January 31, 2011

Ok.  I’m tired, so it’s just going to be a bulleted list tonight :)

• I made a meatloaf (to go with the mac & cheese) for the freezer.  Slowly filling the freezer up!  One of the things I remember that cooking/food prep was near impossible to get done with a newborn.  This way there’ll be some stuff to reheat.  Just need to pull it out early enough to defrost and/or bake.
• Stu was crazy and got on the roof and shoveled.  Look!  There’s proof!!  He had to wade through waist-deep snow to try to get some of it off.  It was so slippery, he couldn’t get it all off.  But some is better than nothing.  He had cleared the lower roof in front of the rooms yesterday.  Today was the garage and kitchen roof.  I watched while he was over the driveway. 
• There’s no way for us to get to the ice dams and snow on the higher roof.   It is what it is.
• We’re expecting more snow tomorrow.  Again.  More.  Maybe 6-12 inches.  To be followed by freezing rain/sleet the following day.  I am so sure that the upper roof is going to cave in.
• The weather person – a lady! – today said that we have more than five feet of snow cover on the ground right now.  That’s just crazy!
• I can’t believe January is all over.  I’m still not used to typing in 11 for the year.  How can it be a new month already?
• I have most of our tax paperwork ready.  Yay!  Just need to find someone more “local” than the lady we used last year.
• Teagan should have a local doctor by the end of next week.  Yay! 
• I hate heart burn.  Tums are my friend.

Night night!

January 28, 2011

So, today, it didn’t snow.  Yay.  We should have flurries later tonight and tomorrow.  I didn’t have the heart to take a picture today of the street signs that are almost buried with the snow piles.  It’s just crazy.  We have record snowcover here.  Insane.  I was looking for a nice picture of the snow cover, but didn’t find one.  Then again, it’s just too crazy.

Today, Stu and I shoveled a bit of the back deck.  I was worried about the snow that was over the window sills melting and dripping inside.  We found out that there are ice dams on the back of the second floor.  I thought the front of the second was ok, but it was all hiding in the back.  Although we couldn’t see any buckling plywood panels in the attic, we may still need to get someone here to do something about it. 

There’s ice melting down the side of the fireplace into the basement.  You can see the track down the basement wall.  So far, it’s not a big puddle, but it definately is something to keep an eye on. 

Stu may go out the bedroom window with his super-tread boots and a shovel to take care of the lower roof – the garrison roof.  The snow pack there is a bit worrisome.  I wish there was a way to check the attic space over the kitchen, but we haven’t found a way in yet :|

January 27, 2011

Too much snow

Yeah, there’s just too much snow now.  We got another 18.5 inches since last night.  It did look lovely at 5:30am, what I could see out the window over the snowline.  I think our second floor windows are half buried with the snow.  We need to shovel the roof.

Anyway, I cut the picture off, so you can’t see the swing buried in the snow.  There’s just too much of it.

Way too much snow

Oh, you can see it in this one.  Teagan can’t even play in it, not really.  There’s just too much.  She can’t walk.  You barely see the walk. <sigh>

So, we officially have had the snowiest month on record.  Since they started keeping records. On top of the largest snowfall in 24 hours, snowiest January on record.  We’re not done yet.  I’m not sure if I want to break any more records.  Other than warmest February…

Stu ended up shoveling about half of the driveway before the plow could come and plow us out.  They showed up at 4pm.  (They also didn’t charge this time).  One hour after the town plowed our street.  It seems that the town plow – a big huge monster truck – got stuck just around the corner from our house.  For three hours.

Snow-covered Picnic table

Because I can’t think what more to say, today…  I’ll leave you with a great list of movies that deal with snow…  Gotta love Mamapop.com for compiling this.

• 6. Storm of the Century
• 5. Ravenous
• 4. The Thing
• 3. Die Hard 2
• 2. Groundhog Day
• 1. The Shining

I think I need to watch Ravenous.

PS.  The electric is working properly, as is the kitchen sink.  The dishwasher, however, has decided it doesn’t want to work any more.  <sigh>

January 26,2011

This says it all.  In the next eight days, we’re getting five days of snow.

Lovely.

It took Stu about 2 hours to get home from work this afternoon.  I left once he got home, and it took me 45 minutes.  I’m very glad I decided to stay for lunch.  I was worried that if I left before eating, I would get stuck in the car, starving, and eat my own arm.

I also received good news about maternity leave today.   Most of my unhappiness and dissapointment was due to misinformation given me by the third party, thanks to some unclear state and federal laws.   Initially, I had been quite upset with the information I was given.  Researched via Google, and then called the in-house people to verify that the third party was right.  They were not.  I am now quite happy.  Results are much better than I hoped for.  Sometimes it does pay to check deeper into some things.

In other news, Teagan is LOVING her expanded space.  She found a balloon that we had tucked away in a corner.  Its now called “boom.”

January 25, 2011

back deck

So, yay.  More snow today.  Just enough to be annoying.  Although it is enough to make this January the snowiest January on record.  Ever.  Well, since they’ve started keeping records here anyway.  Yay.

So far we’ve had the most snow fall in a 24 hour period, (I had blogged that it tied, but it actually surpassed the record), and now the snowiest January on record.

On top of more snow, that I can’t shovel – yay!  (Although Stu said it was nice and fluffy the first time he went out, and heavier the second), the leak in the kitchen ceiling (that seems dry now), the possible ice dams on the roof (that we can’t get to), we now don’t have hot water in the kitchen.  There is hot water in the half bath and the rest of the house, but not the kitchen sink.  Very convenient for not washing dishes.  It is more fun to let them sit.  It’s also fun to torture the piglet – she does not enjoy having her face washed with cold cold water.

At first I was concerned that we had a frozen pipe.  But after worrying myself a bit too much, realized that it would make more sense for the cold water pipe, not hot, to be the one frozen.  Stu looked around on-line, and thinks now that it’s a clogged valve or something.  I think he’s going to try to fix it later today.  Yay!

Oh!  It looks like the snow may have stopped.  Another good thing.

January 24, 2011

Profile @ 29 weeks

So, I had a growth scan this morning.  To see if this little girl is still freakishly large.  Also to see how the placenta previa is progressing.

Yes, she is still freakishly large.   Like last scan, measuring in the 93rd percentile (approximately 2-3 weeks ahead).  Her older sister also gave us a little scare about being big.  Only once!  But she ended up being a tiny little peanut.  Peanuts are good.  Watermelons, less so. 

Pinchable Cheeks

They did try to make me feel better, saying that the estimates could be 15% off.  That still leaves a large baby, just more naturally so.

Even with her being terrifyingly large, she’s got awesome cheeks.  Don’t you want to pinch them?  <pinch, pinch, pinch!>

The placenta is still a partial previa, like last time.  It hasn’t resolved as much as they’d like, but they still aren’t worried.  There’s more than enough time to have it resolve. 

There isn’t necessarily a guaranteed c-section in my future.  Though there is still a chance.  Even if the placenta doesn’t completely resolve, if it  moves enough, they will still allow me to attempt to go vaginally.  They’d rather me not have surgery, especially with my history.  Yay for clots and DVT’s.  So, it may be a good thing, but with her size, may not. 

Foot!

The tech and the doctor were very pleased with how she looked.  She’s currently feet down, but transverse.  Head on the right, back running along the bottom of my ribs. 

Kick!

Anyway, she played more nicely than last month’s high-risk doctor visit.  Although she was    

busy, she paused enough for the measurements and some good pictures.  I got some nice shots of her profile, her cheeks, and feet.  Also, one of her kicking my cervix.  She’s already starting trouble!  Well continuing.

January 21, 2011 ~ 6am

Image via Wikipedia

1/21/11 circa 6am

~ Both of us are half asleep ~

 

 

Stu: “I think we’re getting plowed.”
Me: “Oh, that’s nice.  ”I was dreaming our roof was caving in.”
Stu: “I was dreaming about unicorns.”
Me: “You have the best dreams.”

zzzzz …

…

We didn’t get too much snow today, maybe 5 inches total.  And we have a lovely plowed driveway.  They actually showed up around 11am.

PS.  Just trying the “aside” format for a post…

January 21, 2011

So, we finally let Teagan out of her cage.  LOL.  We’d get home from day care, give her dinner.  When she was done, she’d get sent to the “cage” and she’d go right to the blocked off area in front of the sofa.  She usually didn’t try to escape either.  It was great!  Worked for us for a while, especially for the little bit she’s awake during the week, and at times when we’re home on the weekend.  She does have the entire living room, (it’s really her toy room!) that’s baby safe, and we’d let her have access to the kitchen and the rest of the room while we were there supervising her, but we’d been holding off on finishing the family room and lowering our supervision - hovering - a bit. 

Well, I finally got extra-wide gates and set them up, blocked off one tiny area at the end of the large sofa, moved all the grown-up books and stuff out of the side table/bookcase, off the coffee table.  Now, she has run of the family room.  We still need to move the coffee table, but I haven’t found a cabinet that’s tall (and thin and heavy) enough to put the lamp on.  There’s still time though.

So, anyway.  She loves pulling all her books out of the side table.  Today, she did help put them back, but that could be seen as a bribe for a bath.  Day care says she’s a great cleaner-uper.  We have yet to see the “great” part of that, though she will help if you ask.  She’s having a great time testing the boundaries of her larger area too.  It’s fun to see her go up to one of the gates and rattle it, trying to see if she can get it open.

We do have to get used to her having so much”freedom” now.  Stu still doesn’t know what to do with his tea – hot – when she’s still awake.  Or his laptop when he’s not there using it.  I need a new hiding place for my iPod (the sofa arm is no longer out of reach).  The remote needs a new place to hide as well.

I know we’ll figure it out. 

She’s loving it.  It’s worth it.

PS.  She loves her hop-hop shoes :)

PPS.  I’ll have a Teagan’s Tunes – One Year up shortly.  I might even get links to audio samples of the songs too :)

January 20, 2011

Image via Wikipedia

The snow hasn’t started.  I’m sure it will soon.  The question is whether I’ll be awake to see it or not. 

With all the roof collapses locally, I am getting very worried about our roof.  The weight of all the snow and ice we have on the roof just can’t be good.  We had a spot in the kitchen that got wet during the ice storm, but I couldn’t find where it started.  It was in what I’m assuming is an extension, and you can’t get into the attic space there to see how the shingles and plywood are holding up.  We also should check out the main attic to see if there’s any buckling or bending of the plywood there.

For the record, you can order a roof rake on Amazon.com.  Maybe tomorrow, after the additional 6-8 inches of snow we’re expecting, I’ll order one from there.  It’s impossible to find one locally.

Not sure how much it will help with the cold weather we’ve had anyway.  From what I remember of the winters growing up, they really only work on the fresh snow.  The ice we have on top of just too much snow will be too hard to use it with.

 Anyway.  Teagan seems to be refining her musical taste.  Tonight, Stu said she absolutely flipped over Katy Perry’s song about Peacocks…  Last week, it was Pitbull‘s “I Know You Want Me.”  LOL.  Both are a bit inappropriate for a 20 month old.  Still.  Some could consider them better than “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.”  She also likes Elvis Costello‘s “Oliver’s Army.”  I should start a list.

January 19, 2011

It’s late, I’m tired.  Here’s some video of Teagan playing with my friend’s kids at their house from this past weekend.  Pay no attention to the voices in the background :)

Stu and I went down to visit with friends in PA.  Yes, where his car got stuck in a near record-breaking snow fall last  year.  It didn’t snow this time.

Mmmmm... crepes. Moar! Beez!!

It was nice seeing my friend and her family again.  Fondue (cheese and meat,) soup, crepes, talks.  Oh, it was a good visit.  An overdue visit.

Her kids were great with Teagan – they even got into fights (and trouble!) because they both wanted to do things with her at the same time.  Little did they know that she’s so active she could keep them both busy.  Even with her toddler sensitivities.

It was also one of the few trips where were didn’t play any geeky games.  Oh well.  We need to show them the Zombie Game next time.  And the new expansions for Talisman. :)

Anyway, too short a trip.  They live too far away.  We need to discover beaming technology.  Before April.