Fender Bender

Many of you have heard by now about my little "incident" on Mike's birthday...I think I nearly gave him a heart attack! I was driving home from work on I-29/35 as usual, with moderately heavy traffic, and right before the Paseo bridge some lady decides to cut across 3 lanes of traffic as all of the cars ahead of us were slowing. She rammed into the guy behind me, which then pushed that car into me from behind. The lady's car was totaled, the guy in the middle had a smashed trunk and crumpled up hood, and I got a dented bumper. THANK GOODNESS my car sits up pretty high because it allowed the guy behind me to just smash into the bottom of the bumper and slide underneath me instead of coming on into my backseat. Luckily, I had been paying attention to traffic and had plenty of room ahead of me so that I wasn't really in any danger of getting pushed into somebody else. Also, luckily, nobody got seriously hurt.

The worst part about the whole thing was that it happened on Mike's birthday, just as I was planning to take him out for a date. We ended up having to stand on the side of the road in 100 degree heat for 2 HOURS with no shade, waiting for the KC, MO police to show up!!! I couldn't believe it took them so long to respond to a 3 car pile-up accident in such a heavily traveled area during rush hour. I actually called 911 FOUR TIMES, before the officer showed up! Finally, on my last call to 911, I had to pull out the pregnancy card and tell them if they didn't send somebody soon, they might as well send an ambulance because I was about to have a heat stroke...

It was determined that the lady in the back was at fault (duh!) so everything was turned into her insurance company. Piece of cake right? Well, yesterday I found out that she does not have enough liability coverage to pay for repairs to BOTH my car and the guy in the middle's car. So, a little piece of advice for all of you out there...double check your insurance policies to make sure you have enough liability coverage so you don't risk being taken to court for being underinsured and if you have the option to purchase insurance for when the underinsured hits you-do it!

Happy Birthday Mike!

Mike's birthday was last Monday. We had an eventful time to say the least! I mustered up as many of Mike's friends as I could for a little surprise party at The Dish Friday night. IT WAS AWESOME! Mike was really surprised and had NO idea! It was great to get everybody together for dinner and cake! For his birthday present, I sent Mike and one of his good friends to see the sportbike races in Topeka on Saturday. I think they had a really good time, especially trying out the wheelie machine...

Sunday Mike mounted a wall bracket for our new TV. It was quite an undertaking and we worked really hard ALL DAY at getting everything in exactly the right place. Once we were finished and were ready to sit down and watch a movie we realized that the left side of the TV is about 2" lower than the right...grrr! Apparently we didn't get the bracket exactly level and it only magnified the slope when we mounted the TV. I think we're going to need some strongarms to help us unmount the TV again and level out the bracket. Mike was so disgusted I thought he might kick a hole in the wall! So, for now, we're watching lopsided TV!

Hunger!

I had my 23 week OB visit today and everything is still going great! Babyjinx is growing like crazy and is REALLY active these days. I have even started to notice some sleep/wake cycles. All of that activity and growth must be burning up some calories because I was in no way prepared for the amount of HUNGER that I would be experiencing! Poor Mike might starve because I go around eating everything in sight! Usually he gets to take leftovers for lunch, but this week the poor guy had to scrounge for leftover guacamole and chips one day and 2 hot dogs the next day! Oh, and the pregnancy brain has definitely kicked in...I can't believe how many totally brainless things I can do in a single day!

I swallowed a basketball!

Due to many requests to see the baby bump.....here I am at 5 weeks:

And today, at 21 weeks! Impressive, huh!Impressive huh!

Sweet Pea is getting ready too, she's been doing some reading up!

Half Way Home!

I can hardly believe it but I'm already 20 weeks! That means it's the half-way point until Babyjinx arrives! We had our 20 week ultrasound and everything continues to look great. We got several pictures from the scan, but none were really good enough quality to post. Maybe next time! Our little one weighs nearly a pound and is about as long as a banana! These days I am SUPER grateful for maternity pants, air conditioning, and a husband that doesn't complain too much about changing the cat litter. I think pregnancy dementia has definitely set in; some days I can barely remember my own name! Otherwise, I actually feel pretty great and am really looking forward to a little trip that Mike and I are planning to celebrate our belated 1st anniversary. Not sure where we'll be going yet, though.

Mike has been busy getting things tweaked around the house. He's been installing shower rods and towel racks, unpacking boxes, fixing lights, and mulching the landscaping. He even replaced our sump pump all by himself! Let me tell you, it was impressive. Poor guy was up to his elbows in stagnant stinky sump pump hole water to get that job done. Next project: painting!

Minnie and Sweet Pea are loving the new house! Minnie has claimed the top step as her sleeping spot. She particularly enjoys hiding in the upstairs bathtub behind the shower curtain and stalking any poor soul who dares to sit on the toilet. Apparently, this is great fun in the cat world. It's a good thing I'm already sitting down when she ambushes me, because it startles me so badly that I'd probably wet my pants anyway! Sweet pea enjoys running from corner to corner, upstairs to downstairs at full speed chasing (or being chased by) some imaginary object. Neither of the Mao-Mao's seem to enjoy going outside on the deck yet...there are two big dogs that live behind us that bark and scare them. Plus Sweet Pea is deathly afraid of the garden hose.

Happy 4th of July!

We had a great 4th of July weekend! Kathy and Derrick visited us from New Jersey Friday night and were our first overnight guests in the new house! It was so much fun seeing them!

Saturday we traveled to Rich Hill for the family BBQ, which was AWESOME to catch up with all of the extended family that we don't get to see very often (plus uncle Trent makes the BEST grilled burgers EVER and aunt Kris's homemade ice cream is so good it's worth waiting a whole year for!). Saturday night we attended the famous Rich Hill 4th of July Festival, complete with an outdoor concert by Shenendoah. Mike got some great fireworks pictures!
Baby update....I am now 19 weeks along and apparently the baby is the size of a mango, weighing in at just over 1/2 a pound already! Everything is going great and I'm feeling really good now. FINALLY I'm getting over this upper respiratory/sinus infection that I've had since mid-May...who knew how awesome it is to actually be able to breathe!

We made our first baby purchase last weekend, a crib and dresser! Uncle Bob and Trevor helped Mike carry them into the baby's room (thanks for the muscles!) and Mike put them together. Next project, painting the baby's room!

A little gift from the Suburbs!

I don't know why I ever worried about the squirrels while we lived downtown, especially after these little gifts I found tonight!


Note the damage done! Tomato twigs!
And the culprit...the tomato hookworm...which doesn't look very sizeable here, but are actually about 4 inches long and bigger around than my thumbs! Gross! I'm SO MAD! My tomatoes are demolished!