"Food Is The Most Primitive Form Of Comfort."

~Sheilah Graham

***okay Mom and Mandy, sorry, but it turns out I did NOT "publish" my post last night after typing it and saving it...I think you will soon read why I may have been so careless. Regardless, here is the blog and I apologize for it's tardiness.***

List of things kind-of-day...sorry...no story...just too tired...you'll see why...
(Sorry, these are out of order, but I'm too tired to be anal about that tonight to try and make transitions before different parts of my day or even to put it in chronological order. This is how my mind has been functioning all day, so I feel it is only right to mimic it's chaos in the form of an out-of-order list. Also, the title is ironic because usually food is comforting, but not today...see note below about heartburn...)

~ Got 4 more Christmas cards in the mail last night: from Troy, Josh & Tara, The Mahlke Family, and The Joch Family-all are now properly displayed on the mantle
~ Checked in on Mikee to see how her week was going so far. As it turns out one of her job prospects did not end up calling her yesterday as they had said they would. I feel this is for the best, as it was going to be another processing job and like I think I mentioned-this may be an opportunity for her to switch fields and find something that makes her happy. We talked about specifics for Christmas dinner and her birthday on Christmas Eve and about how I am STILL not in labor...
~ Worked with the boys from noon-3pm today so that K could run a few holiday related errands uninterrupted. J had lunch and a nap and the Mo was a little fussy and wanted to be held non-stop---which is okay because I was in the mood for cuddles!
~ We decided to buy my boss's glider chair and matching ottoman at a great price today. Most likely it will be dropped off at our house on Friday by her husband. This way, Peyton (who I suspect is like her mom and dad, will get to be rocked while being cuddled).
~ Took Tony to work this morning because the weather forecast said it was supposed to storm all day and my work schedule allowed me the freedom to have the chance to bring Tony to and from work. Let me just say that today turned out to be a relatively beautiful winter day, no rain and hardly any clouds. Apparently the forecast got shifted to tonight, where upon we are supposed to be blasted by a bunch of storms and maybe even some lightening (which never happens here) and is supposed to be more rain then last weeks rain combined. Watch out Wisconsin, this is surely headed your way as well! I am not going to believe it until I see it...although they said their were waves in the San Fran Bay the other day - also a rarity and some of the farm roads on the way to work were almost flooded, so I suppose it is a strong possibility.
~ Attempted to take our recycling to the collection center at Costco to exchange for CRV refunds...wanna guess how much we amounted: a whole $1.29 which the guy rounded up to $1.30 because he doesn't carry pennies. As it turns out, even though we set aside ALL our CRV items, California only recognizes about 3 out  of the 8 different ones...what a pain (and what a mess-I hate touching old recycling food cans and sorting!). Tony and I decided that for that amount of money, for the gas, for the gross factor, for the time, it is not in our best interest to have two separate recycle piles. We will simply set all of our recycling out on the curb now and if the recycling man wants to separate it and collect on our measly earnings (at $1.30 a pop), he is welcome to it. Live 'n learn!
~ Found maternity pants that I had forgotten I had hanging in the closet. It is the kind with the full belly panel (picture it tucking into your bra and you will get some sense of how big the panel is). This actually made my day-now I don't have to be ashamed that currently all of my thick-waisted maternity pants are either in the laundry basket OR don't make a difference in covering up my belly at it's current size...lately my shirts haven't been long enough and I feel like I've been hanging out. Today, I feel properly dressed and it feels so good! Yay for finding hidden maternity pants...and Yay for me for buying them and literally "saving them for a rainy day."
~ This morning while driving to work, I was contemplating the ingenuity of opening a business that serviced pregnant mothers who were in the mood for a drive-through cheesecake/dessert/donut/xmas cookie/comfort food (mac'n cheese/grilled cheese/sushi) fix. It would be a shop or restaurant for expectant mothers (and if there's still some left, I suppose for the general public...) that specialized in all of the cravings but where you wouldn't have to park and waddle in, stand in line, and fight the bathroom wait...you could simply drive-thru and pick up these yummies and continue on your day. How fantastic would that be? Ooh, I would be there every day...maybe even a couple times a day!
~ While I am thinking of food, what do Japanese people eat for breakfast...I have yet to see a Japanese restaurant that serves/is open for breakfast. Does anyone know the answer to this? Do they eat sushi for breakfast? Do they not eat breakfast? Do they have Cheerios like the rest of us and that is why there is no Japanese restaurants solely dedicated to breakfast? I'm curious.
~ This morning I saw a link on Facebook for a  "digital nativity"...depicting what it would be like if Jesus was born in modern times with the technology we have now to spread the good news...I thought it was awesome, so I've included the link here for your viewing pleasure.
~ poopy pants can knit kniccers humphrey...
~My step brother's address confirmation issue has still been bugging me. We had sent him a Christmas card that was returned from his new address, claiming that the address did not exist. Clearly, that is not true, as that is where he is living, but WHY is it undeliverable? I confirmed the address with my mom and with my stepsister who assure me I had written the right address. I know better than to think my stepbrother is missing getting bills in the mail, but I feel bad for him because this also means he's missing the GOOD kind of snail mail, too...and, even sadder, he doesn't KNOW he's missing it. I hope this issue can be resolved as I LOVE getting mail and it makes me feel bad for him that he doesn't know what he's missing!
~ This morning, Mary and Caitlyn called to chat while they were out running errands. Apparently, Caity had also found her Uncle Logan's recorder (instrument we learn to play in elementary school) and decided there's no time like the present than to play it for me while on the phone---let me just say, even though I love my niece with all my heart, there are other things I'd rather hear!
~ Mom & Dan and Dad & Mary each got a maternity photo collage---confirmed it actually arrived in one piece by both of them today...we wanted to share with them current pictures of us in our pre-family of three phase and all of the love we were feeling for Miss Peyton who will soon join us in family pictures. I'm glad the glass frames made it through the postal system---and, surprisingly, swiftly and timely, as well!
~ This morning I had selected Old Navy nursing tops from their online sale that I wanted to stock up on because it was too good of a deal to pass up. As soon as Tony gets his paycheck tomorrow morning, I will be ordering these and hopefully they'll come just in time to use when I start nursing you, little Monkey! It'll be handy to have some shirts that were designed especially to accommodate breast feeding! There will be four shirts on the way in a day or two and will hopefully be here before the new year.
~ This morning I switched to a new toothbrush for two reasons. The first reason will be detailed later, as I needed to wash out my vomit mouth with something. The second reason is that I just haven't felt that my current toothbrush was getting the job done. Although we had just seen the dentist a month ago and he had given us new toothbrushes (as is standard procedure, I understand), I just felt like my mouth wasn't as clean or wiped free as it should be and the feeling of gunk continued to linger in my mouth even after the most thorough of brushing attempts. Thus, a new toothbrush...ahh...feels SO much better!
~ This morning before work, I did a bunch of dishes (both sinks were full AND the counter on either side of the sinks AND the dishwasher was full of dirty dishes but had NOT been started) because it had bugged me for more than a day and apparently I was the only one who was bugged by it.
~ I think we are having heater issues. Even though we have the thermostat programmed to stay at a constant of 70 degrees, the last two times we've looked at the control, it's been in the low 60s...clearly something isn't working as it should. Perhaps I should look into having a heater guy come next week? I had Tony jump up in the attic and he says nothing (according to his untrained eye) looks out of the ordinary and I reset the thermostat program to stay at a constant of 70. If something doesn't change, then I feel we will have to pay the fee to have someone come out and perform a diagnostic check/test. Cross your fingers that it was a programming error and that it is corrected by tonight.
~ Tony and I are considering getting our carpeting switched to laminate (hardwood) floors. Not only am I not a big fan of carpeting, but with it's constant look of dirtiness and showing every single foot step, I would much prefer different flooring. We had looked for houses with hardwood floors, but this was THE house for us, so we looked past the fact that it had carpeting. We measured the rooms and are very interested in getting the halls and living areas into a hardwood looking laminate but perhaps we'd consider leaving the bedrooms carpeted. Either way, we scheduled a floor quote from empiretoday.com for Monday of next week. Let's just see how much this'll cost, eh?
~ Tony made me oatmeal for breakfast this morning to help with heartburn. Sweet gesture. For sure I thought it was the answer to a tasty breakfast that would not make my heartburn any worse...Nope. I guess I am wrong again. I appreciate him trying to help me, though.
~ Okay, I guess I better stop referencing the heartburn and get around to telling you about it. I have been awake and up since midnight (this morning) with heartburn. Incredibly painful, not mild, unrelenting heartburn. I had used all of the available pillows in the house to prop myself up, as laying down with the heartburn was excruciating. This seemed to help take it from a 10 on the pain scale to a 9. At this point I was feeling absolutely miserable. I have never had heartburn so bad. From about 2pm until 3pm I was whimpering and crying from the sheer pain of it. Luckily, at 3pm I got up to head to the bathroom as I knew it was only a matter of time until I threw up. I made it just in time to throw up (WARNING: DISGUSTING ANECDOTE ABOUT TO BE SHARED: inside my vomit were remnants of last night's yummy Christmas cookies from Mom's care package and the chili and apple juice I had for dinner---not as delicious on the way back up). Usually, there is a sense of relief and calm after I throw up, as it finally allows my stomach to feel better. Apparently heartburn vomit does not operate under the same theory, as I continued to throw up about four more times and never felt a single thread of relief during or after the upchucking. My heartburn continued to stay at a rating of a 9 into the wee-hours of the morning and probably hovered around a 5-8 rating all day today. Of course, because our bathroom is IN our master bedroom, my inability to get comfortable last night meant that Tony was up, too. Poor guy. I'm sure it's impossible to rest when your spouse is yacking up in teh room next door. So, he was wide awake and trying to be helpful since 3am. Like the good husband I know him to be, he got me water, emptied out the puke bucket, offered to get me whatever  I needed, told me not to apologize for waking him up, and was such a trooper. I am just counting my blessings that I new it was progressing to the point of vomiting and had moved myself to the bathroom, otherwise, in addition to feeling like crap and having no sleep or rest, I'd also have been forced to wash the bedding and deal with clean up. Throwing up into a lined waste basket is way more efficient! From that point until when a NORMAL person would be awake, I played on the computer and tried to distract myself from my uncomfortable heartburn and drowsiness. I wish I had been able to fall back asleep, but like I said, the heartburn lasted for rest of day. I didn't eat anything but the oatmeal Tony made me for breakfast for the rest of the day for fear of having to throw it back up later or of it making my heart burn worse. Not a good thing when you're so pregnant...but that's how bad the heart burn was! The thought of eating, though appealing, was not a comfort to me (hence the ironic title of today's blog).
~ It is officially 10 days until Miss Peyton's due date...I am so excited...now it's crunch time! It's becoming so real now! I am so excited to meet our daughter and to hold her and to look into her eyes for the first time!!!
~ Tony suggested we watch Terminator on the computer screen to help put me to bed/sleep tonight. He has a new hard drive that has a bunch of downloaded movies/TV shows on it and so we can hook it up to my laptop and link it to our TV in our bedroom through our HDMI cable. Plus, according to my husband, "EVERYONE" has seen The Terminator, so I needed to see it anyway. He's right, it did get me in a sleepy mood, but let's be honest, that wasn't hard to do since I have been tired since about 1am this morning. Also, I don't get the hype of this movie, but I guess I better hop in bed to start watching it and hopefully get to sleep as it has been an epically long and tiring and painful day! Darn heartburn!
~ Dad got in accident tonight. Fortunately, no other car was involved, as dad slid forty feet down the embankment off the highway on his way home from work tonight. I had called to check up on how their visit with my sister, her husband, and children was going to find out that Dad was still out in the nasty cold weather, with about 4 inches of snow waiting for the tow truck. He's safe, though cold and hungry. Mary said she'll send an update tomorrow morning once they tow the truck and can look at it in daylight. I'm just glad Dad is safe! Jeremy went to go pick him up and bring him back home for the night because the tow truck  supposedly still has a few other pickups to do before my Dad's truck is next in line. I'll keep you posted.
~ My poor friend, Nicole, is sick. Her symptoms sound more like a sinus infection but she's talking about her sore throat and I feel so bad-I hope I didn't give her what I had! Especially with Christmas just around the corner. I'm praying that it was just work-related stress that has her sick, because that means it'll be a swift recovery with some much needed rest. I hope she feels better real soon!
~ After I have been up all morning, I thought it only fair to drop Tony off at work, like I mentioned earlier (due to weather and the fact that I had the time to do it). After I dropped him off, I stopped off to get gas (at $3.30/gallon for those of you Wisconsinites who are curious what west-coast gas rates are currently), went to the bank to cash our check for $15 from yesterday's attempt at recycling, visited the post office to buy some stamps to mail out a few thank you letters (turns out they were out of the forever stamps that I like, so my second choice was to get the Hawaiian Rain Forest style in honor of our vacation we will be taking in a couple months. I also stopped at Target to look for a few sweet potato pie items to make for Christmas dinner, get some more milk, and to buy more hand sanitizer to keep in the diaper bag. I DID get sweet and condensed milk but forgot the very important pie crusts...guess I gotta go back tomorrow-I blame my forgetfulness, once again, on pregnant brain).
~ Anthony ate leftover chili for about the third time now (lunch yesterday, dinner last night, and dinner tonight)-I think I can officially label the chili dinner a success!
~ Nikki thought of a brilliant idea for Mikee's birthday present---Keith Urban tickets. We decided to go in on the present with her and scrap the idea of money towards a coo-coo clock that we were originally doing. I still think it was kind of a fun idea, as she wants a really nice chalet style Black Forest coo-coo clock but to get a really nice one, you have to look in the $1,000 range-not really our budget...so, we had bought her a really cheap clock and had put the gift of money in the battery section in the back of the clock so that she could put it towards a clock. With Nikki's idea, we can actually give her something tangible and that she will get to enjoy long before we could ever afford to give her the clock she deserves.
~ Cassie (my niece) and I were instant messaging back and forth today on Facebook and I think we came up with a pretty brilliant plan, if I do say so. Because things tend to happen when you least expect it or when it is the most inconvenient, we decided a fool-proof plan to make Peyton come by New Year's. All I need to do is to book a flight to come home for Christmas this year to induce labor-as that would clearly be a very uncomfortable birth and completely and totally inconvenient being so far away from our hospital and health coverage. Hmmm, now to find the money to book a flight at the last moment, and oh yeah...I don't really feel like flying, as much as I do wish to be around family for the holidays. Thanks, Cassie for the idea, though! We will have to find some OTHER guinnie pig to test our theories out on, however.
~ Tony and I decided that in the spirit of Christmas, we'd also like to contribute to the list of themes for next year's exchange on Mom and Dan's side. Here's what we were able to come up with (sorry, another list):

• ABCs and 123s Exchange: Pick a random letter of the alphabet or number. Each person needs to buy a present(s) for the person they pick that starts with the letter or features the number in its name (if you picked me then you decide on a letter...like "B"...you could get me some bubble gum, baby gear, blue items, bath gel...etc.) When the person opens their gift, they have to try and figure out what the letter or number theme was. You could get one item or a bunch of tiny items that start with the letter or have the number in it.
• Ornament Exchange: Each person gets an ornament for the person they picked that seems like "them." They could even be hung on the tree instead of being wrapped and then everyone needs to search for what they think would be "their" ornament (it could be in conjunction with finding the pickle)...the smaller the ornament or the more green it is, the more difficult/fun this game could be ...this could ALSO be in conjunction with the sweater exchange below...
• "Do You See What I See/Do You Hear What I Hear" (5 Senses) Exchange: Sound (CDs), Taste (Chocolate), Touch (something soft-like fuzzy socks), Smell (popcorn), Sight (poster or frame)
• Stocking Exchange: Has to fit inside of a stocking or a certain sized gift basket/box
• Adopt A Family: Find one or two families and everyone is in charge of buying items for one person in the adopted family
• Ugly Sweater Contest/Exchange: everyone visits their local stores or thrift shop and finds the tackiest/gaudiest holiday sweater for the person who's name they picked and that person has to wear their sweater as soon as they open their gift-then we take a "family" photo all in our new "outfits"...then we vote to see who has the WORST sweater (the goal)
• "Oh, Holy Night" Exchange: everyone's gift has to have a hole in it somewhere (clothes all have holes so that we can put them on-arm hole, underwear hole, etc.; jewelry usually has a hole; you can get creative and have a "WHOLE" lot of something ...)"
• "Oh, There's No Place Like Home For The Holidays" Exchange: you get the person who's name you picked something to decorate their home OR something from their home town OR something from where they live (locally made goodies/sweatshirt/gift card to a local restaurant) OR to take them to a local event (a movie or musical or sports game)

Okay, that's all the ideas Tony and I could come up with...we tried to think of Christmas songs as the title for each of the different ideas, but we couldn't come up with one for all of them. Turns out there IS a song on Youtube.come about holiday sweaters, but I couldn't find the one I was looking for. I'm sure some of you more creative people (who aren't completely exhausted from lack of sleep, pregnancy, and heartburn all day) may be able to come up with fun Christmas song titles to go with each of these theme ideas...

~ I am hoping that our Thursday prenatal appointment says I'm dilated and progressing to the point of a timely labor/birth. I am nervous to find out how big Peyton's head is getting, as you may have noticed, my family tends to have big noggins. I am also ready to be done with the heartburn and my feet being swollen about twenty hours of the day. I'd love to be able to see below the "equator" (circumference around my belly button) and remind myself what my toes look like. Plus, and this is the big one, I'd love to hold you, dear sweetie pie!
~ After dropping off Tony at work and running a few errands, I played about 30 rounds of Wheel of Fortune before heading off to work...again trying to distract myself from the heartburn because at least when I'm at the computer I am in the sitting position that tends to feel more comfortable than laying down, where all of the acid from my stomach is being pushed into my throat by Peyton's movement and growing body.
~ I was so tired all day today...my eyelids are (and have been) very heavy from being up since midnight this morning and I can only imagine it has been hard for Tony as well, since he's been up since at least 3am with me. I really need to go to bed but I keep thinking of stuff that happened today that I want to comment on. My mind is just running and running and I know I won't be able to sleep if I feel like there's something I omitted to tell you about.
~ Gizmo (Nikki's calico 16 year old cat that lives with us currently) was really "meow-y" today...it was annoying...I don't know what it was, but I think he sensed how tired I was and that I had little patience for annoyance, and so he felt it was his duty to park himself in our bedroom doorway (even when I closed the door on him and told him to "shooo") and meow an obnoxious tune all morning and afternoon until Nikki came home from work. Of course, as soon as she walked in the door, he got quiet and so I had no proof of his annoying behavior today. Annoying, annoying, A-N-N-O-Y-I-N-G!!!
~ Lately, there has been some garage door sensing issues that I seem to be experiencing. The door will go 3/4 of the way down before sensing something and going back up. Tonight when Tony got home from work, I had him turn down the sensitivity of the sensor and that seemed to fix the problem. I was just nervous that I would be in a hurry to leave and I wouldn't be able to close the garage door and would have to leave it open and we'd get broken into/robbed. This seemed to help and I'm not sure what it was sensing (most likely it was picking up a spider web or shadow or something, because nothing was in the way).
~ I know that as adorable as newborn/infant shoes are, they are completely impractical and totally a rip-off. In that frame of mind, I would like to get Peyton some cute socks that LOOK like shoes. They have the socks that look like little ballet slippers or Mary Jane shoes or whatever, but I can't seem to find them where I usually shop (at Target or Walmart) without being a red and green stocking theme. Can anyone offer up some help or suggest somewhere that they've seen cute ones (reasonably priced)? Thanks!
~ I am proud to report (knock on wood) that I have almost NO cold symptoms left---So excited and ready to celebrate my ability to take a deep breath without coughing up big chunks of nastiness! Ah, the simple pleasures!!!
~ I've decided to commit myself to a post-Peyton diet. By diet, should you for no reason believe that I will limit the quantity of food I intend to consume, but merely  to eliminate my unhealthy food choices and swap them for more productive consumption options (for example my almost daily intake of cookies or cookie dough for raw veggies or a fresh piece of fruit). I feel that it will not only help me lose the baby weight at a reasonable pace, but also prepare me for Hawaii and also just to be a healthier version of myself. I feel that by including daily reports of my eating habits and exercise habits I will feel more accountable and more regulated to stick with it, AND I am hoping that you all will help from blog reading to keep me honest and to offer suggestions or comments of encouragement. Also, does that mean I can eat as horribly as I can now and not feel guilty because soon it'll all be healthy?-I think so! Kinda defeats the purpose, but my pregnancy card is gonna get another play on this one, as I feel it is only fair to use it these last few days (weeks, dare I say). True, I COULD start the healthy streak now, but I feel I deserve a couple more days of eating whatever I feel like.
~ Today, Peyton moved all day and I tend to believe that her movements are what is causing 24/7 heart burn...forcing acids from stomach to sit in throat as she has probably no more room left in there and so all my organs are being squished and everything repositioned to make her last few days as comfortable as possible. Not that I am trying to influence you at all, little girl, but I'm gonna make one more nice suggestion of a better place for you to make your movements: start coming out and then we'll all be happy in a few short hours ;) Just a suggestion, as I am really NOT enjoying the heartburn but I can appreciate that you aren't the most comfortable either, I suppose.
~ Can you imagine how long this blog would've been had I not listed it and attempted to put it all into story form?!? Gosh, today I was busier than I thought...Okay, I really gotta go, as we are into the part of the movie where the mom in Terminator is trying to escape from the mental institution and like I said, my eyelids are closing with or without my consent. Good night! Pray for some heartburn relief for me, please!