Itchy, itchy!

So, we were supposed to have another ultrasound this past week so the doctor could measure Squirt and make sure he or she is growing properly. I've told some people to stay tuned to the blog so they could check out the latest pictures that I'm hoping we get to bring home with us. That didn't so much work out though, since I ended up being sick, and they preferred to not have me come into the office if I might pass along my germs to another poor soul, so you get the pictures included in this post instead.

Anyway, I ended up with flu-like symptoms on Sunday - fever of 100+ degrees and general body aches and feeling icky. I'd gotten over another bout with the flu a few weeks previously, and since that episode I'd heard it's common that people who get swine flu will get the flu, then get over it, and a few weeks later you catch the flu again, and the second time around it's bad!

Being slightly paranoid anyway since finding out Squirt is quite small, I decided to call my doctor and see if I should be taking anything or come into the office for a check-up in case it was swine flu. She called back and said whether it's regular flu or swine flu, she just wanted to get me treated and prescribed Tamiflu. Here is the result of said Tamiflu:





The photos are of a section of my baby belly, my upper arms and one of my hands. The photo of my hand doesn't look nearly as bad as it did even earlier in the day, let alone the previous days! The hives started showing up on Monday. On Tuesday I was too itchy to even wear a shirt so I stayed home from work. On Wednesday there was no improvement and by Thursday, when the photos were taken, the hives were finally starting to go away on my arms below my elbows. So there is hope they will all be gone eventually!

The moral of the story: I'd rather have swine flu than take Tamiflu. Ever again!

An Offensive Night Light & Craigslist Bargain Furniture

So, check out this nightlight!

It doesn't look very offensive, right? It was a Christmas in August gift from Tim's parents. Thanks Steve & Cynthia!

Anyway, it's difficult to imagine that anyone could really have a problem with such a night light. Anyone that is, except this little guy:

Don't be fooled by that cute, little, innocent face! He's a killer! And when he noticed the night light for the first time yesterday morning, he sure told the night light who is boss around our house! He barked at it and growled at it and scratched his little hind legs at it. So Tim and I laughed at him for a few minutes, and then Tim went and unplugged the night light so Howie could check it out and now Howie is okay with it. He's so silly! He doesn't really know what to think about new things around the house, or things that are out of place. He'll bark at a box of cereal on the countertop, if it strikes him that it doesn't belong there. And forget about leaving a box on the stairs for a more convenient time to take it upstairs than the present moment! Howie comes unglued!

Fortunately, Howie hasn't minded the new baby furniture we found for a screaming deal on Craigslist!

Here is a picture of the changing table we found - complete with drawers so Howie won't be able to get into and chew up diapers!

And here is the matching crib!

And how much did we pay for these two awesome pieces of baby furniture you may ask? We paid the very low price of $100 for both! I told Tim that the price was a screaming deal, but he didn't believe me until his sister came to visit and confirmed that I found a screaming deal. He has a tendency to do that. Maybe one of these days he'll learn that I'm pretty much always right, and just listen to me!

Now that we've found this baby furniture, I've been a little bit sad that I don't have any more bargains to be watching Craigslist and Backpage for. I'm thinking though, that I may start watching for a great deal on another changing table to put somewhere downstairs. A diaper changing station downstairs would be much more convenient than having to haul myself and baby up eighteen stairs every time he or she needs a bum change and we don't happen to be upstairs already.

Oh Baby!

Okay everyone, as promised, here come the pictures of me and my big baby belly. The belly is much bigger than the baby! Based on the measurements at my ultrasound last week, baby is only about 2 pounds 6 onces - skinny little thing! So, here's the 29 weeks prego belly!


And, for a special treat, here are some of the favorites from the ultrasound!

This is Squirt Baby's foot. Who do you think he/she takes after?
Dad?
Mom?
Big Brother?

What a profile, huh? Now who do you think he/she looks like?
Dad?
Mom?
Howie? Any takers?
How about those skinny, little legs? Who does Squirt Baby get those from?
Tim?
Kira?
Howie? (I'm thinking if Howie gets any votes, it will be in the skinny, little legs category!)

And, finally, to finish off this photo heavy post, here are a couple more of my favorties! Sorry I didn't include any pictures of my ovaries or anything - they don't excite me as much as these others!

Tim's Happy Birthday!

So Tim had a Happy Birthday this last week. One of "The Big One's" in fact. He turned 30!!! Whoa! That's pretty much old. But not really. Anyway, it was a very busy day, but I hope it was a little bit happy for him. He at least claims it was! He's a pretty great husband like that!

For his birthday, he got to come with me to an ultrasound appointment and that was super fun! Pictures of said appointment will be posted in a successive blog. After that I went back to work for a while and since what normally takes me 20 minutes to drive took an hour thanks to an accident on the freeway, I ended up staying at work a little bit late to make up for lost time.

So I got home late, and then Tim and I and Howie loaded up in the car and drove ourselves over to Rumbi Island Grill to let Tim pick out the birthday entree we shared for our dinner, thanks to a Christmas gift from his cousin, Rachel, which was a coupon for a free entree at said Rumbi Island Grill. Thanks, Rachel! We love free food!

Then it was home to prepare the dutch oven cobbler Tim requested in lieu of a traditional birthday cake. Half of the cobbler consisted of the recipe we used at his family reunion for the dutch-oven cook-off (and won, I might add!), and the other half consisted of a mixture of pears and berries, which I didn't think was as good as the original stuff.

In case you're interested, here is the recipe:

Peach-Orange Dump Cobbler

2 (30 oz.) cans sliced peaches; drained
1 yellow cake mix; dry
2 (8 oz.) cans mandarin oranges; drained
1 can Orange soda
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
4 Tbs. butter; cut into pieces
3/4 cup brown sugar
vanilla ice cream

Line a 12" Dutch oven with heavy duty foil. To Dutch oven add peaches, oranges, and cinnamon. Stir to mix. Sprinkle brown sugar over fruit. Dump cake mix in a large pile over center of fruit. Make a well in the center of the cake mix. Pour orange soda into the well then stir cake mix in to moisten. Spread mixture evenly over fruit. Dot top with butter.

Place lid on Dutch oven and bake using 8-10 briquettes bottom and 14-16 briquettes top for 45-60 minutes.

Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.


Serves: 8-10

Source: http://papadutch.home.comcast.net/~papadutch/dutch-oven-recipe-peachorangecobbler.htm

Try it! You'll love it! It's awesome!

Welp, our friend Scott came over to enjoy some cobbler with us, and sadly, the briquettes weren't as ready as we thought so they went out and we had to resort to the oven, but Scott couldn't stick around for the oven to make magic out of our cobbler, so just Tim and I had dessert. But it was sure good!

By the time we were done with dessert it was pretty late - nearly 10:00 p.m. I think, so we opened presents - pictures to follow - and then we went to bed like the OLD married fuddy-duddies we are.

I know this birthday is going to be hard to top next year, but don't worry, Tim. Somehow, I'll manage it!


Tim's very own, customize your own '30' flavors of ice cream presents!


A 'Manager's Chair' - Oooohh!


Tim and I at the Arizona Diamondbacks vs. San Diego Padres game, thanks to Scott! Great seats! Sixth row, down the third base line, so we saw some foul ball action and the D-Backs won off of a grand slam. It was a pretty sweet game! Thanks again, Scott!

Howie's First Camping Trip

Well, now that we've been back from our two week Idaho trip for almost two weeks, I suppose it's time to start updating my Blog!

First things first, for all those who care to know, I did manage to find a job! Hooray, mostly. I have some mixed feelings about this situation, but I'm mostly grateful to have a job and a way to pay our bills for now. And if Squirt waits long enough to be born, we may have some insurance to help cover the costs of his or her birth if there are complications. And we really hope there aren't.

I'm also really grateful that I haven't been yelled at at this office yet, and no one has sworn at me, or told me they will "literally kill" me if I have a name misspelled in a draft document.

On to happier things!

While we were in Idaho, Tim and Howie and I met up with Nich and Kris one Saturday night at Rigby Lake for dutch over dinner and a one night camp out. It was super-fun!

Here are a few pictures of the festivities!


Nich and I setting up the tent, and that was my 22 or 23 weeks pregnant belly!


Nich and Kris preparing yummy blueberry cobbler!


Tim, the fire master! Also the smores stick master! He didn't get just any puny sticks for our smores festivities! He practically cut down whole trees to get to just the perfect sticks! Thanks, Tim!






And finally, a few pictures of Howie, the wild-outdoors dog!

Howie had a great time camping while the sun was up! He ran all over, while managing to stay pretty close to the campsite (always within hearing distance), and ate all kinds of things that he shouldn't have been eating probably. We warned him that there would be no expensive visits to the vet to save him if he ended up being sick because of what he ate. We told him he'd just have to die a slow, agonizing death! But he still persisted in eating things he shouldn't eat and managed not to get sick.

Once it got cold in the evening, Howie didn't love camping as much. He wasn't crazy about the fire (go figure!), and he spent a lot of the night snuggled up with me or his Aunt Nich to help him keep warm. At one point I went to grab something out of the car and Howie jumped into the car and was ready to go back to Grandma's house. He wouldn't come back out of the car, so he spent a few hours there by himself until I dragged him out and took him into the tent to sleep.

He was unsure about sleeping in the tent, and it took him a little while to figure out that if he crawled down inside the sleeping bag he'd be warmer, but eventually he did and he slept much better than either Tim or I slept on the air mattress that went flat halfway through the night. Ouch!

All in all, I think Howie would try camping again, and I sure hope he gets the opportunity!

News From Culver Street

June 25, 2009 - The Pulley's turn off their water heater for the summer, as their only means to take a semi-cool shower for the remaining months of the Phoenix summer. Their cold water is literally too hot to turn on the shower with only cold water and shower. The water needs the time sitting in the water tank to cool off enough for purposes of showering and washing vegetables in a temperature that produces only semi-wilted lettuce, rather than "habbage".

July 14, 2009 - Tim finds a dead, decomposing kitten in the Pulley "Garden". Kira now has guilt that she always thought it was too hot to go out and look at the vegetables any time she thought about it in the last week. Maybe if she'd gone out to look at the vegetables the kitten could have been found before it died and started to stink to high heaven! Now the Pulley's have to deal with the odor every time they walk out their front door until at least Monday when the city collects the garbage again, or until they do some middle of the night reconnaisance work and switch garbage cans with a neighbor far down the street.

July 15, 2009 -
It's a squid.


It's an alien.

It's a . . .

Drum roll please!

. . . well, it's a baby!

For those of you who don't know yet, Tim and Kira are expecting their first child somewhere around December 12, 2009 (there is some disagreement as to the actual estimated date of delivery, based on what happens to be written on the charts any given day and that the earliest ultrasound readings put the kiddo about 6 days ahead of schedule as far as development goes based on a December 12 due date). Yup, it's true. We're 19 weeks/5 months pregnant! I wish we could tell you if it's a boy or a girl, but we kind of passed on that ultrasound today. It costs a lot of money, and that is something we don't have a lot of these days since Tim and I have both lost our jobs in the last nine months and health insurance is now a thing of the past for this child. That being said, we will gladly accept all donations to our meager (we've got nothing) supply of baby furniture and androgynous baby clothing. We're also accepting prayers that one of us can find a job so we can manage to pay all the upcoming bills associated with having a child.

Anyway, we're pretty excited for our newest adventure! Tim even got to hear the heartbeat for the first time today and is finally convinced that there is actually a baby inside me somewhere. We're just a little nervous about how our spoiled only-child (puppy) is going to handle the new addition to our family when he or she comes along!

Also, I know lots of people enjoy seeing pictures of how big pregnant ladies are at so many weeks along, but I think if I posted such a picture at this point, you'd be disappointed. There isn't much to see. I've expanded enough that I can't wear some of my regular pants/skirts, but not enough to notice in a picture.

A Photo Post

Yesterday was a busy day. Not only did we take Howie to the vet, but I also had Tim give me yet another tutorial on how to get the pictures off the camera and on to the computer. Hence, today I am doing some catch-up blogging.

These are just a few pictures of some of our activities from March and April (mostly March).

Tim and I at "Thunder in the Desert" airshow, which was totally awesome and worth the crowds, dust, walking, sun and very minor sunburn thanks to my Coppertone Sport SPF 48 sun block! (Also, Aunt Kim, we know that wearing sunglasses damages our blood, but there was an awful lot of sun that day and we didn't wear them the whole time!)





My very awesome birthday cake and my even more awesome birthday party guests. (I love the blue eyes on those munchkins!)



And finally...as if you hadn't guessed...Howie pictures!

Who needs Barbies or baby dolls for playing with their hair, when you've got Howie in the house? I think with a little more gel he could have passed for a puppy Who down in Whoville!