Crazy Cat Lady

Today I came home from work and this truck was parked in front of our condo. You can imagine my thought process, wondering what had gone wrong. Was there a crime on our block?? This was straight out of Law & Order SVU one of my favorite shows.

I watched the truck for awhile but then curiosity got the best of me and I decided to just go down and talk to the driver and see what was up. I pretended to be worried about my building, wondering if anyone was hurt. I honestly didn't think that was the case because there are only John and myself and the girls down stairs from us in the whole building. He was very nice in obliging my nosey-ness. He said that they were there to clean the house next door.

Now for anyone who has been to our place you know that we live next to a crazy cat lady. Her house is huge, probably a million dollar home just because of the size of the lot-but it is extremely run down. In the windows you can always see cats, I think the most I ever counted at one time was about 15, but they all look the same so it was hard to know how many were really in there.

Over the last few days we have noticed less cats in the windows. Yesterday there was a huge dumpster out in front of the building and someone came with a big cage and took some cats away, but I couldn't see all of what was going on or how many cats there were. Later that night Cat Lady and some guys threw about 4 huge litter boxes into the dumpster.

So that brings us to today and the Aftermath people. He said that someone had called and complained about the number of cats she had, and that she had to get rid of them. Then this company was called in to clean up. He said that she had anywhere between 120-150 cats in the house!!! Can you even imagine?! We knew she had a lot of cats but that is truly insane. He said that the cleaning process was unbelievable, and that you couldn't imagine what the inside of that house was like. They had to scrape the floors and he said it was just layer after layer. So gross!

The sad thing is that most of the cats probably went to a shelter and I know that they would have been completely overwhelmed by that number of cats. I am sure they were put to sleep. For a lady who obviously loved cats, she really was not doing them a service by keeping them that way.

Watching these guys get ready to go into the house was really interesting to see. They put on about 5 pairs of latex gloves, put on not 1 but 2 haz-mat suits, taped around their ankles and wrists with packing tape, and wore masks. They looked pretty serious. Sorry for the poor quality of my pictures.

Just seeing how they get all bundled up makes me think about what they do to clean up real crime scenes. Man that job would suck. Do you think these guys make a lot of money? I sure hope so.

Long weekend

Had Friday off this week, gotta love long weekends; hopefully you all are able to enjoy an extra day off too. I spent the day taking our kitty Morgan to the vet, always a fun time. Nothing else can make you feel as badly as cramming an unsuspecting kitty into the cat carrier, and then taking her to a place to get probed, prodded and generally annoyed by the outside world. It turns out that Morgan has developed allergies and so we got some medication to give him that will hopefully help. After torturing my cat, I did a little shopping at Target-gotta love that store. Later that night John and I had a date night, we went to a great bar-b-que place and then to see I Love You Man, which was really pretty funny.


Today we are doing some work around the house, in an attempt to start getting ready for the baby. We recently got an office armoire that is going to be moved into our living room today with the hope that all of the things in the office can be transplanted into the armoire. Once the office is empty we will be turning it into a nursery.

Overall I have been feeling pretty well, I have an appointment with the doctor next week-just a general check up. At the appointment they will schedule an ultrasound to determine the sex of the baby. So we should know withing a few weeks if it's a boy or a girl!

I took some pictures of my expanding belly, and thought I'd share with you all. Marena was supposed to come and see me every month to take baby belly photos and since she's fallen down on the job I thought I should start taking some. Just teasing you Marena-I love you!

Finally Finishing Phoenix

Well only a month late… here is the rest of the trip to Phoenix.

We left off on Saturday, our first day in Phoenix…

Sunday was spent sitting around relaxing while the boys hiked Camelback Mountain, which sounded really fun and also dangerous so I’m glad I didn’t go. For lunch we tried the famous In and Out Burger, which really wasn’t all that wonderful. To me it was on the same level of Portillo’s but I like Portillo’s better. Then we spent some time by the pool and it was off to dinner in Old Town Scottsdale. We went to the Pink Pony, which is an old-skool supper club where the seating is all curved booths and the atmosphere looks like something our grandparents would have enjoyed. We had some good steak and then desert at the Sugar Bowl, a fun ice cream parlor that is all pepto bismol pink, and had delicious treats.

Monday got up and got ready to go to another Cubs game enjoying a rickshaw ride from where we parked to the game. The game was not very exciting, and again we were seated in the lawn where it was about 90 degrees and sunny. Now, I hate to complain about beautiful weather, but it was a little on the hot side. Overall the Cubs lost and we left after the 7th inning-a boring game.

Tuesday was spent relaxing; John watched some movies while I went to a nearby mall to do some shopping. I have to say that Chicago has spoiled me on shopping, we have some of the best places to shop and when other towns rave about their malls I find I am often disappointed. On top of that, shopping isn’t so much fun now that I am getting bigger, but not yet able to wear maternity clothes. It’s a weird stage to be in… After shopping we headed over to John’s Aunt Pam’s house for a lovely dinner with Pam, her husband Gene, John’s Mom and her friend Vivian. They tried an ancient Celtic gender prediction ritual on me and determined that I will have 2 children in my life and the first will be a boy. Now really this was just a needle and thread stuck into a pencil eraser that was dangled over my hand, but I guess we’ll find out that validity of the ritual in 6 months.

Wednesday we picked up John’s mom and Vivian and started the long drive to Las Vegas. There is NOTHING exciting about that drive. After about 1 hour you are already sick of looking at the different kinds of cactus. We did stop at the Hoover Dam where I snapped some pictures; it was neat to see. When we arrived in Vegas we checked into out hotel, the Rio. It was really much nicer than I expected. The room was huge and even though it is off the strip it was nice. We then picked up John’s Aunt who lives in Vegas and headed off to a local casino where we ate buffet and gambled a little. John and I both lost $$ there.

Thursday we got up and headed over to the Flamingo to the buffet (I know 2 buffets in 2 days). I love the buffet there; I have good memories of eating lots of bacon (really- platefuls) with the girls while on spring break. Much to my dismay it had seemed that the baby had taken over and vetoed bacon, but while at the Flamingo an amazing thing happened. It’s almost like the baby recognized the awesomeness of the Flamingo Buffet bacon and decided it was okay. So I enjoyed about 6 slices of glorious bacon. Of course since then the idea of bacon makes me sick again… we’ll see maybe bacon’s making a slow comeback.

After the bacon we lost some $$ playing blackjack and then went to see the Cubs play the White Sox; it was great weather, but sadly the Cubs lost. Following the game we went to the new Trump hotel where John’s mom and Vivian where staying that night. John’s Aunt Tish and some of her friends treated us to a mini cocktail hour in the hotel suite. After our treat, it was off to see Cirque de Solei’s LOVE. John and I had both been looking forward to seeing LOVE, lots of people had told us how wonderful it is. While we both enjoyed it, we didn’t think it deserved the rave reviews we had gotten. After the show we walked the strip for a little while watching some of the free shows, like the Mirage Volcano and Treasure Island show. If you haven’t seen the Treasure Island show recently, it is so bad! They have tried to make it sexy, and it is just cheesy, not funny and not sexy at all-bad! After that horrible experience we needed to go somewhere we knew we’d like so we headed over to Ellis Island, an off the strip little casino that we always win at. Naturally we won this time also, managing to win back enough that we were up just a little bit on the whole. After that it was back to the Trump hotel for some rest and up early to drive back to Phoenix.

The drive back was just as dull as the drive to Vegas…we spent Friday relaxing and then out to a nice dinner. With only Saturday morning left in Phoenix we squeezed in a visit with my aunt, who I was very happy to get to see. Then it was back to Chicago. Overall a very nice trip, and probably our last baby-free vacation.

Hello from Scottsdale, Arizona!

John and I are enjoying a little spring break vacation, and I thought I would keep you updated on all of the fun things that we are doing. John’s brother Joe is able to join us for the weekend on this trip so he is traveling along with us. Currently I am sitting on the balcony of our condo writing this blog enjoying the beautiful weather.

Yesterday we checked into our condo to be greeted by this fellow on our bed, I am such a sucker for these things-so cute!

Then it was off to the Cubs spring training game. We had lawn seats and really enjoyed being able to spread out on the grass and watch the game. It was quite crowded, but a fun group to sit around. The Cubs killed the White Sox something like 12-0. It was record heat, sunny and 89, anyone who knows me knows that I love hot weather, but I think that being pregnant is affecting my thermostat, because it was a little warm for me. But hey compared to the 20 degree weather in Chicago I am not complaining. Enjoyed some nachos and lemonade at the game (first cubs game not having a beer and a hotdog-so sad).

After the game we decided to go for a hike, there are some beautiful mountains to hike around here, all with great trails to follow. John and I love to hike but this time I was a little cautious and decided we should go for a really easy hike, I didn’t want to slip and fall. So we decided on Pinnacle Peak, an easy hike. We went just prior to sunset so that it was cooler, and had a nice time. The pictures here don’t do the views justice.

We are about to hike this

Views from on the way up

Here we are at the top

On the way down the sun started to set and you could see the moon, it is at the very top of the picture, a little crescent.

Close up cactus

Driving home we watched the sunset.

After the hike we were starving so it was time for a shower and then off to a Mexican restaurant where we had some really good food. After that I was exhausted and promptly fell asleep leaving the boys up to burn the midnight oil.
On the agenda for today is lots of time by the pool, In and Out Burger for lunch and just relaxing. The boys are going to hike Camelback Mountain later today which sounded way too dangerous for a pregnant woman-so jealous. I’ll be posting every time I get some new pictures so check back.

Happy Valentine's Day

Feeling much better here, and never had to use the Neti Pot =)

Exciting day today, woke up and attempted to purchase Billy Joel/Elton John tickets, for anyone who doesn't know they are playing at Wrigley Field in July. After some aggravation at the website tickets.com which wasn't prepared for all of the traffic, John was able to get us some pretty good seats, lower deck row 1 a little to the right of home plate. I was excited to be in the first row for 2 reasons; 1) I am short and will therefore be able to see much better, and b) By July 21 I will be almost 8 months pregnant so I will hopefully have a little more space in the 1st row and not have to walk up as many stairs. I am REALLY looking forward to this show. I have seen Billy Joel a few times and he is wonderful, and last time he toured with Elton John I missed it, and was dissappointed, so this show should be awesome-not to mention seeing them play at Wrigley!

Not much else to report here, hope you all have a Happy Valentine's Day!

All Stuffed Up

Just about a week ago I remember thinking *Wow these prenatal vitamins must be magic I haven't gotten sick in a while!* For those of you who don't know I work with 14 two year olds that are constantly coughing and sneezing on me, and I frequently have a cold as a result of this.

So here I was thinking how lucky I was and then BAM! I got hit with a cold. So I have spent the last two days home with a general feeling of not being able to breathe and a cough. I am technically allowed to take Sudafed and Tylenol but I really don't trust that, and feel it's best to just stick with fluids and rest. My boss suggested a product called the Neti Pot, John and I had a good laugh googling that and watching the instructional video. I am sure it is helpful but I don't know if I can do that, we'll see how desperate I get.

So not much else going on here, lots of surfing the web, daytime television (I love The View) and magazine reading (I'm all caught up on Us Weekly, People, and Pregnancy). Apparently we are experiencing a heat wave today, high of 63, so I may step outside for some fresh air. Thank goodness all of our snow is finally melting.

Hope you all have a good day!

Twins?

One month ago today John and I found out some exciting news…

Yep that’s right I'm pregnant. Although some of you already knew this news, I had been waiting to post on my blog until my first doctors appointment. Being one of the first of my friends to go through this process I thought this would be a good forum to provide you with the details of life as a pregnant woman.

People often ask you how you’re feeling when you’re pregnant, and I can only describe it as feeling like someone has taken over my body, which I guess is true. I can no longer rely on the things I know I love to eat. For example the baby has broken up my relationship with bacon, a food I have enjoyed a love affair with for almost 29 years. I have always been a person who NEEDED coffee to function and truly loved the taste of a good cup of joe-well no longer. Going to the Superbowl party was interesting. A day I used to look forward to being able to eat all kinds of yummy treats, was reduced to taking a bite of many favorites only to find out that they tasted disgusting to me and handing them off to John. Don’t worry there are some foods that I now find I love. In the last 3 days I ate an entire box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, bagels and cream cheese are a favorite, pasta, granola bars, and frozen yogurt are up there too.

Even my nose has turned on me, requiring John to do things like clean out the refrigerator, clean the litter box quite often, and basically get rid of anything with even the slightest odor. My assistant at work last week even had to take out a garbage filled with half eaten bowls of cheerios for fear I would throw up on the kids.

And I’m not even going to get started on the amount of time I spend peeing lately.

Other than those issues I have been fortunate enough to feel okay, I know many women have it MUCH worse. And I am told these “symptoms” (except for the peeing) will subside after the first trimester.

John and I went in for our first ob/gyn appointment last Wednesday, everything went well, I appear to be in good health and the baby is doing well. Our Dr. tried to freak us out a bit by thinking that she saw two heartbeats, (you can imagine our own heartbeats at that moment) but it seems the baby was just in a curled position that made it “look” like two heartbeats. So no twins for now. Here are some pictures from the visit.