The Murtaugh List

So... I just watched HIMYM, which just might be the best show I've ever seen. Anyway, the latest episode was about a list of things you are too old to do once you hit 30. Well, I'm not 30 yet, but seriously, I've got a husband and 3 kids, just because I don't have the years under my belt doesn't mean I'm not there. Anyway, I was thinking about making my own list of things I am to old to do. Here's what I've come up with... feel free to add things in the comments...

1. Attend a house party.
2. Live in a basement apartment.
3. Pierce anything else. If it's not already pierced, it don't need to be.
4. Go to a midnight movie release.
5. Stay up all night playing video games.
6. Play video games past midnight.
7. Watch "The Real World". (Dave says this applies to anyone over 17)
8. Use the phrase, "Go big or go home!".
9. Have any pink fuzzy car accessories, INCLUDING rearview mirror dice.
10. Drink cheap beer (not that I drink beer anyway, you know, the whole Mormon thing, but if I did, it would be time to ditch the 2 buck chuck)
11. Buy clothing at Hot Topic/Abercrombie/Hollister/American Eagle, if you're going to pay that much for it, it better be Prada.
12. Wear skirts/shorts shorter than knee length, and shirts that show my belly.
13. Wear pithy message t-shirts. (You know, the one's that say crap like, "Your village called, they're missing an idiot" or "I see stupid people")
14. Yell "Freebird!!!" at a concert.
15. Get into arguments on the internet.
16. Dumpster Diving. If I need something that bad, I can go buy it. No need to fish through the garbage. (OK, I'm not talking about seeing something on the curb and grabbing it, lots of people put things on the curb intending for someone to take it. I'm talking about actually taking things out of the trashcan/dumpster. Yes I've done it. And I'm too old for it now).
17. Have "Hello Kitty" anywhere on your person or personal effects.
18. Jello Shots.

That's all I got for now. Like I said, feel free to add things you're too dang old for.

**In case you're wondering, some of these were suggested by non-LDS friends, mostly the ones with alcohol and belly shirts. So, no, I would not do these things no matter what my age, but from watching others do them, I have determined that they are not age appropriate. Just in case you were wondering. ;)**

This made me laugh...


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Michelle is...

Thoughtful? Sober? Tired? Lots of things.



An F22 crashed yesterday at Edwards. The pilot died. I don't think about how dangerous Dave's job is very often, to quote a friend, I just don't go there. But when someone you know dies doing the same job your husband does, it kind of gets to you a bit. Just one more reminder that my husband works in the world's second deadliest job (the first is commercial fishing). I just really feel for the family. My worst fear is having that staff car pull up and men in blue suits get out of it. I've had nightmares about it. Nightmares aren't supposed to come true, but in this case, they did. I can't even imagine. Makes me think about a few lines from "The Right Stuff". I don't know if these were ever actually said, but they kind of sum it up for me...

"They don't spend a g*d-d**ned thing teaching you how to be the fearless wife of a fearless test pilot." -Glennis Yeager

"I went back east to a reunion and all my friends could talk about was their husband's work. How "dog-eat-dog" and cutthroat it was on Madison Ave. Places like that. Cutthroat. I wondered how they would've felt if everytime their husband went in to make a deal, there was a one in four chance he wouldn't come out of that meeting." -Trudy Cooper

This is hitting me kind of hard if you can't tell.

There are other things going on, but they kind of pale in comparison. I'm still uncomfortable, and still two weeks out from having a baby. Everything is on track. Maybe in a few days I'll be back to my old self. Sorry guys.

Hmm....

It's shaping up to be a good night. It's 5 after 7 and the kids are fed, their room is clean and they are in the bath. The dishes are done, the living room and dining room are picked up and the wind has died down enough for me to open the windows and get a nice evening breeze. All I have to do tonight is get PJ's on the kids, and get them in bed. Then it's time to quilt and watch my newest documentary from Netflix.

It's a perfect evening...

Good News!

So, we're NOT moving in May. Whoo hoo!! Now I can have my gallbladder surgery, and let the little dude on a sleep schedule before taking him all the way across the country. This is very good news indeed.

In other news, houses are way cheap in Ohio. WAY CHEAP. Like, cheaper to buy than rent cheap. We've been looking at rentals for a while now, and it's like, Dang! You want how much for that house?? So today, out of curiousity, I started looking at the real estate website again (the one I had banned myself from) and started putting numbers into the PITI calculator. Yeah, we'd get a better house for less money if we buy. But then there's that whole renting it out issue again. Man, I thought I was done thinking about this!!!! You see why I have issues??? We keep praying about it, but neither one of us feel like we're getting an answer. Hello!! We need some guidance down here!!

If anyone has any house buying advice, I'd really like to hear it!!!

Anywho. I promised Nora some cookies. Should probably go take care of that.

Man, oh man, oh man

Sorry I've been remiss in updating. I've pretty much had 3 things on my mind, and they are 3 pretty big things!!

1. My health

So it's pretty much gone down the toilet. Wednesday night, I had to find someone to take the kids because I was having such intense stomach pains that I couldn't move and I was throwing up. Dave had to take me to the hospital, where we spent the night. That was lots of fun, lemme tell you. Doc M thinks I have either gallstones, or an ulcer. They did an ultrasound to check for gallstones, but couldn't see anything because I've got baby all up in everywhere. And any other diagnostic tools they could use, well, they can't because I'm pregnant. So it's kind of a guessing game until April 10th. And I'm the one stuck in pain. Boo. Doc M is pretty sure it's gallstones because of where the pain is and how it comes in attacks, but there's just no way to be sure. And if it is gallstones, I'll have to have another surgery not long after my c-section to remove the gallbladder. Fun right?!? Anyway. I'm just bummed about the whole business. We finally get my pre-term labor under control and my body is like, "Just kidding sucka!! I'm not done yet!". It's obnoxious.

Speaking of pre-term labor, I'm off the meds that I've been on for 6 weeks that made me all jittery and crazy. Whoo hoo! Of course, now that I really want to go into labor so we can get this gallstone thing figured out, my body is doing NOTHING. Not even Braxton-Hicks. I got nothin'. But the good news is that the little dude seems to be doing just fine. His heart-rate is good, and he's moving all the time. And honestly, I'd rather have me be miserable and feel like crap than him have something wrong.

We are go for baby on April 10th, confirmed with Doc M today. Bought my mom's plane tickets so now we just have to wait 3 1/2 weeks. Hurry up and wait. That's all we ever do around this joint.

2. Projects!

We are pretty much done with our projects! We finished Nora's loft bed last night (that was a late night) and she slept in it just fine. She did fall off the ladder this morning and scrape her arm, but she's fine. And if I must say, this bed looks AWESOME! My husband is a really great furniture builder. We do still have to add the bookcase, but the only reason that didn't happen last night was because the chalkboard paint takes 3 days to cure and I didn't want to risk little girls writing on it before it was ready.

The last thing to do is for me to finish Nora's new quilt, and then to make a bed skirt for the crib. It's just really hard to sit at a sewing machine when you feel like your stomach might explode out your back. That's no good. But all the baby clothes are put away, the nursery is set up, and we are ready to rock and roll. But really, I've spent the last week and a half helping Dave finish the bed. Some couples read books, some taste wine, Dave and I build furniture. ;)

3. The Move

So, we've had a small SNAFU with the move to Ohio. Of course, I mean, we had plans. We had a date to leave, plans with mom along the way, yeah, it was all good. See, we forgot that we were in the Air Force. And they like to mess with the best laid plans. In October, we were told that Dave was getting his degree in Aeronautical Engineering. Whoo Hoo right? He's good at that kind of stuff. Well, whoever told him that can't read. He's getting a degree in Electrical Engineering. You know, the kind of engineering he has had 1 class in. Ever. So he's been on the phone with AFPC trying to get permission to come out to Ohio for the summer session and take some, lets call them refresher courses, in EE. So far, the word from AFPC (Sorry, Air Force Personel Center) is that he's completely qualified to get a degree in EE, as is. BUT the primary AFIT point of contact (POC) is out today, so he can't get an official word from AFPC until tomorrow. In the mean time, he's trying to call AFIT and see if they will back him up on this. But it is the Air Force. So we'll see. What does this mean for the family??? Well, it means we could be moving in May. That's right, May. You know, the month after next. So, instead of 125 days until we leave, that's like 60. And 20 of those will go by before we have the baby. Yeah, it's fast. And where does my gallbladder surgery fit into all that? Your guess is as good as mine!!

It's just all very stressful. The good news is that we have found a house we want to rent, that we can agree on, and a preschool/kindergarten for Nora. It's a bit on the pricey side, but it's a really good school. And it's 2 blocks from the house we want. And the house is available April 1st, so if we do have to move in May, we'll be able to move right in.

Le sigh.

Anyone want to come live my life for the next 3 months?

Countdown

So...

-30 days until Jonathynjakob comes
-??? days until the kids and I leave So Cal for Ohio

**Update** It's now unknown how many days until we leave for Ohio, because we might be leaving A LOT sooner than expected!! That's a MIGHT folks. No need for alarm.

Whoa.

This may be the funniest thing I've seen in a LONG time.

Well now...

So, I haven't posted in a while. But that's OK. I'm pregnant. Things are going pretty good on the baby front. Tomorrow is the 1 month mark!! Whoo Hoo! My c-section is scheduled on April 10th, so if I make it that long, tomorrow makes one month until then. My doc thinks I might go before then. I'm dialated to a 2, and effaced 20%, so we'll see. If I go into labor on my own then my scheduled c-section becomes an emergency c-section, so we're keeping a close eye on things. If I start dialating more, then we'll probably do the surgery sooner. I have an appointment on Thursday so we'll see what happens then!!

In other baby news, I had my shower, and it was awesome! My friend Susanne did a really good job, we had about 10 people come, which for a Saturday shower was a really good turnout. I know I had a good time, and I got some seriously cute stuff!! Lots of clothes, which I needed, and shoes, which I love, and some other fun stuff. I'm so excited. We got the nursery set up last night too. The crib bedding I made was too big, that's what I get for second-guessing myself during sewing, and I made it in such a way that to make it smaller would pretty much mean starting from scratch. I even had Dave the Engineer look at it, and he couldn't see a way to fix it. And honestly, I don't have the energy or the time to start again. Luckily, I found a crib set in my garage that a friend gave me like 6 months ago that I forgot about. So it all worked out well in the end. Pretty much all I still have to do is find a small lamp, something to hang from the mobile, and a set of plastic drawers for Layni's clothes so I can move them out of the dresser and into her new room. I feel much more prepared for the baby now than I did before.

Our other projects are going well, Nora's quilt is coming along. I've been distracted by a crochet pattern that looked so cute I just had to make it, but that should be done tonight. I'm hoping to finish quilting by this weekend and then move on to actually binding the thing. Then it will be DONE. I've reached the point where I'm like, "Ugg!! Why didn't we just buy something! Why did I have to insist on being so crafty??" but that will disapate once I get closer to the end. We're rocking on the bunk beds, though. Dave got everything cut and we're in the process of sanding and painting. I was supposed to work on that today, but with wind at like 60 mph, yeah, that didn't happen. Speaking of the weather, we had to mow this weekend! Can you believe that? It's just wrong to mow in March. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a 70 degree winter as much as the next guy, but mowing is a bit much.

But that's why we're moving to Ohio. So we can appriciate how good we had it here. ;) We finally got our Report No Later Than date. August 17th. We're thinking I'm going to leave with the kids in mid-July and spend some time with the family in Arkansas and Kansas, then Dave will meet me and we'll head on up to Ohio together. We think we found a house to rent. We like it, the rent is right, and the landlords seem great. We're right on the edge of signing the lease. We need to pray about it. I've been looking at the area and it seems like it's in a nice part of town, and I've already found a preschool for Nora. It's a private Catholic preschool, but greatschools.net gives it rave reviews. We have the option of putting her in the Kindergarten at the private Catholic school too, but it's $2800 a year for tuition!! Thanks, but no thanks. We'll send her to public school if it's all right with you. I mean really, she'll be in Ohio schools for less than a year. She can deal with a not great school district. Then it's on to either New Mexico or back to Edwards!! And we all know how much I'm looking forward to both those options....

Sorry I'm not more interesting, my kids haven't done anything outrageous lately, we haven't done anything really cool as a family, and I feel like I'm just sitting around waiting to have a baby! Oh well. I need to go fold laundry. I need my own reality show, "The Real Boring Housewives of Edwards AFB".

Bullets... but not the kind that kill people

Unless you count death by powerpoint. Anyway.

• Best deal of the past week: $180 worth of merchandise at Macy's for $24. Heck yeah. And one of those items is a pair of rockin' post baby jeans. And Old Navy having their Perfect Tees on sale for $5. I live in those things. Finally I can start to rebuild some of my wardrobe (I haven't bought clothes for myself in 3 years).
• Best moment of the past week: Some amazing brownies that my amazing Visiting Teacher brought over. Those were so good Jessica, seriously. Dave had one before I got home, but then he didn't get anymore. There are some perks to being pregnant. You can sit and eat like 11 brownies in a sitting and not feel guilty.
• Can you believe I'm having a baby in like 5 weeks? That's crazy. Good news is, I'm crazy busy in those weeks. This week, tomorrow I've got a billion errands to run, then an OSC meeting at night, Wednesday an OB Appointment and a Relief Society Presidency meeting, Thursday it's another OSC meeting, and piano lessons, Friday it's do-nothing day, and Saturday is my baby shower! But the good news is that time flies when you're a busy busy bee.
• I now feel like an expert on 501(c)4 non-profit organizations. Not that it will help me much ever again, but I feel like I've learned something today.
• I'm thinking about taking another shower. Which will be my third one today. No wonder my belly itches. Dry skin and all. When people ask me what I crave as a pregnant woman, I always answer with ice and showers. It's a compulsion. Speaking of which, I need a new bag of ice. I've polished off an entire 8lb bag in like 3 months. This is not cool.

Anywho. That's all I got. The shower is calling my name.