Catch Up Post

Happy Tuesday, fellow humans.

The girls are finally all the way better and are sleeping through the night again. PRAISE THE LORD! (I sung that part...a sustained A sharp)

I have a new superpower...in addition to all my regular ones. I can now smell everything. EVERY.THING. It's not a great superpower. I'm not really pleased with it. My favorite Philosophy lotion: on hold until my Super Sniffer powers chill out a little. The girls' shampoo: barf. Waffles toasting: that's nice. David coming in from working out: sexy, but barf also. I wasn't bothered with smells when I was knocked up with the girls. Wait, what did I call it last time? Babied. Yeah, smells didn't bother me when I was babied with the girls. Overly-powerful food smells or really flowery lotions or shampoos are way too much. I've had to change my own shampoo because I couldn't sleep at night, the smell was so strong. I have a pregnancy acne face wash that's safe to use and it about knocks me out. I have to hold my breath when I wash my face. But clean, light smells like fresh-cut grass or my face toner or strawberries...those I like. I can smell the neighbor's cologne from three houses down when he goes to check his mail. I can tell you all the ingredients in a marinade someone is using to grill their chicken when I'm out for a walk. If you wave at me, I can smell it. If only I knew how to use this power for good and not evil!!!

I have decided that this baby is a girl. Don't get me wrong, we'd be just as happy with a boy. No, we weren't trying for a boy because we "already had" two girls. That's ridiculous. We were trying for a baby, but I would have settled for a capuchin monkey or sea otter. We wanted and prayed for three kids and God blessed us richly. I don't know why He chose us, but I am so so so very thankful. But, I'm almost certain it's a girl because of all the old wives' tales...which are, in fact, infallible ways to determine your baby's gender. Not that I was a supermodel before, but this kid has stolen ANY beauty I had (girl). I am just as sick, if not more, than I was with the twins (girl). I did the red cabbage test and if you held the glass under natural light, it was red (boy), but if you put a flashlight behind the glass it was purple (girl). But, I did it in the morning again and it was green (alien). I'll update you on that one once I know more myself. And well, really, that's all I have. But, I've heard that girls bring on the nausea more than boys. We would be thrilled with a girl (I'm a little biased). We would be thrilled with a boy (I hear they're just as awesome). We would be thrilled no matter what with the baby God has chosen us to take care of. (I think it's a girl, though :) )

The first go-round with being babied, I couldn't eat anything for several weeks. I lost a good bit of weight. Dr. Mac had me drink Ensures for awhile. Not a problem this time, said the heifer. I'll eat anything. I mainly want cheese and meat and eggs and cheese and chips & dip and cheese. And seafood! Big, heavy stuff. I want a bison burger from Ted's Montana Grill like nobody's business. I wanted Chinese for awhile, but I think I ate too much of that. Then, it was Mexican. Right now, I'm pretty happy with egg salad sandwiches. And peaches. Okay, everything.

The other night, I was about to hop in the shower and noticed my bracelet David got me for my birthday was gone. I haven't taken it off since September 1. I freaked out and ran in and told David who was like, "Calm down, we'll find it." But, I had no idea when it fell off. It could be out in the yard or on the trail or anywhere in the house. But we had to start somewhere. I HAD to find that bracelet. It had been a crappy week and I did not need that. I said I had been rough-housing with the girls in the recliner earlier and David vacuumed around there, so he said he'd look in the vacuum. I went and felt down in the cushions of the chair, nothing. I looked underneath the chair, nothing. I went to lift up the foot rest...PAIN. There was another section of the foot rest I didn't see and it pinched the fire out of my finger. I thought it had broken it. I lowered the rest to pull my finger out, but was so mad and was desperate to find that bracelet, I lifted the rest up again and pinched my OTHER finger doing the exact same thing. The chair was crying by the time I was done with it. I'm not proud of some things I said. David heard me yelling and walked in, grinning after hearing some of the word combinations I used, and asked, "You okay?" I was a mess. Long week + missing bracelet that was very special to me + raging hormones + two "broken" bloody fingers = Ruth in a pool of tears. I went to get some bandaids and David went back to the vacuum. Then I hear, "I FOUND IT!!" And so I cried some more. It was in the vacuum, whoddathunk. I had a good cry in the shower. I always get a little homesick this time of year, too. In the spring and fall. Just homesick for my childhood, if that makes sense. I'm home when I'm with David and the girls, but you know what I mean. So, there's my chair story. We've kissed and made up and I even sat it in this morning.

Okay, that's all I have for today.