pregnancy is making me stupider

Case in point.

It's Monday morning, which means I'm the early nurse at work. I'm the one that gets everything set up, gets the coffee made (see my time at Starbucks really did come in handy), spikes the IV bags, etc. I've taken my standard exceptionally long shower and am now racing around because I'm running late. It's 7:45, the dogs are kenneled, I'm presentable and all I've got to do is get on the road to get to work on time.

Where are my car keys?!
I CAN'T FIND MY CAR KEYS!
I can't even find the spare key we keep in a very obvious and accessible place.

I call hubby because he used my car on Friday to haul some stuff to the dump and he should know where my keys are...or at least where the spare key is. He doesn't answer. I leave a pointed message because I'm sure he has my car keys hidden away in his pants pocket somewhere and I'm angry that the spare keys aren't where they're supposed to be. I call 3 more times in the span of 5 minutes. I'm sure he'll understand that the plethora of calls in such a short time period portrays urgency and frustration...he's picked up quite a bit of 'woman speak' lately.

In between stalking hubby, I've been frantically looking in all my coat pockets, in little hiding places, even looking in some of Tre's pants pockets...all to no avail.

He finally calls back. He doesn't have my keys but he knows where the spare keys are. They are outside in the garage in the top of his new workbench. Hmmm. Even though he knows where the spare keys are, he's still on my poopie list because they spare keys weren't where they SHOULD be. I thank him curtly and probably even slide in a jab about the spare key not being in its proper place. Somehow this comforts me.

It's 8:03 and I grab my stuff and race to the car. It's only on the ride in to work that I look down to where my house keys should be ( I always keep them in the console in my car)...but they aren't there and the spare car key doesn't have a spare house key. GREAT!

Now I'm locked out of my house too!

Several minutes later it dawns on me...I realize where my car keys are.
And worse yet, Tre really didn't do anything with them.
It's all on me.

I remember that Hubby and I participated in a much over-due house cleaning on Saturday. His Dad was coming to visit and it seemed like an opportune time to get all the pine needles swept up, the dog hair vacuumed and the shelves dusted. During this organization craze, I decided to put my wallet, ipod and car/house keys in my rarely used purse which was dangling on the side of one of the dining room chairs. Of course I'd remember putting them in such an obvious place!

But I forgot. My hormone overloaded brain forgot. This is monumental people! I've never lost my keys. Never. NEVER EVER. I'm an organized person. In fact I rarely lose anything because I put things in specific places for specific reasons....so I won't forget.

I used to think that pregnancy brain was a myth. Like the Tooth fairy or Lock Ness Monster. Nope. I've become a believer. Someone needs to keep a watchful eye over me...to keep me in line lest I misplace other things. What if it becomes 'normal' for me to lose things? I shudder to think it!

And lastly, how did I get back in my house you ask?

Well, just imagine for a minute, a tired-from-work gal with an ample booty and a smaller than ample dog door at ground level that just happens to be a little muddy. My sincere apologies for the visual I just provided. You can bill me for the therapy! Just know that some things in life should never be witnessed by another human being...and this is definitely one.

Excessive apologies to hubby have been made, I made it to/from work safely and even managed to squeeze my body through the dog door to get back inside the house. All in all, everything's ok.

Pregnancy brain is alive and thriving...

the GINOURMOUS issue

...ginourmous because...

...it's been SO very long since I've blogged

...there are SO many things to catch you up on

...it may be awhile before I blog in the near future

So, today will consist of several posts to share our goings-on.

Grab a tasty beverage, a comfy seat and settle in for a long read.

Do be warned: there are A LOT of pictures accompanying these next 3 posts!

Happy New Year

We went to the Oregon coast with our good friends Andy and Paige for New Year's. Our goal was some hardcore R & R! So, there was a lot of tv watching (for the guys that mostly included ANYTHING sports...especially football), plenty of book reading, engorging ourselves with copious amounts of good food, ringing in the New Year with champagne, enjoying the beach (weather permitting) and an educational trip to the Oregon Coast Aquarium.

We rented this amazing little house on a quiet dead end street with a wonderful view of the surf and plenty of room for the 4 of us...complete with an outdoor hot tub. Tre brought along his PlayStation and Guitar Hero, which became quite the entertainment during our time there. And the house had a Foosball table so we had at least 2 couple v couple Foosball tournaments. While the guys watched the college football play-offs, I devoured the first two books in the 'Twilight' series. (I had sworn to never get involved in the cliche teen romance series, but I got sucked in...and I LOVED it!) We only spent a couple hours one day walking on the beach as the weather was pretty stormy for most of the time we were there. We even had 70 mile-an-hour winds on New Year's eve night! Pretty crazy!

Paige conquering Guitar Hero...go Paige!

Andy rockin' on Guitar Hero

New Year's itself was tons of fun. We played Hoopla and had quite a riot making fun of each other, especially during the drawing and acting-out portions. HA! As a quartet, we're a pretty good team and we beat the clock each time! Paige is the queen of finding really cool headgear for New Year's! Last year we rocked some awesome antennae and this year she found these really funky hats of all different shapes...shiny and with feathers...SO FUN! Champagne was uncorked, we toasted and watched the ball drop as a crazy storm raged outside our little beach house. I think we stayed up until 3:30 or 4 AM. I have not seen those AM hours in YEARS...probably since my days at Milligan. Needless to say, we all slept in quite late the next day!

A New Year's group pic!

Andy and Das Boot

A New Year's smooch

The guys outside on the porch...cool blur, huh?

Our New Year's pic

Cheers!

Tre wearing his New Year's hat...holla!

After the storm we did make a trip to the Oregon Coast Aquarium. They had this exhibit called 'Oddball' with all these peculiar and unique little creatures. I cannot, by any stretch, begin to recall everything we saw, but I did take a few pics and overall, we had a really great time!

Jellyfish. Aren't they cool?

Jellyfish. My favorite in the exhibit. Not too 'odd' but crazy beautiful!

Eel...Moray, I think!

Andy & Paige at the Aquarium

Nautical Tre...now that's a scary sea creature!

Bird. I should remember the type...I'll look it up!

A Japanese Spider Crab...I cannot tell you how massive these are! Actually I can...see next pic!

Now you can see just how big the crab is...as big as a human head! Thanks Andy!

A lionfish...grrr!

A toadfish...isn't it cute?!?

After several days of crazy storm weather, the day we left was beautiful and sunny...go figure! Due to all the flooding along the coast because of the insane amount of rain, we had to go south and take a much longer route home. But because the weather was so nice, it was hard to be too upset about it! All in all, we had an amazing time and were even contemplating a summer trip to our new found treasure of a rental house!

Waves crashing on rocks at Boiler Bay, the beautifully sunny day we went home.

Winter Storms and Snow

A couple weeks before Christmas, we had A LOT of snow, especially for the Portland area. At first it was magical, beautiful and serene and after 2 weeks of insanely cold weather, knee deep snow and aneurysm inducing driving conditions the snow became annoying, ugly and intolerable. It's easy to tell who your natives are around here...they don't mind the rain but excessive snow gets every ones undies in a bunch!



Tre worked several of the snowy days and I had several days of work off. On my days off, I watched the snow fall, read books, slept and laughed as I spied on the dogs frolicking in the snow in the backyard. They were too funny...like little bunnies hibbity hopping through snow up to their shoulders. When Tre and I were both home together we spent time walking the dogs, running errands and enjoying some lovely fires in our fireplace.

Our snugly little house in the snow

Tre with the pups in our wintry neighborhood

Tre and the furries

Just thought these leaves were cool, all caked in ice

Me and my furries


Thankfully, we had just had our drafty upstairs windows replaced a couple days before the snow arrived. Here are the old ones that were left on the side of the house. I thought they looked rather picturesque!


Some grass covered in snow and ice...so lovely


A snowy bough

The St. John's Police station on a snowy eve. I love how you can actually see the snow falling!

Surprise!

Yep, that's what you think it is. An ultrasound picture. The fuzzy peanut in the middle is a baby. And surprisingly enough, this is MY uterus.

I know.

I freaked out too!

We were definitely NOT trying. We had other things on our minds...trips we wanted to take, projects we wanted to do around the house...all this 'stuff' to get done before we 'settled down' enough to start a family.

SURPRISE!

I'm 15 weeks along now. Over the nausea and GI issues. Now on to headaches and migraines...woo hoo! We have our big ultrasound in mid-February where they'll check all the physical structures and take lots and lots of measurements. This is also the ultrasound where we could find out the gender...but we've decided to keep that a surprise...at least we hope to refrain for begging the ultrasound tech to "TELL US!" We'll see how that goes!

So, Tre and I are going to have a baby! I'm still trying to wrap my head around everything...but I still have several months to process before this new little Clayton, whom we affectionately call 'Monkey' , will enter our world.

Our lives are a changin'!

Quickie update

Huh.



So, it's been over a month since my last post.



It's not that things haven't been going on, it's just that I'm SOOOOOO tired I can barely stay up until 8 pm. I'm completely exhausted. This is partly due to the fact that it gets dark at 4:30pm and my body automatically thinks it's time to start getting ready for bed. We've also been really busy at work so by the time I get home, I have about enough energy left to shovel some food in my mouth, stare at a wall for an hour and mumble some nonsense to Tre before I have to get myself in bed. But mostly, I think it's because my little brother was here in the States visiting from Australia and so Tre and I shuttled ourselves back and forth pretty much every day between our house and my parents house, where my brother and his wife were staying, to hang out with them. I'm so grateful for the time we had to hang out with Drew but it was tiring and it's nice to have some sense of 'routine' back. ;)



While Drew was here, we celebrated Thanksgiving, introduced them to geocaching, went shopping, showed them around Portland, took in several movies and played lots and lots of games. SO MUCH FUN! It was especially hard to have my brother leave this time. I think it's because as I get older, I realize that even though we may be very different, the commonality that we have is that we've grown up in the same family together. And no one will ever understand that experience as well as Drew will. So, as Tre and I drove away from my parents house a couple Saturday nights ago, and I cried all the way home, although I was sad, I also feel so very blessed we were able to visit and that we can still find common ground.



Speaking of last Saturday, the ENTIRE Doty family, all 16 of us, gathered at my parent's house for a little get together. It's been 6 years since we were all together...since Tre and I got married, that is. All my aunts, uncles and cousins were there and we all got to catch up a bit. Some played our family game of Shanghai while others watched the Civil War game on tv. Sad to say that Tre and I are the only Beaver fans amongst a family of Ducks...so I think the family in general was happy to see the Beavs get walloped! Shame shame! Who knows when the next Doty family reunion will be...hopefully not another 6 years...but as we all get older, it becomes more and more difficult to get everyone in the same place at the same time.

Anyway, there's a quick update...well, sort of quick! I'll add some pics next entry. I might even thieve some pics from my brother's arsenal of photos he's shot recently while in California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Oregon and Washington. Quite the travelling man!

Till next time...

ramblings of the everyday...

I haven't blogged in a very long time. My sincere apology, I know you have all been desperately wondering what's been going on in my exciting life. :) All 2 of you that follow my blog...

Allow me to use photographs and some lengthy narrative to catch you up...

TREATS

One of my dearest childhood friends, Sarah, came for a quick visit in early October. We spent a couple days catch up, reminiscing, talking about our stressful jobs (she's a med/surg nurse), and delving into the burning question we have discussed for so many years and which has become even more frantic as we advance into our 30's... kids or no kids? We took her to one of our favorite dessert places in Portland... Pix Patisserie. The selection of desserts are both beautiful and amazingly delicious! I do not remember the names of all our choices...only that mine in the lower right corner is the Amelie...and it is heavenly!

ELECTIONS

Tre and I voted. In Oregon we do mail-in ballots...no waiting in long lines at the polls, just mark your ballot, put a stamp on it and mail it or drop it off at a specified location. With all that built-in convenience...Is there really any reason NOT to vote?

Needless to say, the elections are now over! And not a moment too soon! I will not in any way miss the political radio smears, or slanderous television ads! Why can't politicians play nice? Did they miss out on that important lesson in kindergarten?

While I could indulge in a political rant here, all I will say is that while I am ecstatic about our new President-elect and I am inspired by his vision and quest for change, that is not to say that the road will be paved in gold and fall before us, the nation, with ease. Like all things that are hard-won, we will have to work as a team, red or blue, to get America rolling again. So, however you voted...that has already been decided. What is ahead now, is how each of us chooses to play a part in this new Presidency.

THE PUMPKIN PATCH

Every year, Tre and I go out to Sauvie Island to go to the pumpkin patch. There are probably about 5 on the island and we usually go to the same one year after year. This particular patch has a hay ride, a small petting zoo, a corn maze, a veggie market and some fresh tasties like corn on the cob, hot apple cider and carmel apples.

The downside is that most of urban Portland also likes this patch...and they descend on this tiny little farm in their huge SUV's and high end rubber rain boots with their ill-behaved snotty children. They treat the pumpkin patch as if it were something to check off their "to do" list rather than an adventure and precious time to spend in nature and with their families.

Case in point: as we were driving out to this particular patch, one driver several cars in front of us was driving rather slow...perhaps taking in the beautiful scenery or breathing in the fresh air or simply enjoying the rain-free, rather warm and gorgeous day. The car behind us, on the other hand, was in a hurry...he passed both us and the car in front of us. He arrived at the entrance to the pumpkin patch exactly 30 seconds before us. Idiot! So, we didn't go to our usual patch this year because I was afraid I would feel it necessary to tell him...well, let's just say it would probably not have been too appropriate. :)

So, we went up the road another couple miles to a farm that we pick berries at in the summer, and found pumpkins that were bigger, more varied and a lot more beautiful than those in the other patch. Na-na-na...take that, Mr. big-SUV-passing-people-to-go-to-the-pumpkin-patch!

We enjoyed our time at the patch, enjoyed the beautiful weather and found ourselves the perfect pumpkins for the season!

The 'kids' in the cart with a ghost pumpkin.

Tre with the kids

The kids in the back of the car with all the autumn treasures

HALLOWEEN

Halloween is never a big holiday in my world. I like harvest festivals or autumn celebrations...but the whole dressing up thing has never been my gig. But since everyone at work was dressing up...I was kinda peer pressured into it.

I was a butterfly...and not a beautiful especially dressed up butterfly. I wore all black with wings...yeah...it was pretty amazing! :) The women at my work got pretty creative though. There was a pregnant, cigarette smoking nun, a rather large woman who had lost her dog in the backside of her dress, a mad scientist, and a crazy cat lady. So, while in costume, we still had to perform our nursing duties. My giant butterfly wings kept poking patients in the face as I was trying to start IV's on them...so eventually I got rid of the wings...and then I was just a pupa/grub.

The pups dressed up for Howl-o-ween

The lady who is missing her puppy (note furry mass in the lower left corner), the mad scientist and the pregnant cigarette smoking nun

AUTUMN ON DEPAUW ST.

I remember a year ago when Tre and I were touring houses for sale in anticipation of buying. While looking at another house in the same neighborhood, I stumbled upon the house we eventually ended up buying. I fell in love with the outside instantly...cute Cape Cod that backs a city park...heck, yeah! When we finally toured the inside, I knew this is where we were supposed to be.

So, imagine that when we were touring the house, the two GIANT maple trees in the front were all ablaze in color! I had that whole 'curb appeal' thing going for it...and I could see nothing buy the idyllic autumn trees and the cute house. Now, imagine that we were moving in a month later and there were massive piles of leaves in the yard, on the street, pushed to the side, spilling out of the compost bins, etc. I remember Tre looking at me and asking if he could buy a leaf blower. My hippie sense made me tell him "No...we'll rake them! Why kill the environment when you could use a little self-propulsion and rake them up? COME ON!" After you look at the pics below I ask you: Is it too late to concede and go for the leaf blower or will I lose all credibility and my hippie sainthood?

So, this is our yard before raking...the lawn, sidewalk and street are COVERED in leaves, not to mention any car that happens to stay under them for longer than 10 minutes.

This is our yard after spending 1 hour raking, bagging and composting the leaves. Do take a look at the canopy of leaves still up in the tree. Yeah...so the night after doing all that yard work, our yard looked like the previous picture...absolutely covered in leaves.

HAPPY COUPLEDOM

A recent pic of hubby and me. Those self-portraits where one person holds the camera never fail to make people smile...usually cuz they're so goofy! ;)

Thanks for checking up on us and our goings-on...