certain if she will make a full recovery or not, but either way I am glad to see her in a lucid state.  It made for a much better day on Sunday than I had originally anticipated.  I doubt any readers would remember this, but my grandpa (maternal) died about a week or two before I arrived home last year and needless to say I was concerned about repeating that scenario.  Luckily, it wasn’t in my cards.

Although it may seem that way, I really do have many ideas and am still working on more ideas for this blog…

I have just had an extremely full week and a bit of writer’s block, or something that most likely resembles it.

I did make it to St. Louis and have been here about a week.  I have been getting settled in so I don’t have to live out of a suitcase any longer.  I have been trying to get the dogs settled in, however that has proven a bit difficult. 

They did so good at my Dad’s after flying halfway around the world, but now that I have displaced them again they seem to be out of sorts.  Chini did adapt within a couple of days, maybe three;  Guinness, on the other hand, is still working things out. 

We are all getting there, slowly but surely…

I said it was a crazy, busy week and I will tell more about that later… That is if I have any readers left out there in the internut galaxy!

Well, I’m another year older, which seems to be the only option each year when my birthday rolls around.

Thanks to everyone who has/will leave a birthday wish for me!  It is nice to hear all your birthday wishes since I am celebrating a birthday whilst my husband is halfway around the world.

I intend to spend my special day doing a load of laundry or two, cleaning a bathroom, putting dishes away, taking a nap and having dinner with my Dad…it isn’t much, but it sounds good to me.

I got my birthday present from Cybr a couple of months ago (and I love it!!!) so maybe I will go buy myself some maternity underpants for my birthday, hehe.

By the way, this is my early b-day present from Cybr:

I just spent a day and night at my aunt’s house in Excelsior Springs, MO. 

My mom, my aunt and I just hung out at her house with a total of 9 dogs between us…never a dull moment.

I had a really relaxing time there and had a chance to see how my cats would do without me being at my Dad’s house with them.  They are fine.  Burrito was not to keen on me being gone, but I have to believe that he will adjust once I am gone for extended periods of time…we have no other choice but to leave them here.  We have no home of our own to take them.  Francis was better, but he still missed me, too.

I am alive and well.  Sorry for the hiatus, but pregnancy and jetlag don’t mix well.

To recap, Cybr saw me off on the airport bus at 11:30 am Monday June 30th.  He watched as I pulled away, it was all I could do not to cry.  My friend, Teresa, rode with me to the airport to schlep my large suitcases around and see me off.  It was so considerate of her to go with, since Cybr couldn’t…he had to return to our flat to meet the pet exporters.

I flew out of Hong Kong at 1:30 pm and after an untold number (simply because I have not the capacity by which to actually calculate how long I traveled, including layovers and time zone changes) of hours in transit, I arrived in Kansas City, Missouri at nearly midnight on the same day.  I had to wield my luggage around in LAX while going through customs and if it weren’t for a kind older man, I probably would have hurt myself or my baby by lifting those things.  Thanks, kind guy!

My Dad was waiting outside my gate at the KC airport, he was a sight for sore, blackened eyes.  They weren’t really blackened, just appeared that way from lack of sleep…I was not able to sleep for more than a few minutes at a time in flight.

He handled my luggage and drove us back to his house where I think I slept for about 4 or 5 hours.  I tried to get things situated for the fuzzy kids at his house during the day on Tuesday, then at about 10 pm we went to the cargo hold and retrieved Chini, Guinness, Francis and Burrito.  They all looked good, but desperately wanted out of those cages.

We were able to let Chini and Guinness out to take care of their business at the cargo hold.  We took them to a patch of grass and let them out.  They both peed forEVER, or so it seemed, then Chini proceeded to roll in the grass for about 10 minutes…apparently her way of kissing the ground post-flight.

We all came back to my Dad’s and the fuzzies seemed to settle in right away.  Chini, Guinness and Francis all seemed to remember my Dad and his home.  Even Burrito (who is quite the scaredy-cat) was exploring his new digs within just an hour or so.  They are all quite content and comfortable here.

I will have to leave Francis and Burrito behind when I return to St. Louis in about a week.  I am not looking forward, it will break my heart to leave them.  I am trying to think of it as an extended vacation where I would be away from them anyway.  I know they will be fine here with my Dad and will not miss me nearly as much as I miss them…but it is still going to hurt me.

So, the fuzzy kids were all fine, but I had a bit of a health issue this week…you can read about it at Baby Barie if you so desire.

I will slowly be getting back to regular posting, so please check in regularly.  Again, sorry for the lack of posts, but life and getting healthy has been a priority for the past week.

See you soon!