Mrs. CPA

SNOW DAY!! (Maybe)

Right now, we're having a thunderstorm. In February. And it's supposed to snow/sleet/freezing rain later. Basically it will screw up the rest of the day because it will make all the schools close and then it will take and hour to get home and Hud-Hud will take his nap in the car, and I'll be a zombie the rest of the day. People here act like one snowflake will keep them from leaving the house for a week and they all rush home at the same time. Considering that I HAVE to cross a bridge to get home, it will be slow going. I have some choices as to which bridge to cross, but I have to get over the river somehow.

We already had this happen last Friday, and the whole thing was a disaster. TP went and got Hud-Hud and it took him two hours to leave his office, go pick up the kid, and get home. Guess where I was? At work. I did get to leave a little early, around 2:30, but it was mostly over by then, and I had to come back the next day anyway. When we started talking about what was going on here, and my boss said all these reports were going to have to be redone, I asked him if what he was saying was that we had to come back up here on Saturday and do them. I believe I got tears in my eyes when he said yes.

As Saturday's go, it was only a couple of hours, so it wasn't too bad. I even got to join TP, Hud-Hud and TP's Dad at the Discovery museum downtown for an hour. Hud-Hud's favorite parts were the recycled tire "sand box" with all the construction equipment, some giant teeth with fake dental instruments in the Hall of Health, the snakes at snake day, and the elevator buttons. And when I say they had snakes there - I mean they had SNAKES. Big, humongus, wrap themselves around you so you can't breathe and eat you like an Amazon pig snakes. There was one of those yellow and white albino things that must have been 20 feet long. The snakes were in the downstairs atrium area and the museum had suspended a branch from the open area and there were about 10 snakes slithering around up there too. They were crawling all over each other and sticking 2 feet of themselves off the branch. I really hoped that none of them were those drop on you kind of snakes that you hear about where that's their prey catching mechanism. To drop on you and strangle you. Anyway, Hud-Hud loved them and held a few and petted (pet? Who knows?) a big lizard something.

Then it was down to Nan's for some tax work on Sunday, fueled by my standing order of a corndog and a burrito for breakfast, and another trip home.

I think the Saturday work is finally over. Hopefully. Hud-Hud and I are going down with Haley and her boys this weekend to Nan's again. I am going to help Nan work on Saturday and Hud-Hud can play with his cousins at my Mom's house out of the way.

Nan has also offered me a set of twin beds, a nightstand, and a dresser that were my Uncle Johnny's when he was young. He died before I was born, so I never met him, but Nan did tell me that one time they filled up an old army hat with gasoline, dipped cattails in them, lit them on fire, and marched around the garage like a parade. And they got in super duper trouble. From all her stories he sounds like he was a fun little trouble maker. (A weird aside, he was married and had some kids and one of the girls lives right down the street from me, less than a block. I haven't seen her since I was like 8, but my Mom wants me to go and knock on her door.) Anyway, Hud-Hud will soon have a real bed and other furniture items that have funky 50's silver pulls on all the drawers. We're going to have to buy mattresses but I think we're only going to use one bed right now anyway, and I'll have to get some sheets and all that kind of stuff. Hopefully, he'll start sleeping in it easily and not be hopping up and down like he does now.

We're on the final countdown to the doctors visit next Tuesday and from the rapidly rising numbers on the scale, without any changes in my eating habits, I swear I'm carrying twins. I'm not going to be able to wait and tell my boss because I'm going to have to start wearing maternity clothes in 3 weeks. At this point, I still have not gotten sick yet, but just when I think the gag reflex thing is going away, it starts back up again. Last night was as close as I've ever come to getting sick, so I shoved some Ritz crackers in my mouth, and that quelled the nausea. Any food item sounds good. CPA Mom and I were talking about something and I mentioned Red Lobster and now I want that for lunch. I wanted Moe's, catfish, and something else that my mind couldn't articulate last night for supper, but I ended up eating some salad and corndogs instead - parked in front of the TV watching American Idol. Now THAT is a healthy dinner.

I've also teared up over: working on Saturday, thinking about having this baby blessed at the blessing of the infants at my beautiful church in Birmingham next May, That Chick's story (seriously, if you're not reading that story you should be (I can't link because I'm posting remotely) Jason. For the Love of God is her blog, and you need to get over there PRONTO), and about 10 other things that I can't remember but may include the new bacon in the cafeteria and its perfect blend crispiness and chewyness.

Speaking of parked in front of the TV… That's where I'll be again tonight, watching LOST. And not letting Hud-Hud watch his 15 minutes of Sesame Street. He'll just have to deal.

My Huband is Going to Love Coming Home and Kissing Me

For lunch today I had a grilled cheese sandwich with turkey and bacon on it and three kinds of cheese.  I dipped it in a big pile of mustard mixed with some horseradish sauce and then had some Caesar salad to boot.  I think pregnancy may have had something to do with that. 

The surgery went well. Hud-Hud was back to his normal self after a biscuit from McDonalds, as promised. 

 

Check this out:

Last year before tubes surgery.

This year after tube surgery. 

WHERE DID MY BABY GO?  AND WHY DIDN'T HE TAKE A LONG NAP TODAY?

A few updates

Do you know what I have discovered? Google Reader. Oh, my, the awesomeness of being able to read blogs at work again for a quick-ish break. Except for you goofballs that insist on being *private *or *truncating your feed*. It's like you want to make some money on your ads or something. Gah! You're keeping me from goofing off!

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And file this one under "CANNOT KEEP A SECRET. EVER" (Except *your* secret. I haven't told it to anyone. Cross my heart and hope to die - stick 10,000 needles in my eye.)

Pregnant. Again.

And this time it seems like it will be sticking around, as I have felt increasingly gag-a-riffic for the past three weeks. The new mulch they put down at the office nearly did me in, as did the talk about a 15-pound cabbage my Nan has and what to do with it, and the drive to work today for some reason. I had to hold my shirt away from my neck, run to my desk and eat two, ok - three, crackers before I felt like I wasn't going to hurl. My eyes feel gritty all the time and are in danger of closing at any minute.

I keep having these weird moments of forgetting what is going on, like calling TP and asking if we could go out to eat dinner one Friday night at his parent's favorite Mexican restaurant because I wanted a big margarita. He had to remind me that there would be no partaking of the margaritas for awhile. And the smoked salmon sandwich I really wanted and almost ordered, until I remembered that I probably shouldn't eat uncooked water creatures. I can't remember my own phone number anymore. I had to dial four times on Saturday to try and call MY OWN HOUSE.

Speaking of Saturday – and Sunday – and Monday - it was spent at the office. Working. We did have some good food and didn't have to stay too late. I missed seeing Hud-Hud at the boat show steering all the boats, leaving no drawer or door unopened, jumping off all the faux docks and marveling at the Game & Fish commission's giant turtles and catfish in the 3,000 gallon tank they had on display. And to top that all off, TP forgot the camera at home. There was also no NAP. Apparently, the CLOSED on the calendar at my office is merely a suggestion, and so here I was again, at the office, with like 50 other people on Monday. I got to come in late and leave about 3, but still, this year end stuff needs to stop cutting in to my days off. Especially when I can't drink.

We have two important doctor visits coming up, tomorrow is our seemingly annual trip to the ENT to get tubes reinserted for the Hud-Hud. And on February 5, we go to check out the newest (hopefully) addition to our family.

I'm fairly certain there is nothing wrong in the uterus department; that last time was just a fluke, but I guess I won't know for certain until two weeks from today. We're keeping our fingers crossed that everything goes as planned and September brings us a screaming wiggling little baby and a new car to take it home in (the new car business is optional, but highly encouraged.)

On the freakout list:

Pregnant in the summer!!!!! AAHHHHHHH. It only started getting below 80 here in December. September might as well be August with 90-100 degree temps.

What if my feet swell up and none of my shoes fit? What if my feet grow? Nobody makes cute size 11's.

Shorts on pregnant people. Hott or disgusting? Have you seen my legs? They are long but can be frightful. And how are you supposed to shave your legs at that point? All the pregnant people shorts I have seen have like a 4inch inseam.

My office going to have a massive heart attack. September is pretty busy if we aren't able to stick to our "GET DONE EARLY!" plan.

What am I going to do with those cute pants I got from the Gap that will be like putting on flaming pants of doom? I have no summer maternity clothes. I'll have to buy all new stuff. TP is going to LOVE that. Speaking of TP, he's not exactly getting his hopes up yet. He's sort of ambivalent about the whole thing right now. I think when we found out about Hud-Hud, he was the same way until we saw the little pretzel stick on the screen for the first time.

We'll be up at 5:30 tomorrow with a little boy who is going to be pissed he doesn't have his crackers and milk on the way to the ENT. Just wait until he gets there and realizes they're goign to CUT OPEN HIS EAR DRUMS!

Insert your own title

This week, to put it mildly, has been disastrous. But! BUT! Hud-Hud is not sick with anything. TP even made the oh, so stupid comment last night – "I haven't heard him cough in quite a few days." And then I hid under the covers because I knew it was about to be over with the feeling good and sleeping and cheerfulness and general good humor.

We've had to stay at the office late a few nights last week, twice until after nine and once until 2am. Yes. 2am. I thought the whole point of moving here was so that I didn't have to work until 2am or on weekends? Which I had to do the past two Saturdays, but it's only for a few weeks instead of months on end and at Christmas and in August-October, etc. So I guess I'll tough it out, but I'm not digging it at all.

We are also having one of those health screening things here and I'm not sure if I've ever shared this with you or not - but my husband's veins are filled with maple syrup mixed with molasses. That makes it sort of hard to have good blood pressure, cholesterol, triglicerides (I was elated when these went from "too high to measure" down to "actually on the chart".) and all those other things that are supposed to be indicators of good health. His is very bad, and he has done nothing about it. Except go to the doctor once and the doctor told him he didn't need any medication, he needed to get up off his ass and stop smoking and drinking and quit eating junk all the time. Huh? Who would have thought that was what he needed to do? And to be fair, his family is notorious for having quadruple bypasses. He could get off his ass though and help it along some. Just typing that makes me feel sort of sick. But his life insurance is paid up, and if he drops dead, I'll be rich. Anyway, at my office we did the same type testing, and my blood pressure is so low I'm almost dead. My cholesterol, while not ideal, is below the at risk range, my triglicerides are 51 (not 400+ likesomeoneelseIknow), and I AM THE MOST FLEXIBLE PERSON IN THE TAX DEPARTMENT. I win with 23 inches (it's one of those highly scientific tests where you sit and stretch three times over the yardstick). My BMI and Body Fat percentage are not so hot, they are the only things I flunked, but not into the morbidly obese category. I dare say I will not be passing those tests anytime soon.

On top of teaching Hud-Hud how to count - "onetwothree" is how it normally comes out - with possibly a "four!" And then an "eight!" and always a "TEN!" at the end, TP has taught Hud-Hud to watch the washing machine. At our house laundry is a guy's (RAAWWWRR) activity, done on weekend afternoons while mama is taking a nap. And because those boys like to have clean underwear and socks. And mama has enough to last more than 7 days at a time. This might be a good time to suggest that we get a front loading washing machine so he can watch from the floor. (Maybe not the kind Amyhas though.)

I guess in a fit of desperation on Sunday before I got home, TP opened the top to the washer and let Hud-Hud watch the whole cycle. Then he let Hud-Hud play with all of the stuff on the shelf above the washer and dryer. Most of that stuff is not under the sink and put away high up SO THAT HE CAN'T GET TO IT IN THE FIRST PLACE. I have never seen a child so excited about a washing machine or a Daddy so goofy as to stand there holding down the spin cycle button with one hand and holding a 30 lb kid in the other for the whole wash cycle.

TP had to go to Houston overnight on Monday night and he brought me back a pair of spa socks. He brought Hud-Hud back some little wind up toys. One is a duck that looks like it is throwing up every time it's head moves as it rolls across the table. I think Hud-Hud got the better deal.

Hud-Hud and I also took a follow up trip to the ENT yesterday. He's going to be getting tubes again next week, on Wednesday.

Maybe this weekend I won't have to work at the office, although I'm not going to count on it. TP needs to change the oil in my car and try and fix my new satellite radio. It doesn't want to work right all the time. It's just the same ol' same ol' here at the Mrs. CPA household. Business as usual. A special thank you to Chick, who reminded everyone what a perverted sense of humor we have at my house. (That picture is never not funny.)

The Ghost of Christmas Past

Our internet connection has been TERRIBLE for the last few weeks. 

Hud-Hud is much better, the rash on his leg finally looks like it is going away and his breathing is better.  We spent Saturday morning before Christmas in the emergency room, since he woke up with 103.1 fever, over 60 respirations per minute and a draining ear.  The draining ear was one where the tube had already fallen out, so either the hole never closed or it opened back up.  We stayed there for a few hours, had a chest x-ray and went home.  Fabulous day.  They put him in some kind of contraption to hold him for the x-ray that was basically a plastic tube on a rolling table with his arms above his head and only his face peeking out.  Apparently most kids go completely nuts in this thing, but Hud-Hud didn't make a peep.  He got a toy for his great attitude.  Then the other ear started draining a few days later, so we've tried another kind of antibiotic to hopefully dry it up for a few day at least. 

Everyone spent the night at our house for Christmas.  It was a complete mad house.  There was a little path to the door for the dogs and that was it.  Santa was very good to everyone in our family.  Hud-Hud enjoyed all of his presents and has made good use of the art desk.  His favorite toy, however is the $10 wooden train set I got from Walgreens on the spur of the moment.  That's how it always works isn't it? 

The rest of the week was pretty uneventful, other than the Christmas tree falling over several times.  One of those times it hit Hud-Hud's art desk on the left side when he was standing on the right side of it.  He nearly had a heart attack.  I stayed home with him all week, since we still didn't want to take him back to school.  No one was really going to be at the office anyway, and my boss was totally cool about it. 

We're trying to finish up year end close in the next few weeks at the office, which means Saturday work and some late hours, but it's not for long.  My Nan had her help quit a few days ago, so I'm trying to do what I can to help her as well.  She still does the carbon W-2's and 1099's and all of her work in big ledger books by hand, so it takes a little longer than what it would take if we were using a computer.  Next year I'm going to do all of her W-2 on the computer and mail them to her.  It will save her a TON of time and she won't have to worry about it.  Lots of times she pays me in clothes, and we ordered a bunch of stuff from Eddie Bauer, including a new suit and a new pair of suit pants that were both almost half off.  TP and Hud-Hud stayed here, and I know it wasn't what he really planned to do this weekend, but she does so much for us, and the least I could do is go down there and help her.  Saturday night was the first full night of rest past 3 am she's had since the person quit.  That alone was worth it. 

After the jump, some pictures from Christmas.