A Haiku Shower??

Well, chalk it up to my creative friend to give me both a nice shower and an innovative way to not have to come up with my own haiku for the blog today. :) A "task" for my shower attendees tonight was to write haiku for me--inspired by the upcoming blessed event, of course, so we will deviate from my "laundry list" of haiku topics for the week. :)

I'll hopefully get some photos soon of the attendees at the shower to post. To all that attended and those that couldn't, a hearty "Thank you!" I enjoyed the fellowship, the sweet words, and the kind and thoughtful gifts. And a special "Thank you!" to the orchestrator, the Lady of the Holler.

On to the guest haiku!

Trust Him completely
Remember that during long nights
The morning will come.

Smelly, wakeful, loud!
Eating, crying, changing—oh!
Such a sweet blessing.

You think you're tired now,
Just wait a couple of months
But it's all worthwhile!

Baby, dear baby
Love you so much I could cry
Baby, dear baby

Having waited long
She now grows close and watches
For the joy sublime.

Couldn't have said it better myself. Thanks, ladies!!

And I close with these recent pics of Julia:

I'm back!

It's not that I don't have anything to say ... it's that I am lacking in energy and motivation for some strange reason. ;) Despite illness, it's been a busy winter, which makes busy less fun and leaves less time for other things. Yep, I'm still sick. Rog is still sick. Ri is finally well, PTL. But no one is horribly ill any more at least. Pregnancy is going pretty well, but they have moved up the delivery date into February, as Jules is starting to grow faster than she should and it's getting harder to control my diabetes. Dr. yesterday gave me 5 refills on the meds saying I would probably need them after delivery. :( Let's hope and pray not.

At any rate, I'm glad to see a delivery in sight, although I still feel there's so much to do. But all that will come, and I have been making headway. Will post pics of nursery soon. Here are a few pics from Christmas. Can't say there were many to choose from. Just didn't get the camera out enough and the new cell phones aren't talking to my computer to download pics from them either. Not really any good pics of the belly either, but a nice "Fonzy" shot of me in a new jacket that barely fits over it. :) All in all, it was a nice Christmas. I just wish we all would have felt better. Many were either sick or just getting over something.



Now onto the haiku!

Hmm options are ...
laundry detergent, the tags on clothes, online games, snow, being pregnant, exotic foods, prunes, or oil changes, and buckeyes. Almost makes me want to try putting as many as possible into one. If anyone succesfully gives it a shot, they get 500 points. Don't ask me what they're good for, but you get 500 of 'em and that's more than anyone else will get.

Laundry detergent is too close to bleach, so I'm going for tags.

Clothing tags, here today, gone tomorrow?
A haiku lament

Like 'em or hate 'em
You might miss 'em when it's all
Just print on fabric.

Ooh, and the reason to lament ...

Laundry detergent
is so strong nowadays that
it eats off print tags.

Now what are we gonna do when we need to know the washing instructions and what size that knit shirt was?! A few washes, and it's chaos I tell you!

Well, that's 2 off my list. Anyone else wanna give 'em a shot?

Bleach

A haiku about bleach ... hmm. Let's see.

Bleach
Germs and fungus, go!
Sanitization is good
When house has been sick!

Other things that could use a good sanitization? How about the views expressed here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/series/ask-carole

Perhaps "salt" and "light" would be a better source of both the "sanity" and Truth needed to clean that up. Need I say more?

It's Not Friday!

What's wrong with this blog? No posting last Friday and now one on Wednesday. Oh, the drama! Well, Lord willing, we'll be back to regular haiku posting this Friday. And maybe a picture of our tree with lots of presents underneath that have been keeping me busy.

So, for those interested in an explanation as to why no blog last week, please refer to my Fridays stink blog. The rest of ya, just keep reading here.

So the interesting things this week are: I'm still sick; Ri is sick again; Julia is well and kickin' (about 3 lbs. and growing at a normal rate--58%ile); diabetes is going pretty well; I'm in my 3rd trimester (can you believe it??); Christmas shopping is almost done; I'm actually getting to take some much-needed vacation the last 3 weeks this year. I was thinking about taking a pregnancy picture, but I'm sure we'll get some at Christmas, so that's not too far off. But here's a good face-shot of Julia I just got on Monday:

See her big eyes and chubby cheeks? The doctor said I would be grateful to know that the baby had a small head, so Rog has been looking at me a little suspiciously. (Hehe, not really.) Other features of note were her small chin, little bit of hair, long legs, and overall good size. She put on a good show, too, blinking and hiccuping, after playing with her feet. Such a blessing to have this technology! Makes me want that much more to really see her and try to match her looks with these precious images. But that'll come soon enough.

Now, some fun and frivolity are in order--to kick off the season.
Some interesting things I've either found, or that others have passed along on the web:

• https://secure2.bk.com/en/us/campaigns/bk-dollar-holidays.html#Card/2
  (Make sure you scroll left to right to see all the cards. Some are real gut-busters)
• http://www.sketchysantas.com/
  (Which might've been a good thing to have linked from this article:
  http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/2009/12/15/wintertime-worship-santa-jesus)
  Why do people force their kids on his lap if they're uncomfortable with it?
  
• Related to "Sketchy Santas," but with *ahem* audio, if you can call it that.
  http://vimeo.com/8088486

Just so you don't think that I've gone for the commercial and trite side of Christmas, note the link to the AiG article for some serious discussion of what the holiday really should be about--yet as with many such Christian issues, there is freedom with discernment. I thought the author gave some good pointers to think about to help with the decision regarding how to approach Christmas.

That's all until Friday. Enjoy some of the silliness until then. I've been challenged with some new haiku topics that I will attempt to tackle. Check last post's comments if you want in on the action. I hope everyone else is well out there in blogland.

Sick and Sicker

Well, it was not meant to be--for me to dodge the bullet forever while Ri remained sick for weeks on end. So today was an interesting day of pondering whether to go to the doctor myself (when I don't really want to take any prescriptions) and/or to take Ri after so long of little to no improvement of her rather disruptive cough. So I opted for Ri. Even though I sound like a man and feel like I've been dragged around a bit, albeit less than Wednesday. And what a day that made for us. From 2 pm until almost 8 we were out either at the Dr. or the hospital for tests or at a drugstore waiting for prescriptions (with the exception of 2 other quick stops). But the good news is she's got clear lungs and some things to help with the cough, like prescription cough syrup to help her sleep and inhalant to help with the little bit of wheezing he heard.

I'd hoped to put up the Christmas tree today and put in a pic of it, but that may have to wait until at least tomorrow, as when I got home, I still had work to do. And Rog is just now getting here after 9. So, yeah, Friday's are still kinda stinking.

Anyhoo, on to the highlight of every Friday. Given so many lowlights, however, that's not saying much. :)

Haiku for today

Which doctor to see?
Pediatrician again
or Obstetrician?

Ok, so I really need someone to suggest topics for this to be at all interesting. What do you suggest for next week?

Friday after Thanksgiving

Hope everyone's Thanksgiving was good. Ours was pretty nice. I found enough to eat, despite the diabetes and even had some pie. :) Baby still won't cooperate and move when others are around, but I guess that will come. Now for the Haiku challenge:

Ways to eat eggs on Thanksgiving
Poached eggs for breakfast
Eggs in pumpkin, pecan pies
Eggs in the eggnog.

I'm thankful for eggs--a good source of protein for a diabetic that doesn't like meat that much. Well, at least that's some ways that I ate eggs yesterday. Good thing that cholesterol doesn't matter during pregnancy! What are you thankful for and what did you eat yesterday? Eggs? And which came first? The turkey or the eggs? :)

A nice quiet weekend at home ... ?

It's been an interesting weekend. Rog went down to his parents cabin, and, as I mentioned in the last blog, I passed on the whole thing. I wanted to catch up on some things at home and at work so I wouldn't have to work much this next week. A few interesting things happened while Rog was gone. Friday night, we noticed teenagers running through our backyard at 11pm. Ri was a little freaked, but I didn't think much of it. I thought it was funny that, with the dog gone, this would happen. She'd have been out there barking her head off if they'd have tried that normally. Then, Saturday morning, a couple of the boys were walking through our yard looking for something. Again, I didn't think much about it. They dropped something while running in the dark ... whatever. Again, Honey would've barked them off the yard, but she was gallivanting in KY.

Then last night, in the middle of the night, I could hear Bob pushing around his food dish, but didn't feel like getting up to make him stop. Again, Honey would've probably interfered in his malcontent. So I wake up this morning to find this:


Other carpets were moved from their spots and, let's just say that there was something downstairs that wasn't even CLOSE to the litterbox. Bob usually sleeps with Rog, so I suspect he was "acting out."

So, Rog comes home and is putting things away in the shed and notices behind the shed is a big blue box and a beat-up, muddy shirt. What's in the box, you ask? Well, given it's a beer box, it's got cans of beer in it. Unopened. At least there were no empties. We did a breathalizer on Bob, just to make sure it wasn't part of his "rebellious" weekend. So, I told Rog he can't go away and take the dog again lol.

In my photo-taking session today, I took a photo I've been meaning to share on the blog for a few weeks now. I set up that crib we got for free and have the nursery mostly set up now. Almost ready!